21 to 0

We picked 21 cherry tomatoes today.

Not one of them made it home.

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

~ Lewis Grizzard

The snack garden?

We've been hanging out in the garden. The kids eat the cherry tomatoes and the peas and beans faster than I can grow them. We've taken to calling it the snack garden. I am not convinced I will ever manage an actual meal from it unless we plan to eat it in the garden - nothing makes it home.
We water and weed and I take pictures of flowers and weed some more. The kids eat, climb the trees, chase butterflies, call to the birds, play in the fairy garden and annoy help the neighbours. And I weed some more.  Then we all go home and wish we had more cherry tomatoes and raspberries to eat.

Colour in the garden today

Morning in the garden

Morning is the best of all times in the garden. The sun is not yet hot. Sweet vapors rise from the earth. Night dew clings to the soil and makes plants glisten. Birds call to one another. Bees are already at work.”
~ William Longgood


So there isn't a lot happening in our garden plot at the moment - no bionic carrots leaping from the soil, no magical bean teepee appearing over night. It is a bit hard for the kids, who have really never gardened before, to get a sense about why we are spending our mornings watering dirt. There is a lot happening around us - beautiful flowers, phlox, and chives, borage and tiny yellow ones I haven't identified yet.

This week, with the bulk of our plot taken care of I turned towards some of the common community areas. I have started clearing out some of the raspberry patches and found a treasure of a giant but hidden rhubarb plant and a patch of mint under the thorns. I need to get a book for herbs to see if I can identify some of the other clumps that are healthy but inaccessible due to the thorns.  I have also been eyeing up a small space behind ours where I hope to be able to plant some wild flowers,  maybe Cosmos, Coreopsis, Echinacea, Wild Lupine and Bergamot.

In any case, I managed a small harvest of red raspberry leaves for tea and some mint to make minty lemonade for the kids. Soon I hope we will be bringing home a more substantial harvest after our morning visits.