My garden was a success in 2023!

In late 2022, I had to move without warning to Northern BC, Canada. Being a lifelong avid gardener, this presented some obstacles! I'm happy to say, I have risen to the challenge. Not only did I manage to dig up a massive garden by hand, without spending a dime - despite a serious heart condition - but I successfully grew over a dozen different crops, including food generally impossible to grow this far North, like tomatoes! As late Autumn fades into early Winter, I'm looking at a pile of items my son brought home from walks over the last couple months.

It makes a nice display, actually! For those that don't recognize everything here, we have a branch from a pine tree (in a glass of water to stay fresh), large conifer (evergreen tree) cones, maple leaves, oak leaves, moss, and acorns (oak tree seeds). Brett just turned 4, and he loves finding something interesting and pretty from Nature when we go for walks.

We canned about 10 big jars of organic tomato sauce this year. That will last most of the way through Winter. Next year, we'll do a lot more. It tastes like sunshine! Today (mid November!) we finished eating the last of the fresh garden tomatoes which had been ripening inside. Good sauce really helps make it to Spring, because it can get pretty dark and depressing this far North.

Here are the last 2 daily update photos for the year (yes, that's frost in the last one):

Finished the bulb garden down the left side, covered the gardens in dead leaves, protected the new apple tree and blueberry bushes with dead leaves, drained and put away the hose, cleaned my tools, tossed the neighbor's cat poop over his fence, mulched the compost bin, and finished storing my seeds.

Those are just the tomatoes, and only the ones I harvested this year. I'll show my whole seed stockpile in another post sometime.

I've enjoyed sharing the journey with you this year.

I said when I moved here last year that I was going to grow tomatoes (and everything else) up here, and I did that. I put in new gardens, a firepit, compost, tool area, and fruit/berry trees. I would like to have built a greenhouse (or similar structure), but that will probably happen next year (if I don't decide to double my garden area...)

I learned a lot about what works up here and what doesn't. I got a lot of work done that won't have to be duplicated in 2024. I'm ready for an incredible upcoming year of gardening!

Everything I did this year was documented for the Blurt blockchain, and uploaded faithfully almost every night. Over 100 detailed progress posts with 100% original content, and mega updates about once a month. I hope this has added value to the platform, educated, informed, entertained, and inspired. Thank you VERY much for your participation, encouragement, and support!

Keep on growing!
DRutter