Wait a hot sec, you’re probably saying. If this is Year Two, where the heck was Year One? Obviously, I never posted about it, seeing as I was on 10-month blogging hiatus at the time. [Insert obligatory OMG-it's-been-six-months-since-I-blogged-last-I'm-so-sorry-I-have-no-excuse-except-LIFE-HAPPENS here. Aaaaanndd moving on.] BUT! I took photos aplenty of last year’s garden triumphs and tragedies, and I’ll post a few of them here for comparison, although frankly, this year’s garden is way more interesting. Sexier, too.
- 2009: Not bad, but not great. (Taken Aug. 7)
- 2010: Pretty great, amiright?? (Taken May 31.)
Anyway, I’ve been following RVAnews‘ “Garden Wars” feature with great interest for the past few weeks, and each time I read it, I find myself fretting over whether our beloved veggie patch is behind “schedule” or otherwise inferior because we didn’t have John Sarvay’s beautiful lavender (our lavender seedlings wilted), or Scott Pharr’s peas and carrots (mainly because we didn’t plant carrots this year, after last year’s were such a disappointment), or Ryan Smartt’s abundance of tiny greens (about a month ago we were up to our ears in arugula and buttercrunch lettuce, but they’ve since bolted and our newly planted greens just seem to wilt in the current heat wave). That, of course, is in addition to thinking, Man, my garden photos would be infinitely better if I had some cute toddlers to put in them…. AHEM, a topic for another post.
- Definitely NOT a cute toddler.
Anyway, as I read this week’s installment I was coveting the Sarvays’ green beans and the Smartts’ Big Bertha peppers and the Pharrs’ beer-battered squash flowers (I KNOW!)…and I had a bit of a revelation: You guys! (I said to myself) Our garden is awesome too! And our tomatoes are green just like theirs! And we have tons (and tons and tons) of summer squash! And we have pretty squash blossoms, too! And we actually have bigger cucumbers! And we still have SO MUCH kale! And mint! And baby eggplant! And beets! It was a triumphant moment, I’m not gonna lie. Definitely worthy of exclamation-mark abuse. I totally felt like a bonafide, successful backyard gardener at that moment.
In affirmation of this victorious feeling, I went out into our darling, bountiful patch of productivity and snapped a few pictures. (More to come in my Flickr.)
- She’s tiny, but she’s definitely (the beginning of) a bell pepper!
- Still green, but nice and plump.
- Baby okra…probably a bit behind schedule, but that’s OK.
- A jungle of squash plants.
- See? SEXY garden.
- The great white…eggplant.
- Collards hey-o!
- A veritable wall of tomatoes, behind which is the great squash jungle.
Nothing like turning a tiny, dry seed into a monstrous green plant that produces edible fruits to banish feelings of inadequacy. And with that, I’m off to enjoy a lunch of summer squash salad — made with 90% homegrown veg.
- I’m no food photog, but trust me, it’s delish.
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