In the Garden

We spent a little bit of time in my SIL's garden this weekend. I just asked Erik to describe the garden and he used the term "crunchy" then laughed. He was joking. He then described it as a "bastion of edible plants in an ocean of horrible, terrifying, awful weeds. Beautiful weeds, actually." When I didn't know what bastion meant he said an "island" would be a better description for the garden... I still don't know what bastion means.

There were some weeds, but the garden was big. Big and beautiful. Big, beautiful and bountiful.

There is just something about gardens. They are tranquil, hearty, earthy, organic, crunchy, delicious, peaceful, and lovely. And they are also a lot of work. A lot of work. Yummmm... but they are yummy! So so yummy. What is better than eating food straight from the garden? I can imagine that eating food straight from your garden may feel better. There is something about knowing you participated in coaxing those plants to grow from seed that would give a feeling of satisfaction. And that satisfaction is bound to improve the overall experience of eating said food. Especially when most of (dare I say all??) the fruits and vegetables your family consumes were grown in your very own backyard. That, my friends, is how amazing my BIL and SIL are. Pretty freaking amazing.

Truen really enjoyed helping in the garden. And it actually held his attention for a little bit. He taught me how to pick tomatillos. I had never even heard of them (am I the only one??). He was actually the first one to notice they were ripe -- what a smart little boy.

Mr. Jamie just sat in the garden while we picked tomatoes, peppers, herbs, beans, tomatillos, okra, celery, melons, cabbage, squash, and a little bit of broccoli. I never knew what to do with summer squash before but Shawna would fry it up with butter and garlic for breakfast and it was delicious! Butter and garlic can make most things delicious, but this squash was yummy.

I was inspired to expand on our garden next year. I don't want it to get overwhelming, but I would love to grow some more vegetables next year. This year we only did herbs, tomatoes and squash -- not very impressive. I want cinderella pumpkins, string beans, peas, and some different varieties of tomatoes next year. And more! We'll just have to see how much inspiration I am feeling come spring. To be honest, I think I will need the inspiration come July when Erik is in Alaska. That is usually the time our garden falls apart. Though I must say that our garden did well until this last week when we were in Minnesota. It was much warmer than we expected while we were gone. In general though, I'm not very good at working full-time and weeding the garden. I need my partner to hold me accountable (read: do it for me). I'm good at gardening if I have someone to chat with. I'm bad at gardening when I feel as though I am fighting a losing battle against the weeds. I hate weeding the same patch of garden only to find the weeds have returned in full force within two days. That is discouraging. Regardless, I will do better next year.