Gardening update

School has been consuming all my free time lately so I haven't been doing much with my garden this year. In times past fall would have been a busy time of harvest and food preservation but since I moved to the Town House my gardening endeavors have greatly contracted.  My postage stamp yard is planted in hops (for beer making) and raspberries. These take up the majority of growing space I have. Normally my raspberries give off a pint per day during August and September but this year they were rather neglected and my yield was down. I may also need to freshen my stock next year and add some new plants.  

I also need to do something with my hops. When they were planted several years ago I wrote a list of varieties and where they were planted on my phone which died shortly after. I could only remember the location of one variety. Since different hop varieties have different bittering strengths different recipes call for specific varieties. If I don't know which is which we cant use them. So currently we can only use the one variety I can identify. I hate to dig up the others and start all over so I've been holding out for a way to some how identify the others but the plants look identical for all intents and purposes. I really have no choice but to dig them out.

I got a new job this spring and they had a small garden in the back of the clinic, so this year I was able to plant some zucchini, cucumbers  and cherry tomatoes which has been great.  I am drowning in zucchini and purple and orange cherry tomatoes right now, Normally I would dry the tomatoes and freeze the zucchini but since I am so busy with school my husband is cooking like a mad man. We have tomatoes and zucchini every night for dinner and then some. 

I do have much grander plans next year to get back into the gardening scene next year since I will finally be done with school. I need to find community garden space besides my clinic so I will be looking into that this winter.