My Fretting Was for Naught

Over the garden, that is. Despite the weather being hotter and drier than usual for this time of year, our little plot is flourishing. Follow me outside for a peek, if you’d like ...

First, for some context, here’s what the tomato patch looked like after we planted our first group of them (six more were added later, but only one was planted in this area):



It’s hard to get a sense of scale, but the plants are probably 3–4 inches tall here. Here’s a shot of the same general area, taken just a few days ago:



They’ve taken over the area! And we haven’t used chemical or natural fertilizers on them—just an occasional watering when the weather was dry, or hot. Oh, and Kirsten, the tall plant with yellow flowers (not very visible) behind the tomatoes is our tomatillo. The thing’s going crazy! I just hope it doesn’t produce all its fruit while I’m away. I am hoping to be able to make and can a good-sized batch of salsa verde. I adore that stuff, and it’s so easy to make.

The tomatoes are setting fruit; the summer squash are as well, somewhat to my surprise (they were planted rather late, I thought); and two of the pepper plants have nice-sized peppers on them as well. Our beans are also starting to produce, despite being nearly engulfed by the tomatoes. The radishes are pretty much done for now; our mustard plants are still sending out new leaves, but they’re starting to flower too; one even has some seed pods developing on it. We’re watching those with interest, as we enjoy a lot of Indian dishes that call for mustard seed.

We have a couple of other garden watchers too:



Darlin’ Daughter’s animal totem is a tree frog, but she likes her landlubbing cousins too—so that explains the closeup. The blurry white flowers in the foreground are radish flowers, if anyone’s curious.

And now it’s time for me to take a cue from the amphibian and hop out of here and get back to my adventure preps! I hope to pop in here now and again, but we shall see what we shall see. Meantime, please take good care of yourselves, and be good to each other.