This was our first year in West Seattle and this means getting to know the new garden!

On the plus side, there was a bit of a garden when we moved in: one nice plum tree and one not so nice plum tree, two mediocre blueberries, and two nice fig trees. I pruned the plums aggressively and they produced alright. The berries needed a bit more pampering, but we got a handful. The figs, sadly, had too much shade or cool weather and, while we had a couple hundred figs, almost none of them got ripe. So, for the trees, I think it is just one more year of aggressive pruning to get them back to normal; then we shall profit.

On the herb front, there was some very nice sage, thyme, and seasonal parsley. Also a bunch of chamomile, but I didn’t recognize it until too late to harvest. At the end of last year, I added some rosemary and I will probably add some marjoram and basil as seasonal herbs. And I planted hops in the spring, which might count as a herb?

For the first time ever, the corn I planted got us edible corn! It was exciting but not worth it, so corn experiment done. The sunflowers are staying around for the flowers even if I never get a seed (we got maybe 50-100 seeds this year). And the scarlet runners really like the sunflowers to run up, providing us with a couple of meals worth of beans.

The tomatoes and peppers where a bust – next year, I am going from seedlings rather than from seed.

Swiss Chard (or silverbeet) remains my favorite to grow and Jasmine puts up with it OK. I think maybe worth while to add in a little lettuce for variety. And the sugar snap peas are Jasmine’s favorite so I will be running those back as well.

I planted some strawberries late in the season and they LOVED the weather, so they get a whole 3′ x 6′ plot on their own. And we will add some raspberries in a 3′ x 3′ container.

Overall, I would say I was quite happy with the garden this year and I can use the teachings to make it even better next year.

Corn! We got a half dozen ears. They were a bit starchy. It was not worthwhile.

My favorite. Sunflowers.

Scarlet runners nestled up against the sunflower. Double flower!