Our Happy Harvest

In a year when the whole world seems to be falling apart, we have been amazed at the success of our garden!

We were surprised in the spring to see that our strawberry plants from last year were all coming back, healthy as ever. We decided to add some tomatoes and cucumbers--and to make another attempt at pumpkins after last year's disaster. (To re-live the full story, see "Pumpkin Patch Surprise," July 2019, https://literarylamb.blogspot.com/2019/07/pumpkin-patch-surprise.html.) 

We were very protective of all our new little plants, hurrying out to cover them with buckets whenever we had heavy rain, and then to uncover them when the sun came out. 

We propped them up with sticks to keep them from falling over in the wind and gave them Miracle Grow every couple of weeks.

After the plants were pretty well established, we had a huge storm, and the next morning I discovered that our tall tomato plant had completely fallen over. I tried to prop it up with a round metal frame, but after I'd finished, Ben proclaimed that it looked like the plant had been "put through a blender." My parents came the next day and helped me add better support to all the plants--and my dad even saved that tomato.

Soon, we were picking tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers every day. 

We'd never planted cucumbers before, and I was worried about how they'd grow without a greenhouse. I pictured them getting moldy on the wet ground or being destroyed by slugs or other pests. But my dad showed me how to keep them dry, and they ended up being not only healthy and plenteous but also delicious. We used them in salads, had them with lunch, fed them to Alaina's hamster and gave them away.

We even had a creative spelling competition with one batch--thanks to a curvy cucumber--coming up with words like doll, bull, dull, pull, etc. by turning them different ways.

But what I was most interested in was our pumpkin patch. 

When the kids were little, they studied the life cycle of the pumpkin and went on preschool and kindergarten field trips to local farms--we read so many books about growing pumpkins that I believed we could do it perfectly. 

I am always amazed at how those little plants can grow into giant leaves and vines,

with beautiful yellow flowers that turn into bright orange pumpkins of different shapes and sizes.

There's just something about pumpkins!

We ended up with six--enough for one each. 

We wanted to leave them on their vines as long as possible, but with rainy weather coming, we decided yesterday was the day to pick our pumpkins.

Eric went first,

followed by Alaina,

Ben,

and Janae. 

As you might have deduced, we're kind of a first-come, first-served pumpkin patch :) 

After all the pictures, we carried the pumpkins to the porch,

where they will hopefully last all month!

I'm not sure if we'll remember 2020 as the year of the great harvest, but right now, we're pretty happy with our crop and really feeling the spirit of Thanksgiving.