Garden

Our summer garden is planted. We took all the old stuff out, rototilled, raked and smoothed, and planted our "instant" garden plants and a few seeds. The only thing we left from the old garden were the beets. They are still doing well and even if they get too woody for us we can feed them to the cows. And of course I haven't pulled my two little grape vines out.

The garden (looking west).

This year we planted more "instant" garden plants than seeds. Instant garden plants are the single packs, four packs, six packs, and we even had some nine packs this year. We got red and green cabbage because they always do well (we just have to be a little careful as the weather starts getting really warmer to watch for bolt); romaine lettuce (I love Caesar salad and I promise I'll share my favorite Caesar recipe one day); cucumber; cantaloupe; crookneck squash; zucchini. We also got two kinds of hot peppers and seven different tomato plants. (The Siberian tomato I planted at the end of last summer produced a tomato but it never got color on it.) The herbs we planted are thyme and of course sweet basil (mmm-pesto!).

The west end of the garden.

The only seeds we planted were pole green beans and we are going to try edamame soy beans, which I love and are very good for you. Here and there we planted marigolds. I've heard they help keep bad bugs away and they add pretty color too.

The pole beans are coming up.The sweet basil.

This year we also decided to try growing a patch of sweet corn. Neighbor Dean graciously allowed us to use a raised bed in his unused garden patch. And now that we are using that small corner of his patch we apparently inspired him to do a garden again himself, something he's passed on for the last year or two.

The corn patch in Dean's yard (notice the tower in the background).

Now we wait, water, and tend, and hope for a bountiful harvest. We always start off with a bang and as the season progresses we tend to slow down. Ah, good intentions!