growing

It may have taken a month to decompress from the school year, but summer is far from over my friends and I’m taking the rest of it to play a bit of catch-up here... and tell all about the best form of therapy imaginable. 

As evidenced by instagram, J and I got on a huge gardening kick this summer. It happened mostly by accident actually. And by accident I mean out of desperation to make that huge, random, neglected dirt pile from last summer into something productive. A garden is what I set my sights on and we planted on Easter morning... a new springtime tradition?!

This is right after we planted and we were so proud of ourselves! We tilled the dirt, laid that weed-blocking cloth, and planted our little sprouts. We tried companion planting which has been awesome so far! No major bug problems. The cloth thing... eeeh.. mixed feelings...

Sidebar on the black-cloth-no-mulch experiment: It’s been super low-mantainance as far as weeds are concerned. You're actually supposed to pile mulch on top for an extra player of protection, but we didn’t because I want to be able to pull it up and till our compost into the soil next year. Only down-side is that I’ve spotted some interesting looking fungi, shroomy things growing here and there and worry that it may welcome a few too many slugs (though I’ve seen no signs of them so far). 

Here it is exactly 1 month later...

That’s when the first signs of vegetable life started showing up. Here’s a rundown of what’s growing (from front to back):

- tomatoes

- lemon basil

- 3 different varieties of bell peppers

- cilantro

- eggplant

- okra

- rosemary

- garlic

- cucumbers

I think I want to be a farmer. There’s absolutely nothing in this world that can compare to the feeling of being barefoot in a garden, picking something right off the vine, and eating it there knowing the only things that have ever touched it are sunlight, rain, and the feet of an occasional ladybug. It’s like medicine for the soul to feel so connected to the earth in this way. 

It blows my mind to think of the complexity and diversity of life - even just the plant life in our backyard. The idea that all the multitude of vitamins and nutrients our bodies need to function are created from sunshine, dirt, and rain is incredible. 

Here’s the garden about a month ago.

 

This was the very first of the giant cucumbers we’ve been instagraming... just a baby in this pic! We have a pepper that’s finally ready for eating we’re and getting tomatoes and cucumbers every day.

Oh, and did I mention that we finally picked our pineapple =)  It was a tasty little guy!

PS. Through the “farming" kick of recent, I happened - through a random string of links - upon this lovely blog and it makes my heart so happy. If you love this whole farm thing as much as I do, you’re sure to be inspired!