How Does Your Garden Grow?

These pictures of our garden were taken over a month ago!  You know, back when things were green and promising.

Amelia likes to take daily walks to the garden to "check on it". 

 We had a wonderful supply of sugar snap peas growing this year.  Amelia ate them directly from the plant and that made me so happy!  One day she asked for a snack and then suggested ON HER OWN going out to the garden and picking some peas.

In classic Henry fashion, he grabbed a pea to try, put it in his mouth, climbed up the slide and was spitting it out before he even hit the bottom.

He was pretty taken with the potatoes though, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was calling them "balls" and trying to throw them.

Here is a pretty promising little green tomato.  I regret to tell you, though, that he never hit maturity.  Some sneaky squirrels have been getting into our raised garden bed--something we haven't really had a problem with the past 2 years. And then there were those 4 days we were on vacation and the garden didn't get a drop of water.....

I haven't given up completely on our cucumbers yet, but they are going no where fast. 

As is the case every year, our sunflowers are thriving!  This year, we grew our tallest one yet.  It is fun to watch them grow each year because they grow so fast.  Our sunflowers are so top heavy now, though, they are almost bent in half.

Our first year growing potatoes was a HUGE success!  Amelia loved digging them out of the ground and Jason, Henry, and I loved eating them!  We will definitely be doing those again next year!

Growing Green

Several people have asked if we are doing a garden again this year and the answer is yes. Unfortunately, however, I've been too busy to document every step (I'm sure this is good news for those you you that remember ALL the garden posts last year). I did manage to snap a few pictures when we were harvesting some veggies the other night.

The sunflower we planted is already twice the size of Amelia! (That is, until the storm blew it down the other night).

Check out the turnip Amelia pulled up! Jason made an awesome carmelized turnip casserole that was so yummy. Too bad it took me 30 years to realize that I actually like turnips!

Henry was having a hard time figuring out what the heck we were doing. Actually, he was just trying to figure out if there was going to be something in it for him.

Note to self: plant the same cherry tomatoes next year. OMG (and I really NEVER use that abbreviation unless I'm making fun of someone) they are so good. They are the orange variety and poor Jason has only had 3 this year because I just can't help eating them while I pick them off.

Our bounty for the day: turnip, green beans, snap peas, and some cherry tomatoes.

We're also growing zucchini, carrots, onions, radishes, and cucumbers (which are by far our most successful crop to date. They are currently coming out of our ears). Green beans are our other overly abundant crop and they seem to currently be drowning out the other veggies.

And did I mention that a rabbit decided to build a nest in our garden? For awhile there was a mom rabbit and two adorable babies hopping around our yard--that is until Truman got a hold of one. Never a dull moment around here.

Garden Update

No joke that every time I take pictures of our garden for the blog, by the time I get around to actually writing the entry, the pictures are quite outdated.

Again, these are from the weekend (only 4 days ago, but the plants have once again doubled in size).  We were able to pick all of the radishes and, in turn, plant some more!

Check out our gigantic lettuce!  Yes, it is as big as it looks!  It has provided us with enough lettuce for several salads and there is still lots more.  This is only 1 of 6 heads ready to be picked!

Amelia holding the enormous lettuce!

I'm pretty sure no one but myself can find the tiny, green tomato in this picture, but rest assured on Saturday we found one!  Today when I checked, I spotted 4!

Here's the whole deal.  But, if you saw it in our backyard now you wouldn't recognize it as the same garden!  And with tonight's rain, I am guessing we are in for another growth spurt soon!

Our garlic is coming up!  Well, at least 3 of the 4 cloves we planted.  We put another one in the ground on Saturday.  We are unsure how long it will take until its ready to be picked, so we will just have to keep an eye on it!

Next on the harvesting list?  Looks like the spinach will be ready to be picked soon and the only 5 heads of lettuce, of course!  Should be a bountiful summer!