How Does Your Garden Grow?

As you may know, though many of you probably don't as I don't think I've ever written about it, I am an avid gardener. Though I hated helping in the garden while growing up, I have over the last three years developed a passion for it. It's a great way to get food while actually knowing where it comes from, what it has (and more importantly hasn't) been treated with*, and the like. Unfortunately the weather in Seattle this year has been such that the harvest was generally disappointing.

Until the month of August, we had broken 80 degrees for a total of just 84 minutes. Despite the complaints of a lot of people, I loved this, except for the implications on my garden. Everything seemed slightly drier than usual, and even the sunniest days were mildly overcast. In August it got hot. Too little too late for struggling plants.

On to plants. This was my first year growing lima beans. My mom** sent me three different kinds of lima bean seeds, which are themselves just lima beans. Two of the three grew and did better than most of my other crops. I'm still getting beans: they're hanging in the pods on the plant, slowly drying. Hopefully this will be done before our first frost.

Near my beans are tomatoes, which despise the lack of sun almost as much as the low high temperatures. Of the forty or so seeds I planted, three have survived and actually grown. I've gotten a few tomatoes, but for the most part they still hang full of green fruit.

Blueberries did rather well this year and were quite delicious. Raspberries did less well, though they were equally delightful. No one plants blackberries, because, as I've previously stated, they grow as weeds here. Unfortunately, most of them never ripened, though the ripe berries were quite possibly the best I've ever tasted.


Spinach, chard, and lettuce performed quite well. They are generally easy to grow here, as are root vegetables, exemplified by my onions and garlic. I chose not to plant carrots this year. I will not make that mistake again next year.

Snow peas, one of my best crops year after year, were full again this year. Unfortunately, the lack of sun in late spring meant white, flavorless pods with little to no nutritional value.

I say all this to talk about my neighbor. I've learned from talking to her daughter on her occasional visits that my neighbor moved here from China in the 1950s. I've also unfortunately learned that she speaks no English. She is growing squash, which are growing out of her yard into mine, climbing the ledge of approximately eight feet that is the result of our living on the side of a hill. More importantly, she has two plum trees.

Every other year her trees bear a bumper crop of plums. This is that year. The last two years she has simply let the plums fall to the ground and rot, which kills me. I would gladly pick them and give them to her, or eat them myself. But she doesn't speak English, and I don't speak Chinese. Suggestions?

*Yes, I did just end both of those phrases with prepositions. The MLA ain't (gasp) the boss of me!
**I found out recently that my mom reads my blog. Highlight of my week.

As you may know, though many of you probably don't as I don't think I've ever written about it, I am an avid gardener. Though I hated helping in the garden while growing up, I have over the last three years developed a passion for it. It's a great way to get food while actually knowing where it comes from, what it has (and more importantly hasn't) been treated with*, and the like. Unfortunately the weather in Seattle this year has been such that the harvest was generally disappointing.

Until the month of August, we had broken 80 degrees for a total of just 84 minutes. Despite the complaints of a lot of people, I loved this, except for the implications on my garden. Everything seemed slightly drier than usual, and even the sunniest days were mildly overcast. In August it got hot. Too little too late for struggling plants.

On to plants. This was my first year growing lima beans. My mom** sent me three different kinds of lima bean seeds, which are themselves just lima beans. Two of the three grew and did better than most of my other crops. I'm still getting beans: they're hanging in the pods on the plant, slowly drying. Hopefully this will be done before our first frost.

Near my beans are tomatoes, which despise the lack of sun almost as much as the low high temperatures. Of the forty or so seeds I planted, three have survived and actually grown. I've gotten a few tomatoes, but for the most part they still hang full of green fruit.

Blueberries did rather well this year and were quite delicious. Raspberries did less well, though they were equally delightful. No one plants blackberries, because, as I've previously stated, they grow as weeds here. Unfortunately, most of them never ripened, though the ripe berries were quite possibly the best I've ever tasted.


Spinach, chard, and lettuce performed quite well. They are generally easy to grow here, as are root vegetables, exemplified by my onions and garlic. I chose not to plant carrots this year. I will not make that mistake again next year.

Snow peas, one of my best crops year after year, were full again this year. Unfortunately, the lack of sun in late spring meant white, flavorless pods with little to no nutritional value.

I say all this to talk about my neighbor. I've learned from talking to her daughter on her occasional visits that my neighbor moved here from China in the 1950s. I've also unfortunately learned that she speaks no English. She is growing squash, which are growing out of her yard into mine, climbing the ledge of approximately eight feet that is the result of our living on the side of a hill. More importantly, she has two plum trees.

Every other year her trees bear a bumper crop of plums. This is that year. The last two years she has simply let the plums fall to the ground and rot, which kills me. I would gladly pick them and give them to her, or eat them myself. But she doesn't speak English, and I don't speak Chinese. Suggestions?

*Yes, I did just end both of those phrases with prepositions. The MLA ain't (gasp) the boss of me!
**I found out recently that my mom reads my blog. Highlight of my week.

How Does Your Garden Grow?