Garden Tidings

We haven't posted much about our backyard garden lately and to be perfectly honest, that's because it didn't really go as planned.  We started all our plants from seed and had such an awesome time watering them and watching them grow.  The dreams of fine summer produce kept us tenderly loving and tending our little seedlings.  But our fine summer garden just didn't live up to our expectations!  We had every kind of ailment, from those pesky red spider mites to gopher city!  The heirloom seeds we ordered weren't quite designed for the hot California sun and we had lots of wilting, droopy plants.  Our tomato plants put out hundreds of flowers, but no tomato in sight!

So, imagine our excitement when the weather started to cool off and our lovely tomato flowers began to turn in to lovely little green tomatoes!  We have just been so excited to watch their shade turn from green to orange to red!  Even some of our striped german tomatoes have produced and they are beautiful!

We've learned a lot and plan to attack next year's garden with vigor.  First item on the list: put in new, gopher-proof chicken wire under the raised beds.  Second, research CA heat resistant plants.  Third, add more plain soil to our nitrogen rich beds.  Fourth, start earlier!

But for now, we sure are enjoying out little bit of summer (ahem... winter) produce!  Just in time too, because we got a tad bit of a frost last night!

Any tips for next year's garden?  We'd love to hear them!