Garden

My husband thought it would awesome to plant a new garden at our new house so we could have some organic produce close at hand. Need some lettuce for a salad? Pick it out back. Want some carrots or broccoli for snacks? There you go. How about shallots, garlic, tomatoes, onions? Mm, yes, please. We planted at the very beginning of April (the hubby deserves the props for planning and executing these lovely beds):

A month and a half later, the plants looked like this:

And yesterday they looked like this:

It's quite incredible, how much their growth has exploded in just the last couple of weeks. We haven't sampled anything except for the bib lettuce. Our kid likes to pull lettuce leaves and eat them directly, without washing. They're very tender and slightly spicy. And apparently, small animals who can jump our little plastic fence think they're very tasty, too. They were so lovely just a week ago, but they're no longer as appetizing-looking since almost all of their large leafy leaves have been torn off. :-(

Next time (next year), we'll take more steps to protect them, or we'll just go ahead and pick them young to make baby green salads. The tomatoes (photo immediately below) are starting to flower as well. Perhaps we can save the fruit from getting eaten by birds by throwing mesh over the whole thing.

Bell peppers, which survived lots of gnawing by small animals when their leaves were young (they're why we put up the fence in the first place):

Eggplant and shallots in the front row; lettuce, garlic, and onion in the back row:

Carrot tops:

Broccoli:

I hope we can harvest the plants for at least a few meals this summer.

xo, Gladys