More Than We Can Chew?

Well, I think I'll need a pressure cooker by August. And if anyone knows of a good book on how to can vegetables, please send it my way.

Our garden has been in since Memorial Day, when Joe doggedly completed the fence. For some reason, every year I'm pleasantly surprised when all of those little seeds pop up as potential feasts. Maybe it's something about the mystery of life, that those specks can contain an entire living thing... or maybe it's just my own skepticism about how accurately I followed the planting instructions.

Whatever the reason, Maya and I have been circling the garden fence daily, enthusiastically monitoring our growing things. Now that everything has proven its will to thrive in spite of a cold soggy spring, tiny feet, and sloppy rows, I'm beginning to wonder if I haven't over done it just a bit.

Our garden is about 20 feet by 35 feet. I divided it into 12 beds with walk ways between them, with each bed measuring about 3 by 10 feet. We planted 5 types of tomatoes, 3 types of peppers, 4 types of green beans, 2 types of cabbage, 2 types of lettuce, beets, carrots, radishes, parsnips (although they aren't up yet and may not make it!), 2 types of cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, and 2 types of potatoes. We also have rhubarb, asparagus, basil, oregano, lavender, parsley, thyme, sage, and savory.

Keep in mind that this farm-in-the-city is a 15 minute drive from downtown Minneapolis, not on a hobby farm in the ex-urbs.

Every year my enthusiasm during the planting stage wanes as the weeds encroach. Now I look at that massive garden and my two busy girls and say a quiet good bye to any nap-time lull I thought I would get this summer.

Not true, not true. The beauty of having a giant backyard in the summer is that all of the neighbor kids want to play over here. Maya is thoroughly entertained by the antics of three 8-year-old boys and their pre-teen sister who loves to make Elliot giggle. As soon as this rain lets up, I'll have just enough time to pull weeds and train the pole beans up the crazy-looking tee pees Joe built while the big kids distract my girls.

**Coop update! Joe (with a little of my help) built the floor of the coop this weekend. Slooowly, this project is going forward. We're headed to South Dakota for the first couple of weeks in July, so we don't plan to adopt our chickens until we return. We'll keep you posted!