A few days ago Jess of Practical Nourishment asked her readers “how does your garden grow?” I finally got the chance to snap a few shots (and pick up a few skeeter bites in the process) of my small garden venture for the season.

I have three different types of strawberries in my garden and one of them seems to be plugging along all summer long. I don’t get a pint every day, but if we could save and not eat them — I’d say we’d have a full pint every 4 days. As it is Baby Green Me gets a berry or two with his breakfast everyday!

Our CSA is located about 45 miles to the east of us on the hot & dry Colorado plains, so they don’t grow many of the more temperature and water sensitive plants, such as tomatoes and lettuce (they do a few). And although they raise peppers, they don’t give us enough to satiate Green Me Family pepper cravings. This knowledge led to the planting of my two primary crops tomatoes and peppers.

I have 9 surviving (and flourishing) tomato plants out of 20 that I started and 10 that actually made it into the ground. Eight of these plants are Roma tomatoes and the other is some sort of round, standard looking tomato. I seem to have conquered the blossom end blight by watering everyday (please forgive me Colorado Water Board) and I should soon have plenty of tomatoes to turn into paste, sauce and stewed fruit.

My real babies though are my peppers. I have 3 surviving banana pepper plants, which I hope to pickle. There is also a red hot pepper plant — I don’t remember what I planted and they are still growing, so I haven’t yet tried to identify the little guy. What I can tell you is that it is growing some dang hot peppers…as in a 1/4 inch bite set my mouth on fire! And, last but not least, a yellow bell pepper plant. My two favorite kind of bell peppers are red and yellow. Last year I tried to grow a red bell pepper and had very, very sad results, so this year I decided to start anew and grow a yellow plant. Right now it is about 3.5 feet tall and covered with baby peppers, so my prospects look good!

I am also growing two volunteer delicata squash plants…must have eaten and composted one of these babies last year, because I certainly didn’t plant them! However, they are growing in with the potatoes, tomatoes, and onions that I did plant, and a volunteer sunflower. All these veggies are in what I call my mixed experiment garden — my own sloppy version of permaculture? Maybe?

I don’t yet have a designated herb garden, but I am loving having fresh herbs around! On the back porch I have Italian parsley and a rosemary tree in pots. In the garden I snuck basil and dill in and amongst the tomatoes and peppers. To finish things off, I also have some orange mint and spearmint growing as decorative plants around the yard. A Freecycle acquaintance recently told me that the flowers of the Russian sage can be eaten and used as herbs, and we’ve got several huge Russian sages growing on our lot!

In conclusion, my garden is growing quiet well. The big “question mark in the sky” is will I be successful pickling peppers and canning tomato sauce? I sure hope so!