Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Summer Garden




This is our "little" garden. At the beginning of the summer, we planted a little 5X5 area right off our front porch. I planted 3 cucumbers, 5 different kinds of peppers and 6 little tomatoes. OH, and 2 of those little plant-your-own-watermelon kits that the boys got for 48 cents at Lowes one day.

Anyway, it really didn't look like it was going to be doing all that much. We had added 2 bags of fertilizer to the soil and tilled it in before we planted, but we really didn't know very much about the soil in this yard.

Then mom and dad showed up for my birthday and brought me a Salsa Garden to plant. They brought 6 roma tomatoes, 1 patio tomato and 3 big boy tomatoes, and also 1 pepper plant.

Let's see.... in total that makes, hmmmm, 3 Cucumbers, 6 peppers, 2 watermelons, and, um, oh, I dunno,
16 tomatoes!!!!!

As you can see in the picture, the tomatoes are now taller than the boys, well, they are really taller than me. The peppers are under there somewhere. We have taken more than a bushel of cucumbers off the vines, and I don't even know where to start with the cute little grow-your-own-watermelon-48-cents-at-Lowes-didn't think-they-would even-mature-past-2 leaves watermelon plants. They single handedly took over the whole front of the garden (and the grass) while the tomatoes handled the back of the garden like giant warriors.




















Here are the boys with their first watermelon off their very own watermelon plants (that have serious entitlement issues, I might add). They are pretty darn proud of those ground covering, half an acre, swallow up the yard, plants of theirs.

All kidding aside, the watermelon was scrumptious and the boys learned to spit watermelon seeds like pros.

Last night Dillon and I went out and relieved the tomato plants of the burdening lower tomatoes that were pulling more than half of them onto the ground. We laid them out in the house for house ripening and left the rest on the vines. We covered 3 of those big plastic tote lids with our haul. Hopefully, they don't all turn at the same time, or I will have to see my doctor regarding "attack of the killer tomatoes" nightmares.