Digging in (more literally)

LET US TALK ABOUT MY GARDEN. No wait. Let's talk about last year's garden.

The tomatoes were a bumper last year, possssssibly because I had planted eleven cherry tomato plants. WORTH IT. Nobody crossed the yard without eating at least a dozen tomatoes.

These were my currant tomatoes.

I read about them somewhere, and ordered the seeds online, and then planted like TEN of them, and only two sprouted. I coddled those tiny sproutlings and they became these two MASSIVE, VINEY PLANTS. The tomatoes are itty bitty and they were everyone's favorite. Eleanor called them 'tomato candies.' Geneva liked them because she could fit like five in her hand at once, and she is a greedy bird.

Even eating like three dozen a day, we couldn't get through them fast enough, and every two weeks or so, I would have to go out and do a cull.

Zucchini likewise kept getting away from me, but zucchini will do that.

We were like Oh man look how big this zucchini is! And then a week later I went out to see what was up and hello.

Remember how my cucumbers weren't growing? They grew. And GREW AND GREW and every time we left the house, each girl would get a cucumber for her stroller snack.

What else. I grew edamame beans! They were amazing. Fresh edamame beans are so tender. This year I am planting, like, THREE TIMES the amount. Last year was also my first year growing potatoes, and you guys potatoes are the funnest thing to harvest ever.

You just dig around in there and see how many you get! We had this amazing purple variety that I bought from the farmer's market. Eleanor loved to wash them, and then dry them and stack them.

Oh, remember how my artichoke plant was dying? He did NOT die and then we have the tiniest artichoke growing and then winter came and he died. Quel domage.

We had a few other disappointments. None of my cruciferouses survived the heat. My strawberries mostly got eaten by bugs. Green beans are still gross even if they're garden-fresh. My entire pumpkin patch resulted in one lonely, perfect pumpkin that Eleanor decorated for Halloween.

Something happened to my corn, and it stunted (I blame the smoke monster). Each stalk ended up with only one ear, and I noticed it was ripe the week my sister was here BUT THEN I FORGOT and then like two weeks later I went back out to check and everything was shriveled and dry. SORRY, CORN. You would probably have been amazing.

This year, I have raised garden beds! They are a something. But more about them anon.