2021 Garden and Things

I'm a little late to posting this wrap-up for the year 2021.  If you follow the regular travel blog and IG account you'll know about the short and sweet trips that we've been on (mostly visiting family) as the pandemic continues to drag on.  We had so much optimism in the spring once the vaccines were being rolled out to the general population.  Then as new cases began to explode again it was hard to keep those cheery feelings going.  Everyone had their own personal struggles so I'll just leave it at that.

During the winter I started purchasing lumber for my main backyard project.  Last year was my first attempt at growing a small vegetable garden and I did not want to spend a lot of money especially since Hans and I had a desire to re-do the lawn (again).  Once the sod was established I started sketching out plans for a more permanent enclosure.  In February the kitchen was quickly taken over by grow lights and seedlings that I started indoors.  This post will be fairly photo-heavy but I thought that I would kick things off with a slide show that shows the evolution of our backyard from spring to fall.  Enjoy.

In the very early spring Hans helped me with the assembly of two large raised beds and take down the temporary chicken wire fence that was surrounding my 8'x8' plot out back.  The chicken wire was recycled and stapled to the new garden fence.  A few weeks later Hans and I built a couple of gates and I am so happy with how they turned out.  Because I want to be fancy I built a wooden obelisk to use as a trellis. 

The bed that gets the most sun exposure is my vegetable garden and the side that's shaded in the morning is mostly filled with herbs and pollinator-friendly perennials.  I'm really interested in growing native plants that will help the native insect population.

2021 was the year of our region's 17-year cicada brood.  It was a little creepy sometimes when I was trying to do any yard work but these derpy little fliers pretty much left all of my plants alone.

This was my first time growing eggplants and I had huge yields at the end of the summer.

I had a slightly better year with miniature pumpkins vines that I wrapped around the outside of the garden.  Unfortunately, vine boring insects got them in July.

The English rose that I ordered suffered from transplant shock for most of the summer but it positively exploded in the fall.  I can't wait to see what it does next year!

I could not get enough of this view with my morning coffee

The dahlias that I planted were beautiful but they were clearly desperate for more sun, as they topped my neighbor's 7-foot fence!

I had a 100-year-old dresser sitting in the house, unused, for a couple of years because it needed refinishing and a little fixing up.  It took me a long time to figure out what I was going to do with the drawers.  In the end I removed some mid-century slide hardware that was ruining the wood and now I'm lubricating the drawers with unscented vegetable soap, just like they used to do in olden days.  I spent one very sweaty day in July sanding the old finish off, but then the humidity prevented me from staining and sealing until September.  I'm pretty happy with the results!

Those are kind of the highlights of the summer.  2022 will be a bigger year, garden-wise.  We'll see what the rest of the world looks like.  At least there's always Halloween to look forward to: