Jim and I thought we would try to go natural this year and grow our own food. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says "Food, not lawns!"? We embraced the idea and turned half our backyard into a garden, just to see if we could grow anything. Jim, of course, being a builder made a Fort Knox type fencing system and then he went to the horse ranch on Fish Ranch Road to get free manure. We piled it up about 8 inches high into mounds that looked like graves, covered it with wood chips so it wouldn't smell so bad and 6 months later we put in some seeds and starts and Jim put in the drip system. We planted right in the aged manure and this is what happened.
This is tonight's harvest of sunburst squash. I keep forgetting about them and then they get too big. These are all over 4 inches in diameter. Last week I harvested all of the zucchini and sunburst and roasted it for the veggie platter at the wedding.
Tomatos and Marigolds are companion crops. That means they are happier when planted together and will resist pests and disease. There is basil in there but the monster tomatoes went wild. Next year I will prune and stake them, but they do seem happy, don't they.
3 colors of beans in the trellis - purple, green and white. I think they are organic because I brought home the seeds from school.
These gigantic sunflowers are over 12 feet tall. My neighbor gave me about a dozen seeds from his plants last year that he saved and I was sad that most of them got eaten by snails when they were just coming up - only 4 made it - thank heaven! This is only 2 plants.
Just before dark I went out and quickly harvested these sungolds and zebra striped tomatoes. I have no idea what the light red ones are.
My pumpkin is about the size of a large medicine ball and there are 3 others just like it. I came home from Boston and found this and thought it was a watermelon, but as you can plainly see it is turning orange. I since found out that watermelon has lobed leaves.
Most of the starts came from The Burton Valley garden so I didn't know what I was putting in, but this seems to be eggplant. I have no idea what to do with an eggplant. I have never bought one but I know they are supposed to be healthy.
This is the view from the back of the yard. The pumpkin was taking over so I chopped it back before the wedding last week.
We all squeezed around our kitchen table for the Christmas Eve feast.
The Yoga Toes - The gift most made fun of - but the most used.
GREAT NEWS! Baby David Gabriel Ruvalcaba was born December 28 on our 25th wedding anniversary!! 9 lbs 2 ounces! Pictures later. 
The mass effort to retrieve the phone. There were
Me and Lydia in Maine.
This is tonight's harvest of sunburst squash. I keep forgetting about them and then they get too big. These are all over 4 inches in diameter. Last week I harvested all of the zucchini and sunburst and roasted it for the veggie platter at the wedding.
Tomatos and Marigolds are companion crops. That means they are happier when planted together and will resist pests and disease. There is basil in there but the monster tomatoes went wild. Next year I will prune and stake them, but they do seem happy, don't they.
3 colors of beans in the trellis - purple, green and white. I think they are organic because I brought home the seeds from school.
These gigantic sunflowers are over 12 feet tall. My neighbor gave me about a dozen seeds from his plants last year that he saved and I was sad that most of them got eaten by snails when they were just coming up - only 4 made it - thank heaven! This is only 2 plants.
Just before dark I went out and quickly harvested these sungolds and zebra striped tomatoes. I have no idea what the light red ones are.
My pumpkin is about the size of a large medicine ball and there are 3 others just like it. I came home from Boston and found this and thought it was a watermelon, but as you can plainly see it is turning orange. I since found out that watermelon has lobed leaves.
Most of the starts came from The Burton Valley garden so I didn't know what I was putting in, but this seems to be eggplant. I have no idea what to do with an eggplant. I have never bought one but I know they are supposed to be healthy.
This is the view from the back of the yard. The pumpkin was taking over so I chopped it back before the wedding last week.
