The garden: Month 2

Have you ever worked on a project and seen a photo or other evidence that reminds you dramatically of how much progress has happened since you started? I love the idea of chronicling slow progress that might otherwise be forgotten. With this in mind, I'm trying to bring my camera over to our garden plot at least once in awhile, to remember what happens over the course of the summer in my first garden.

Last week, I dropped by to water the plants and noted that it was the first time all summer I had visited the garden solely for that purpose, which highlights the tons of rain that fell earlier this season. How things have changed since then! Josh and I visited at least every second day this week, and everything is moving so much faster now that summer's hot, dry days have really arrived. Our little crops are loving this weather.

(And I was loving the row of community watering cans that were set out this morning by other gardeners working at the same time we were there.)

Here's the update on what happened since I last wrote about the garden:

Last month, I watched what I thought were green bean plants coming out of the ground and may have even googled "what do young green bean plants look like?" to make sure I wasn't hanging my hopes on weeds. Now, in early July, they are undeniably green bean plants!

I also love the little green bean seed that went rogue and sprouted away from the two neat rows of green beans that I planted. It is crowding my basil plant a little bit, but I have to admire its perseverance.

I grew about eight basil plants from seed and one actual basil plant, in case it's confusing to see several tiny plants next to a monster plant. They popped out of the ground recently and I'm amazed by how fast they've grown since then.

Here's the difference in just a few days!

We have a bunch of pepper plants - red and green bell peppers, jalapeno and poblano - and two of them have the tiniest peppers starting to grow. Our cherry tomato plant has about a dozen small green tomatoes on it.

My cousin gave me two tomato plants that were grown from seeds that come from way back in my family tree (true heirloom tomatoes, right!?), and they were looking a little bit sad for quite awhile during the gray, rainy weeks. Watching them go wild now is one of my favorite parts of the garden so far, because I like their story.

Since we got such a late start on planting everything, we've made a few adjustments. With no progress in sight and long germination timelines noted on the seed packets, I ditched my poppies and rosemary plans. We raked over those parts of the plot and started over with rosemary and sage (plants, not seeds) and a row of carrots. In Josh's side of the plot, we added another pepper plant and a cucumber plant. Today, I noticed that my carrots have just popped out of the ground, reminding me that I need to get another row in to stagger the carrot bounty in the summer or early fall.

The first few weeks of the garden were a Grade A question mark, and the garden didn't require as much attention because of all the rain. When the green beans popped up, I was so excited and surprised that I realized that I had not truly expected anything to happen in the garden this summer. Now that the plants are thriving more, it's so much more fun and gratifying to go over to weed and water our garden.

I can't wait to see what happens (and what we learn) through the rest of the summer.