garden musings

I didn't want to leave you all anticipating with 'bated breath about the garden. By the way, I looked up the saying 'bated breath since good ol' J.K. Rowling used "baited breath" but it's actually from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and the shortening of abated. Shakespeare wins, of course, no surprise there. It's fun to figure out where sayings come from and it helps me learn my native language all the better.

Back to the garden. Davis and I picked up our love of growing plants about three years ago. I have been around gardens my whole life. As a child when at grandparent's house in North Carolina, I was much more reluctant to help and more eager to play (or watch TV, let's be honest, that was a factor as well) than to spend time in the garden. I remember more fondly now picking blueberries, shelling peas, eating fresh tomatoes for every meal, and sitting with my grandpa as he peeled tart apples from the tree in the yard for my grandma. Every time they visited, they brought sacks full of vegetables from their yield as well as home canned goods to be enjoyed year round. It is an interesting thing that while you are building these memories that will one day be somewhat romanticized and most definitely nostalgic, in the moment it is often hard to appreciate life. So much competes for our attention at the moment. I have often heard that it is not enjoying music in the moment that is so pleasant, but the memory of it as we play our favorite bits over and over again in our minds. I do not know why, but I do believe there is truth in that. Life is often most enjoyed in the memories not the moments. I can't decide if that is  bad, good, or neutral. I have decided though it is a huge grace and a blessing from God that we so often are able to forget the pains, difficulties, and anxieties we frequently experience in the moment and only play the favorite bits over and over in our minds. These are the parts and experiences we share through stories with our loved ones. Sure, we remember hardships but as tools and lessons to grow.  It is the good times or the glimpses of hope we love, cherish, and share the rest of our days.

Okay, now really back to the garden. My mom's family were not wealthy farmers in the Piedmont of North Carolina for many generations. Davis' grandfather, whom he never had the joy of meeting, worked for Mississippi State University's agricultural research park. His specialty was Muscadine grapes. While we do not have the greenest thumbs, we love to grow things. We feel like, especially in the desert here, if you have to water it and nurture it so much, you should be able to eat the fruits. One day when we own our own plot, probably in the distant future (gosh I so badly want to say the year 2000), we plan on having the tiniest bit of grass to lounge on and the rest cultivate for eating. Looking for places to live, one of the best things about our current house is the yard/dog door and the garden beds. One of the best things about obsessively planting things is if your harvest is decent, there is so much to share. We plant to share. I love to check up on the garden daily and grow odd attachments to the little struggling sprouts. You can ask Davis, I have the hardest time thinning. Can't all the sprouts get a chance at life? I usually try to transplant those sprouts if possible. There is just so much to learn about gardening and most of it comes from trail and error. Every time we move, we have a set back in our learning as well. Keeps us on our toes!

So, now that I have overwhelmed you with a wall of text that should probably just go in my journal not in a post about the garden, here are a few shots from yesterday. Ingrid, of course, was following me then too and she is currently sleeping at my feet.

the pear tree
without all the bug issues the south has, fruit growing in the west
is fairly easy

turnips, beets, kale, lettuce and
the bolted spinach

turnips, we are big fans of plants you can eat
multiple parts of :)

squashes, beans, peas, and carrots

beets, onions (not doing well), cilantro, marigolds, and tomatoes
...and ingrid's crooked tail

beets, one of our favorite things to grow

sunflowers making their way towards the sun, about 2 1/2-3 ft tall

the tomato jungle and the basil friend in the middle

my favorite, the tomatoes!
cannot even express how much this makes
me so so so so happy, especially after last year

cilantro obsession and it's fairly easy to grow

beet forest

infant zucchini

we are using the bank for gardening as well, obviously one is
doing better than the others

two strawberry plants for the win!

one of many rose bushes, at the twilight of it's season

neighbor's roses

these are also the neighbors but they stick out
over our driveway and the color is so vivid

basil and rosemary friends, need to make some pesto soon

So there you have it. Our garden, thus far. We are by no means experts nor pretend to be. I cannot say how pleased and excited I am to have finally eaten five strawberries after years of trying. Also, I am so tickled with the tomatoes, last year all of six tomato plants did absolutely nothing but look pitiful all summer. It's gotten hot fast here, so our lettuce/spinach season was quite short compared to the first year in Colorado. But our growing season has been slightly longer here. Thanks for checking in on us!

one more plant:
i think this plant has been around since dinosaurs
looks like it belongs in jurassic park