I’m nearing the end of my first year of vegetable gardening. After starting from zero and learning a lot while slogging through the middle of summer, I’m finally seeing rewards.
My household has had a steady (but not overwhelming) supply of zucchini for the last month. Zucchini grow fast, did you know? We picked the first one a month earlier than we were expecting after last year’s tomato crop. And we could have picked it even earlier, only we didn’t notice it. They’re good at hiding. By the time we realized we had one, it was thicker than a baseball bat. Whoops!
On the other hand, our tomatoes are taking their own sweet time this year…all we’ve been able to eat so far are the cherry tomatoes. But we’ve had one green pepper, some carrots, and lots of cilantro and mint. And we’re keeping a close eye on the other green pepper plants and the hot pepper, all of which are scrawny but are valiantly pouring their energy into making peppers.
Knowing that you’re eating stuff that you grew yourself? Never gets old.
Oh, and those weeds I mentioned in my last post? Still there, and new ones all the time. But at least the vegetable plants are big enough now that they can hold their own in between my infrequent bouts of weeding.
Then there are the surprises.
About a month ago, I noticed a funny-looking weed. It had wide green leaves that looked…not exactly like the zucchini, but definitely related. Then it started to spread, unlike the zucchini, which was pretty compact. But as it grew, I got more and more confident that it wasn’t a weed, even though we hadn’t planted it. Squash? Melon? Cucumber? It put out yellow flowers — still inconclusive.
Then it started to grow a small round fruit. Definitely some kind of melon, but I couldn’t tell what. Only in the last week has it become clear: we’ve got a magical self-seeding canteloupe! Now that’s exciting. (Or maybe I just need a life? Nah…)
My stepmom is a city girl. First year on the farm after she married my dad, she was SO EXCITED about having a garden.
She planted a whole packet of zucchini seeds. We just stood back and snickered. We paid for it months later, when we were eating zucchini every meal!