Gardening

I think I have mentioned before that this year I finally had a semi-tenuous grip on my garden.  Only semi because I had weeded, planted, and mulched everything before the month of rain hit.  Then I lost complete control of the weeds and have let them take over.  Sad, but true.  It's just too much work now!  However, this year, big guy and I (ok, I did most of the work) planted a raised bed of vegetables! Surprising, I know.  But I have to say that it was really fun and totally worth it.  Watching these little plants blossom with all the rain and then actually begin to produce veggies it amazing to watch.  And as grandma Dino reminded me this morning, teaches us both about patience.  You can't rush mother nature.

In late May we planted the following: one tomato plant, one red bell pepper, one yellow bell pepper, eight string beans, one watermelon, six sugar snap peas, and eight corn plants.  As of right now, the corn plants are as tall as I am, but I think there is some saying about corn being as "high as an elephant's eye" before being ready, so I'm still waiting.  The stalks are beautiful, but no sign of an ear yet. Sugar snap peas have given up, sadly, upon returning from Disney, they are all shriveled.  Watermelon plant has grown arms that are five feet long in every direction and so far I have one watermelon (see pic below).  Tomato plant has exploded and the wire I bought to hold it up actually broke the other day due to the weight of the plant.  I have a ton of little green tomatoes, only one has just turned red.  The string beans are by far the greatest producer, we have already picked two rounds.  Pictures below.  And the slowest of them all are the pepper plants that have the tiniest hint of peppers being produced.

Cool things I have learned about growing produce (mostly from dino): Every fruit and veggie starts off as a flower.  From the flower the fruit of veggie begins to grow.  Growing takes a long time and a lot of energy, hence why the plants grow so big with so many leaves just to produce a few. Watching big guy talk about our growing plants is really fun.  Every day we go outside to see if they have gotten bigger.  Eating veggies right off the vine is awesome and nutritious.  Big guy eats string beans raw every time we pick. And finally, it's very rewarding growing them, next year I'm adding another box!  See below for some of the fun we've been having:

String beans right before first harvest- 6 inches! 

Big guy holding our first harvest (there were about ten more but he kept eating them!) 

I saved some for us, but gave most to Grandma C, as we were leaving for Disney the next day. Big guy wouldn't let them go and kept eating on the car ride over. 

Enjoying the string beans in the yard while I did all the hard work!

 Upon returning from Disney my first watermelon!  About the size of the top of my thumb. Unbelievably, this is a vine that has stretched about five feet towards the driveway and the only watermelon I've seen so far.  Although I have a lot of flowers!