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Simple Pleasures
Jul. 31st, 2002 04:28 pmAfter weeks and months of digging, planting, weeding, feeding, and generally making a mess of myself working in the yard, my garden has finally taken off! It's fascinating and wonderful to watch the plants that have been sitting there idle for so long suddenly go into overdrive, churning out bundles upon bundles of edibles....
Yesterday's lunch was fresh cucumbers, with sour cream. The night before we had stir-fried yellow squash, and tonight there's a whole handful of zucchini and yellow squash to fix up as a side dish - I still haven't decided what to do with them. And this weekend there should be enough green beans to start picking.
All of our tomato plants have at least 3 big green tomatos on them, just waiting to ripen, plus several dozen tinier ones on the grape tomato plant. The bell pepper is flowering, and the pumpkin jungle has already put out a pumpkin as big as my head.
Even my herb garden, which I thought was utterly lost after the move, is going crazy. I had to completely replant, but after just a week I have basil, dill, sage, and marjoram plants an inch or more tall.
Sometimes gardening seems like a lot of work for vegetables that we could probably buy at the grocery for reasonable prices, but every year when the garden starts producing like this, I remember why it's utterly worth it. There's nothing quite as satisfying as being able to go into the backyard and pick fresh veggies to eat that same night, and nothing from the store ever tastes quite as good.
We've already started plans to double the size of the garden next year. Best to work on that now, while we're enjoying the success of this year, instead of waiting until digging time. God help us.... :)
Yesterday's lunch was fresh cucumbers, with sour cream. The night before we had stir-fried yellow squash, and tonight there's a whole handful of zucchini and yellow squash to fix up as a side dish - I still haven't decided what to do with them. And this weekend there should be enough green beans to start picking.
All of our tomato plants have at least 3 big green tomatos on them, just waiting to ripen, plus several dozen tinier ones on the grape tomato plant. The bell pepper is flowering, and the pumpkin jungle has already put out a pumpkin as big as my head.
Even my herb garden, which I thought was utterly lost after the move, is going crazy. I had to completely replant, but after just a week I have basil, dill, sage, and marjoram plants an inch or more tall.
Sometimes gardening seems like a lot of work for vegetables that we could probably buy at the grocery for reasonable prices, but every year when the garden starts producing like this, I remember why it's utterly worth it. There's nothing quite as satisfying as being able to go into the backyard and pick fresh veggies to eat that same night, and nothing from the store ever tastes quite as good.
We've already started plans to double the size of the garden next year. Best to work on that now, while we're enjoying the success of this year, instead of waiting until digging time. God help us.... :)
