Our garden

When I imagined having a home of our own one day I always imagined having a garden. I imagined going out into the garden and cutting fresh herbs for that's night dinner or picking sweet vine ripened tomatoes to be eaten simply with a sprinkling of salt.

Two years ago we bought our first house and one of the first things we did was build a garden. Some of the first things we planted were broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, tatsoi and swiss chard. Three days later a January frost settled in for four days. We lost almost half of the plants that I had so lovingly planted just days before. That was followed by a record number of 100 days straight of 100 degree plus temperatures. The tomatoes that I had dreamed of alluded me. I can't remember if I planted anything that fall, because I was feeling a bit disillusioned about gardening (as you can imagine). But my husband, ever the encourager, told me we were learning and we would keep trying. Luckily,  I listened to him and we planted again the following spring. The garden produced a bounty of carrots and greens that still brings a smile to my face. That was followed by another sweltering summer, but this time we faired better with our tomatoes. We enjoyed them a number of ways. My favorite being straight off the vine.

We took it a bit easier this fall and decided to let the garden rest. I planted a few onions, some garlic, carrots and beets late last year. Things are coming along nicely and I'm looking forward to pulling a few carrots from the ground in a couple of months. Of course, I've already got tomatoes on my mind. I've got a smile on my face just thinking about it.