Remember the little watermelon from my garden? It finally ripened a while back. Such a funny little round watermelon, I just sliced it in half and gave Emmie and Micah each a spoon and half a melon. It made the perfect outdoor snack.
There’s nothing much left of the garden now, so I hope to clear it out and maybe put in some cool weather veggies. We’ll see if that happens!
My garden has quite predictably gone by the wayside and been overwhelmed by weeds and creepy crawlies. Ah, well, I kind of expected that. I did manage to harvest one beautiful cucumber though, and the kids were more than willing to eat it. I also have a lovely little watermelon I’m keeping an eye on. A few weeks ago the watermelon was just a tiny little green striped ball. Micah excitedly declared, “Look! It’s as big as Isaac’s toe!” It was. Now it’s as big as Isaac’s head!
My little veggie garden has enjoyed the rain lately. The timing worked out well to cover the last few days of my pregnancy and my time in the hospital. Look at the tiny vegetables waiting for me when I got home! Micah is especially excited about the corn, but my favorites are the tomatoes.
Baby butternut. Also, I have some eggplants and tomatoes (though many of my tomatoes have been blown off the vine by the limb-downing thunderstorms we’ve been having). Already looking forward to the cool season plantings.
My cucumber vines are growing wonderfully! I love the beautiful, large leaves, and tons of yellow flowers. Once the cucumbers start forming, they grow so fast you can see them changing day by day, so Emmie and I have been checking their progress each afternoon. I never knew cucumbers had spines before growing them!
I think we’ll be having lots of cucumber and tomato salad, marinated cucumbers, and salted cucumber slices soon.
Shortly before Emmaline was born, Trent and I stayed several nights at the Blake House Inn, in Asheville, North Carolina. Elaborate breakfasts were served in the dining room, and evenings, we enjoyed picnic-style suppers on the back patio surrounded by a beautiful little garden. My favorite feature in the garden was a gorgeous Japanese maple tree with a twisty, gnarled trunk and beautiful red leaves. It was such a beautiful and interesting tree, I took note of its name and looked up information on it when we got back home; information safely tucked away in the back of my brain until we did some landscaping last summer.
When we finally completed our landscaping, I was so pleased with the little japanese maple tucked into the corner by our front door, but it never looked too heathly. It’s leaves were dark and tattered and when winter came, they all fell off. Of course, it’s not an evergreen (or everred?) but still I was disheartened and started thinking of things we might plant to replace our little japanese maple. But just the other day I noticed bright splashes of red leaves on it. Tiny little maple leaves looking healthy and vibrant! Maybe our little maple will be successful after all.
Even though I was a little late getting started, my garden is looking pretty good. I’m the only one in the house who will eat the eggplants, but don’t you just love the pretty purple flowers? I’m afraid it may be too hot for the strawberries, but they are trying. Hopefully things will keep thriving and I’ll have some harvest pictures to share.
Emmaline and Micah helped harvest carrots yesterday. I planted a seed mix that produced a rainbow of colors. It was so much fun to pull them out of the ground and guess what color they would be. The orange, yellow, and purple made a beautiful dish for dinner. After a systematic taste test, we decided yellow tasted best.
My garden is still coming along nicely. I truly think having fresh herbs right out in the back yard has made me a better cook. My tomatoes and loose-leaf lettuce have us eating more salads around here too. Soon I should have carrots ready to harvest.
A little time remains to plant my cool-season broccoli before it’s time to start the spring-time things. I have grand plans for spring. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I am amazed to have actually grown food I can make into meals for my family! Tonight we had tacos (no, I didn’t grow the cows), but I made a quick trip through the garden for tomatoes, tomatilla peppers, cilantro, and lettuce. I made a yummy salsa verde with the peppers and used the others for taco toppings. I guess I should go ahead and consider my garden a success!
