We enjoyed a beautiful day at the Price Sculpture Park on Whidbey Island. Highly recommend and a perfect spot for kids to be able to enjoy nature and art. I love that we can hop on a ferry for a quick adventure any time! 🌱🎨 #pnwgardening #pnwnature #pricesculpurepark #whidbeyisland #accessibleart

The mushroom mycorrhizal network is large and active in our backyard. 🌱🍄 Several kids of mushrooms growing all over the place. #pnwgardening #Mycorrhizalnetwork #mushrooms #goodsoil

My dahlias this year have been very slow to bloom. We had a cooler than usual mid summer and it impacted their development. I have several other varieties with just buds. Hoping I get to see their beautiful flowers. 💐🌸🌱 #pnwgardening #dahlia #bloomscrolling

Raindrop on my cucumber vine. I already miss summer. 🌱🥒#pnwgardening #vegetablegardening #autumnsolstice #cucumber

Costoluto Fiorentino Tomato! Grown from seeds from Territorial Seeds and my first time. I loved the photo online and wanted to try it out. They are gorgeous, juicy and make a delicious sauce. We diced this one for taco night. 🌱🍅 🌮 #pnwgardening #costoluto #taconight #vegetablegardening

I pick my tomatoes when they blush color and they ripen well inside and allows the plant to spend energy on the remaining tomatoes. As temps drop, this also allows me to get them before they split.

This sweet bumblebee was napping on my zinnia. It didn't budge when I bumped the flower on accident, that's when I realized it alive but resting. 🌸🌱 #zinnia #pnwgardening #gardennap #bumblebee

I thought my animated gif would appear. Here's the final shot

Detroit style pizza with homegrown tomatoes, basil, garlic and tomato sauce we canned. Baked outside in our Camp Chef pellet smoker. This is what summer is all about! So delicious! 🌱🍅🍕 #vegetablegardening #pizza #tomatoes #sanmarzano #brandywine #detroitstyle

My everbearing strawberries (Albion and Ft Laramie varieties) are producing again. I have a dozen plants and get at least a handful a day. Smoothies with homegrown blueberries and yogurt parfaits for breakfast all week. 🍓 🌱 #pnwgardening #strawberries #everbearing #homegrown #vegetablegardening

I made shakshuka for brunch using 3 varieties of garden tomatoes, with homegrown garlic and chives. The smell and flavor were incredible. 🍅🌱 #vegetablegardening #shakshuka #tomatoes #brunch

Fresh Orange and Pink Brandywine tomatoes on pizza with feta on an olive oil base. Baked outside in our Camp Chef pizza oven. Wish I remembered to take a post baked pic, but we were too hungry. Sourdough crust was extra puffy too. 🌱🍅🍕 #vegetablegardening #pizza #brandywine #pnwgardening #tomatoes

Our 3rd round of making sauce, this time for pizza. I grew these San Marzanos from seed. I've grown several different "sauce" tomatoes and stopped because there is just no comparison to a SM, that's why they are the standard. 🌱🍅 #pnwgardening #sanmarzano #vegetablegardening #tomatoes

Here's a pic of San Marzano in a bucket from last month. I drill drainage holes on the bottom of the buckets and fill with a mix of peat moss, compost and vermiculite. This is the first year I installed drip in the buckets and it works great.

Brandywine tomatoes continue to be our most anticipated tomato of the season. They are sweet with almost no acidity, very few seeds, juicy but not watery and beautiful! This is the Orange Brandywine and we have Pink Brandywine almost ready to eat. 🌱🍅 #pnwgardening #tomatoes #vegetablegardening

Costoluto Fiorentino tomatoes are so fun and the flavor is good for a light, mild sauce with just a few seeds or sliced in a salad. It's my first year growing them and they are prolific in their 5 gallon buckets. 🌱🍅 #pnwgardening #costoluto #tomatoes #heirloomtomatoes #territorialseeds

Beautiful! I pick when they're blushing so the plant can send energy into the rest of the fruit. I don't know if it increases my yield, but I like to think it does. They ripen on the counter and taste like vine ripened.

Look up Vietnamese Malabar spinach soup recipes. It's super simple and delicious. Serve with rice.

These are the cutest cherry tomatoes called "Indigo Blue", grown from seed. They are super juicy, sweet with a thin skin that don't split until picked. They have been slow to grow in Seattle but I think it's due to the unusually cold July. 🌱🍅 #pnwgardening #cherrytomatoes #indigoblue #tomatoes

My dahlias have taken forever to bloom. I have a dozen or so varieties, but I'm terrible at labeling so I have no idea what variety this is. I think it's my 2nd or 3rd year with this one. Love how the colors fades front to back. Can't wait for them all to bloom! 🌱 🌸 #pnwgardening #dahlia

We put up our first Hummingbird feeder and it's working! We initially tried a regular bird feeder but it attracted rats. Gross! The neighbor's cat helped alleviate that issue. Now we get to enjoy these beauties! #hummingbird #pnwgardening #annashummingbird #nature

This season's first figs! My blueberries continue to give me at least a pint every few days. I probably have one or two more blueberry harvests left. They are sweeter and juicier than storebought. 🌱🫐 #figs #pnwgardening #fruit #backyardfoodforest

My San Marzano tomatoes are looking great. I grew them from seed and 10 out of 12 plants survived. We can them whole and just finished the last jar from 2024. I've grown several plum varieties and SM can't be beat. Worth the effort. 🍅 🌱 #pnwgardening #vegetablegardening #tomatoes #sanmarzano

My purple gladiolus is finally blooming. 🌱 #pnwgardening #bloomscrolling #Seattleblooms #gladiolus

My adorable morning harvest: cornichon cucumbers, one strawberry the rats didn't get and Mexi Sour Cucumber, which are crunchy, juicy with a hint of sour. This was my first time growing these cucumbers from seed. I'll definitely do it again. 🌱 #vegetablegardening
#tinyfruit #cornichon #pnwgardening

We eat them too fast to weigh. How many plants are you growing?

A bee fly on my zinnia. It is a native pollinator that resembles a bee but comes from the fly family. I had no idea what they were until today. You can see the big, fly wings with a fuzzy body with stripes. They don't bite or sting. 🌱 🐝🪰 #insects #beefly
#pnwgardening #zinnia

Mexi Sour Cucumber are the cutest and are prolific vines. It tasted like the white pulp of watermelon with a sour hint. I grew from seed from @territorialseedcompany. I want to do an arch trellis with these next year. 🥒 🌱 #pnwgardening #Seattle #cutefruit

Looks like San Marzano, which are indeterminate (continuous/long/vines) and I've noticed SM tomatoes will sometimes have leaves growing on the end of the branch. Roma are determinate so they are shorter/more shrub like and most of the tomatoes ripen at the same time.

Neat! I thought it was a cherry tomato!