Autumn is here and so is the time for harvest. Since I didn’t have time for updates on my garden and greenhouse during the summer – here we go!
I think the last time I updated was when I set out most of my plants. What an exciting time!
In the spring, when I began planting seeds, I just put every seed into soil that I could possibly find in my home. Regardless on if it was something that I usually eat or not and also regardless on if there was anything specific to take care of like how many seeds at once or how much distance between them… Soon this turned into a problem, because once planted outside, my plants started using the space and soil that they had and grew wildly!
3 different kinds of sallads, tomatoes, fennel, dill and wild strawberries in one box clearly was way too much! 
The incredible amount of sunlight during June and July of course was a factor that led to extensive growth as well. Some of my plants were eaten by some tiny white moths however, so I needed to pull them out and throw away as I didn’t see any way to save them.
In addition to the plants that I had grown from seeds myself, I had gotten some bell pepper plants from Tom’s dad, that I planted in the spaces that I had left. As written under the image in one box I had planted way too many things at once, so neither of them had much space to grow. However by the time I noticed my mistake, they had grown into eachother in such a way, that it was basically impossible for me to distinguish each plant and set them apart…
Then a few weeks later and after only having eaten from my own salad once or twice this happened:
All 3 kinds of sallad were eaten by thick green larvae. In Germany there is a children’s book called „Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt“ which is about a little larvae that eats and eats and eats (and eats and eats and eats and eats… I think you understand where this is going) before then turning into a beautiful butterfly. After going through this kind of loss, I can only imagine it must have been a very bitter gardener who had the same thing happen to him who wrote this book 😀 Looking up the link to it now, I saw on wikipedia, that the book starts with the larva eating first one apple (not full…), then 2 pears (still not full…), then 3 plums (still not full…) and yeah I must say, this is entirely accurate!
I actually saved the larvae (after angrily picking them from my plants before they could do any more damage) and considered giving them to the birds. But then I decided to feed them with the remaining salad (since it was full of holes and larva poop and didn’t really look good to eat anymore anyways) and wait and see what they turned into…
Not exactly the beautiful butterflies I had hoped for 😛
Before I continue talking about the other plants in my greenhouse and garden, at this point I would like to add, that all of this salad was eaten in about a day or 2. I had friends over just 2 days earlier, picked some salad for the dinner and when I was out to pick it, there was not the tiniest trace of any larvae at all. At the point where I found them (and all my salad had already been eaten) the rest of the harvest from the other day was still in the fridge and still looking good and fresh. So they were eating very fast and efficiently!
But on to less frustrating and more enjoyable results!
My bean plant blooming 
Slowly but steadily my greenhouse had turned into a djungel. And most remarkably I find how my pumpkin plant has grown to fill the entire greenhouse! Those pictures are from the beginning of August.
Meanwhile, I also have some black currant bushed in my garden. And while I hardly even noticed them blooming in the spring, they were full with berries by the middle of summer.
I harvested some of it (It ended up being a bit more than 1,5 kg) in the beginning of August. Of course not without being swarmed by mosquitoes and paying with my own blood. While this summer was not a warm one in Norrland and of course I did not wear shorts or even a skirt, those little monsters somehow managed to bite through my leggins… I think one day I will write a blogpost just dedicated to them…
Anyways… After coming back from Germany, my dear friend Maria helped me harvest some more of them, as my bushes looked like I had never even touched them and together we harvested more than 2 kg berries in the rain. I am eternally grateful for her help, because without her, most of those berries would probably just have gone to waste… Needless to say, the bushes still have more than enough berries left, but space in my freezer is starting to become spare 😀
Berries however weren’t the only thing I got to harvest from my own garden! I got to harvest some cucumbers earlier in the summer!
And also after returning home from Germany, I decided to harvest my first 2 pumpkins. One I made into dinner right on the first day. I made a pumpkin-cheese sauce and pasta with it. Let me know if you are interested in the details of the recipe and I will gladly share it with you. Besides pumpkin soup, it has become my favourite recipe on what to do with pumpkins 🙂
The other pumpkin I used to take photos with. At last, of course I need to show off with it somehow, right? 😉 Needless to say, despite my failures with other plants, I am really proud about the pumpkins!
Look I got a pumpkin! 😀 
whoops almost dropped it 
Jupp, this is one big pumpkin! 😀
Yeah so this is what happened in my garden this year. Soon I will take off the plastic from my greenhouse and move it a little further back to make my garden ready for winter.
And for next year I also have learned some lessons:
– only choose those plants, that I am really going to eat!
– keep more distance between each plants
– check everyday (or maybe several times a day) for bugs, because they work fast!
I know this was a loooong post. Thank you to everyone who read it till the end! 🙂 ❤
Ina Margret 