Veggie Wednesday: My Garden

It may be a healthy interest; it may be an odd fascination; it may be OCD - I don't know which, but I look forward to my daily morning walk to the backyard to check on (and often photograph) my garden. I head out in the morning to see what's grown overnight (yes, overnight!) and then head to the front of the house to check on the flowers' progress.

Every night before bed I water both gardens and look forward to doing it all over again the next day.

I've always been interested in the things we make or grow ourselves. I think growing up in the 70's had something to do with it. Everything we consumed came from somewhere else; a can, a bag, a box or a wrapper. Machines had taken over many jobs that had once been done by hand and crops from all over the world made their way into shiny plastic containers to be picked up, opened and dumped onto a plate.

One of the largest influences in my life was the Little House on the Prairie series of books. I devoured them over and over and stored away all those bits of information on how things were made "old school". Laura Ingalls Wilder did such a fantastic job of capturing and detailing the history of how things were done in the late 1800's and relaying it to her readers that I could probably live somewhere on a prairie or mountainside and not need a whole lot more than those books to help me along.

Once I was older and discovered how easy it was to grow things in a garden or a pot or make things like soap, I dove headlong into creating. I even made dresses for my girls completely by hand without the aid of a sewing machine. They weren't simple A-line togs, they had beautiful puffed sleeves and lined bodices. It took forever and surely contributed to my carpal tunnel, but I had to do it.

I feel the same way about my garden and the thrill each day as I see it progress is unequaled by anything else (except the creation of 7 kids - I had to overdo on that, too).

This is what my garden was "doing" this morning:

Tomatoes on the vine. Can't wait for these to be ready!

Green beans. These are always my bumper crop. We've harvested a lot already.

Two of the zucchini growing - and another blossom, ripe for the picking.

Little baby cucumber.

Renegade lettuce. The rest was already picked and this started growing again from the roots.