Saying Good Bye to Oaktown Manor and our Temescal Garden

As the saying goes, all good things must come to end. And sometimes this happens sooner then we'd like to. This month marks our last month in our Temescal abode. It's bittersweet to leave but everything happens for a reason. 

Enough "sayings" for ya? 

Here's our garden in June, just as it start to warm up and the tomatoes were reaching their full height. This is how I want to remember our garden. 

We hadn't planned to leave, so all the late ripening heirloom tomatoes I planted were just getting to be their delicious selves. We picked every last one (green tomatoes not just for days, but WEEKS). It was still glorious, just not as colorful as these beauties were that were picked at just the right moment. The yellow ones (Lilian's yellow tomato) are always my favorite. The perfect blend of sweetness and delicate, juicy flesh. 

We also planted red sweet corn this year; it was a beautiful edible to have in the garden. But that too was just ripening as we left and we got one deliciously perfect ear out of the 20 (yes 20!) we planted. 

We did pick this little melon right as it got to size but it hadn't had enough heat to build up sugars to be sweet--it smelled good, but tasted like, well, green papaya but gummier. Oh well. There's always next year!

Here is one of our Titan sunflowers in all its ginormous, sunset glory. We snagged the flowerhead of this one just as we were leaving...which ended up being perfect mouse food in our new house. Doh. 

We always knew we'd have to leave Figgy Schromward behind and were happy to enjoy some delicious figs in July from the tree we planted in our front yard last fall. 

Thankfully, Dahlias' and Iris' transplant easily so I was able to transplant the tubers of these beauties to our next garden.

Which brings me to the good news; while we were forced to leave our house before we wanted to, everything does indeed happen for a reason: Magically, we were able to buy our dream house in the three months we had to find our next place to live. Being forced to move put the fire underneath our derrières that we needed to really search, and search, and search we did, and it paid off! While we're sad to bid adeiu to Oaktown Manor, I'm so excited for what's to come.