How Does Your Garden Grow?

This year's garden has had its challenges. Many of my early started seedlings didn't grow well because the ambient temperatures in our house were low. We honeymooned at the exact moment I should have been planting outside. Our tiller is on the fritz, so we had to borrow a tiller to turn our space back into a garden, away from the patch of grass and wild things it had become.

It rained quite a bit here while we were in Alaska, but rain here has been sparse in the month of May, so, unlike last year, I've been hosing my garden nearly every day, a chore I don't enjoy.

Finally, after three weeks of hard work, my little plants are starting to reach deep and stretch tall. The only good thing about watering daily is that I actually get to witness growth. I've witnessed some death, too. None of my eggplants made it. A neighbor child stepped on and crushed a Cherokee Purple tomato, prompting me to permanently kick her out of our yard.

Mostly, though, I've had success in my little patch so far. My Brussels sprouts are growing wide and tall, my corn is nearly six inches tall. My bush beans have made lovely little rows, and E's bean teepee is set to look great this year (with a fence to protect it from the rabbits!). I've got broccoli in the front row, along with heaps of tomato plants, and so many varieties of peppers I can't remember them all. All the cucumbers are up, and the squash and zucchini are starting to sprawl.

Broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers

Sweet little bush beans, all in a row

I added some more flowers to the garden this year -
 black eyed Susan and purple coneflower

Only the mint and sage wintered well, so I need to
add a few more things back to the herb spiral

E's beans

National Arbor Day Foundation sent me a stick, I grew a crab apple tree

Wild blackberries! Every year, these guys are like a completely free
little treat, as long as we get them before the birds!