Garden Update

I didn't plan well when it came to my vegetable garden this year. I ordered some seedlings back in the winter when I thought our backyard would be finished in early spring. Well...after weeks of rain, that didn't happen. As, I watched my tomato seedlings reach my waist, I had to plant them in a less-than-ideal place. They get about enough sun for a hosta to thrive. Surprisingly, they have thrived (must be the great seedlings I bought from Blue Mountain Gardens).

So, thanks to the help of friends who checked in on my plants and to our landscaper for setting up a watering system that conveniently hit the veggie garden, we have the following after a summer of abandonment:

• one watermelon that increases in size daily (about the size of a soft ball)
• countless green tomatoes of all kinds--I've had three yellow ones that are soooo sweet
• several acorn squash
• a dozen chili peppers
• a few wee green peppers...please grow!
• one glorious red pepper
• some surprise potato plants that grew out of the compost
• three lipstick peppers
• lots of green basil--the red was shaded by a tomato plant
• a CRAZY BIG rhubarb plant that I transplanted from the middle of our yard where it randomly grew in the spring

I'm just playing with this veggie garden thing, but it sure makes me respect the risk that farmers take to grow our food. I just got my first Wendy's Mobile Market order after our summer away. So much good stuff: blueberries, leeks, tomatoes, spinach, chicken, watermelon, carmelized onion cheese...I weep.