the garden

I have reached a new milestone in my life having successfully grown a flower (several actually) from seed to bloom. The blooms are rather small. I guess I need to fertilize but one step at a time, one step at a time.

In our garden we have: tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, peppers also of many shapes and sizes, cantalope, radishes, sweet potatoes, onions, and some unruly watermelon that is threatening to take over the place. I don't care. I love watermelon.

I discovered this year that we have blackberries, lots of them. Some squash type plants appeared out of the compost. I transplanted them and they are HUGE. Sadly, I have been told that they may be some type of inedible cross-pollinated squash. We shall see.

We also have five varieties of hops (for beer making), basil, oregano, apple mint, curley leaf parsley, and flat leaf parsley. The curley leaf parsley is because Bill brought it home after almost all my flat leaf parsley withered away. It looks like I should cut it and put little sprigs on all of the plates in my kitchen.

So far we have harvested Chinook hops, some herbs, and three radishes.

Every time we are out in the garden Bill does a thorough examination of the hops. Then he picks one, no matter what I'm doing, and tries to make me smell it. "Smell all the lupalin glands," he says. And I do.

The watermelon vines are starting to grow baby watermelons. They are so cute I can't even stand it. They look just like grown up watermelons with stripes and all. Even my dad says they are cute.

Zadie the cat loves to hang out between the rows of tomatoes and nibble grass. She follows me around because the dog is safely behind the fence. When Barley sees the two of us cavorting in the garden, she starts barking and freaking out...so jealous.