Empty Nest Gardening

Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs potted on the deck.

Fish pond, turtle island and the cistern.

The fish tower being utilized.

Pesto!

Drying peppers.

The beginning of habanero salsa.

Roasted cherry tomatoes.

The original garden plot.

Now that fall is here, and this last heatwave of the summer has broken, I thought I would share how our garden made out this summer.  

In truth, we've been empty nesters now for over ten years.  The year before we tried something new and we grew some of our vegetables in pots on the deck, while keeping the original large garden we planted in 1985 and its perennials intact.  But this year when winter began to wane and we got the urge to start getting our hands dirty, we made a bold decision.  We tilled under our garden.  When spring finally did arrive the old garden plot was gorgeous.  The grape hyacinths took hold and spread and the grass filled in.

This year, our only planting was done on the deck, four tomato plants, four pepper plants, and two basil and rosemary plants.  (I have a small herb garden just outside the front door where thyme, oregano, lavender and mint come back every year and Italian parsley is planted each year.)

My husband came up with a way several years ago for us to catch and store rain water.  A fish pond, (stock tank) was put on the small patio below the deck.  The gutters feed into it and it, when it's overfull, feeds into the under ground cistern left from the original farm house that was on our property.  We then have a pump on a line we can lower into the fish pond from the deck above and water from the pond.  It's works beautifully.  It's also made for the easiest gardening I've ever done.  To make it pretty, we add floating plants, fish and a fish tower every year.  The oblong tank pictured behind the fish pond is turtle island, where my husband's turtles summer.  But that is his story to tell. :)

Anyway, as far as production goes, it was an amazing year; so many tomatoes and peppers!  I think we've found our happy gardening niche.