You may remember that way back in the spring, before the putrid hot, humid days of summer that almost killed me, or at least caused me to melt into a puddle of sweatiness, I planted a garden. It is something that I had wanted to do for a few years. Just a few things that we could use as they ripened, nothing big and nothing that was a ton of work. I planted my little garden (very late because . . well, I'm like that) and then, waited for it to grow.
Here is what is left of my garden - just the small little thing that it is :-) I'm sure you are wondering what I grew, right? Well, this is what I grew according to my kids: tatoe's, hots, yunions, and . . . bananas. Yep, you read that right. Allow me to clarify. "Tatoe's" are . . .tomatoes. I grew cherry tomatoes, which the boys LOVED to pick and full size tomatoes. We tried to teach them to wait until they were red but . .. they were just too excited. There are tomatoes all over my yard . . . hard and green but they were picked with love :-) "Hots" are Jalapenos. Darryl told the boys not to pick them because they are "hot" so therefore they become "hots" and yes, they still picked them, carried them to me and would say "momma, hots!" "Yunions" are . . .onions. They loved pulling them out of the ground. Just last week, Josh came walking in the kitchen carrying two "yunions" and promptly threw them in the garbage HA! Finally, bananas. So, the banana's grow on vines and are long, a little prickly and taste a lot like cucumbers but don't tell my kids that :-)
A few things I learned.
1) You need to water your garden especially when you get no rain for a long time and it is really hot.
2) Tomatoes will take over your garden. Next time, we will stake them for sure!
3) Eggplant will not grow if the Tomatoes overtake them.
4) I should probably weed more often.
5) Next time, I should plant it earlier so that the veggies actually get ripe before we have frost again (or my kids pick them)
Am I happy with my garden? Absolutely because I had one main goal and that was to get my kids interested in what was growing outside. They constantly were asking to pick "tatoes" so I think I succeeded. I look forward to next year when I can do some things differently but also so that they can learn more how to pick things and maybe, just maybe, they will eat the veggies instead of throwing them away!
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| The kids LOVED the big tomatoes so much they HAD to pick them to show me! |
