I’ve wanted to participate in Cloudscome’s Sunday Garden Stroll for awhile now, but I wasn’t sure my garden was going to amount to anything. We’ve planted tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green peppers, lettuce, peas, and carrots. This week my daughters and I waited anxiously for the heat wave to break, because weeds were getting the upper hand:
Then a string of thunderstorms brought the temperature down about 17 degrees in an hour, and we knew the next morning would be our chance to transform our small patch into this:
It doesn’t look that impressive, does it? I planted things in phases, and some of it hasn’t sprouted yet. My two daughters (4 and 7) worked with me, and the most enjoyable part was visiting as we crouched and groaned our way along. I played the part of the serious garden geek, talking enthusiastically about how much fun weeding is, and how good it felt to have cooler weather, and how easily the weeds came up, and how great it felt to be reserving all the water in the soil for the vegetables… and I discovered that I AM a serious garden geek. I meant every word of it.
The girls enjoyed getting dirty. It struck me how little opportunity they have to get legitimately, satisfyingly, deeply dirty.
Then we moved to the flower garden beside the garage for dessert. It’s shady and cool, and it didn’t have as many weeds thanks to the leaf mulch. The flower patch represents my mother-in-law’s touch. She’s constantly giving us art projects:
and driftwood:
And some of the original plants, including this enormous hosta:
I realize that in most sci-fi movies, it’s insects who take over the earth… but I’m keeping a wary eye on this hosta.
It felt good to get the ground back in shape and see that the first phase of planting is producing. Now we’ll be able to eat our salads without regard to the global food industry and its various bacterial ills.
That is, provided we can stay a step ahead of this guy:
That weeding is certainly impressive! I love the thought of visiting, crouching, and groaning. And of the kids being able to get good and dirty!
My fledgling garden looks much like yours right now; but I’m not quite as good at keeping out those weeds. I know we have slugs but thank goodness I haven’t seen a bunny yet!
I’m so impressed by your gardening! We don’t have much space to garden but we are hoping to plant some tomatoes when we get home.
That was a great weeding job! I think the bunny has his eye on you and your lovely garden. Maybe you ought to think about some fencing… :) Your lettuce looks pretty yummy to me from all the way over here. That’s a great hosta too.
This was a lovely “stroll” through your garden. I loved the smiling flower. We’ve given up on planting in the yard because of wildlife, but we do plant in container pots (still have some problems, but not as much).
Lovely. Truly Lovely. I gave up on putting in veggies this year - too cool, then not enough time, then… Well. My flowers have been fantastic! But the weeds DO need some serious plucking! That is what I get for going to Boston for a week. The little sneaks grew way too much while I was gone and now I have some double duty. Enjoy eating the true fruits of your labor! :-)