Veggies in the New Garden, and Missing my Dad (2016 Garden Update #2)

If you read the previous update about my new garden space, you can see there’s now a new sign on the garden that says “Feel Free to Talk to the Plants. They Understand.” That bit of garden whimsy was from Mark and Lisa, who created this fantastic garden space for me, so thanks again to them!

And the garden is thriving, despite my over-enthusiastic planting when I knew I was crowding things. I think it’s a combination of the great soil Mark used in the garden beds, perfect sun conditions, my favorite organic fertilizer, and just enough water, due to a drip system. And of course I am out there talking to the plants on a regular basis. 

In the center of the far east bed there’s a tall tomato cage with cucumbers growing up it. We’ve been staking them up with some vegetable twist-ties we bought at the garden store, but now the cucumbers have reached the top!

And as you can see, we do have cucumbers! This is a close-up but I’d say these cucumbers are 5 or 6 inches long, and I bet we’ll be eating cucumbers in another week.

There are also plenty of zucchini on the two zucchini plants, and the plants have pretty much taken over the bed. We may have to trim the leaves eventually to make sure there’s room to walk.

The yellow squash plant was much smaller than the zucchini plants when I bought them, and I wasn’t expecting squash blossoms on it this soon, but it’s having a growth spurt and there are some tiny yellow squash. 

On the same side with the zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers are green bean plants, which I forgot to get a photo of this time. Even though there are far too many plants for the space, there are teeny-tiny little beans starting to show up.

The other side of the garden space has six tomato plants in a row, all of which are growing vigorously. Most of the plants have a few tiny tomatoes already.

And this Sun Gold Yellow Cherry Tomato is producing a few ripe baby tomatoes every other day or so. They’re actually more gold and less red than they look in this photo, and these tiny tomatoes are delicious.

I do miss the big beds of perennial herbs I had in the garden at my old house. But I have a nice row of herb pots in the west window behind my kitchen sink where I’m growing Curly Parsley, Mint, Rosemary, and Greek Oregano, and out in the front of my house I also have French Tarragon, Flat Parsley, Sage, Thyme, and more Greek Oregano. (I had to move a few contains of kitchen tools so you could see the herbs. Yes, I am a bit obsessed with kitchen tools.)

And in the south window of my kitchen I have four healthy basil plants, and I’ve already frozen fresh basil and made Basil Pesto with Lemon this year! If you’re growing basil either inside or outside, keep the big leaves trimmed off and the plant will produce more basil.

And finally, I’m writing this post on Father’s Day and maybe missing my dad even a bit more than usual this year, due to this priceless photo that was discovered recently by niece Amanda. She was doing some family history research and met someone online whose grandparents had been friends of my parents. This person sent Amanda a few letters written by my beautiful mom, as well as this wonderful photo which no one in the family had ever seen before. 

With my mom and dad in the photo are my sister Sandee (the blonde angelic-looking child) and me (the determined-looking one with darker hair.) So hilarious to see how our personalities showed through at an early age! Thanks Amanda for the priceless photograph. 

I completely hit the jackpot in the parents department, and even though both my parents have been gone for a few years now, I think of them often and hope they’re proud of the way I’m living my life. And how I wish they could come over for a few hours to have dinner at the new house and get a tour of the new garden.

How’s the Garden Doing at Your House?

If you’re growing a garden, leave a comment and let us know what you have planted and how your garden is doing!