Lazy Summer Days in the Garden

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And this is the part where all the pests and headaches of gardening are worth it.

Everything is looking so alive in my garden, and I love it. The sunny summer weather is finally here and my garden is responding with a sigh of relief after one too many damp days.

My daughter’s been eating these peas every day for about a week now. They aren’t all quite done, but should be soon. They are shelling peas, but she still eats them raw, and has fun picking them out of their pods.

After much waiting and checking, the raspberries went from not-quite-ripe to ripe all of a sudden! I’m out there picking every day now to keep them from rotting.

Here’s what I picked off in about 10 minutes’ time! Can you imagine what this same amount would cost me to buy in the store? Shudder.

Lacinato kale is progressing quite nicely! I have quite a few with the characteristic dark, curly leaves. I mostly just come out and pick a few and toss them in my green smoothies.

Here’s my daughter posing in front of the container that has our salad and smoothie greens. I also am growing some beautiful flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, and a row of copra onions in this container.

Here is my box of copra onions. I’ve been expiramenting with inter-planting, which is basically growing stuff in between stuff.  I successfully grew a row of radishes between these puppies and I just planted a row of rainbow carrots yesterday.

Speaking of inter-planting, I’m growing a head of Romaine lettuce in the space between my cucumbers! The lettuce will be ready to harvest here quickly, long before the cukes get in the way.

My beans have made a nice rally, in spite of being tormented by the spawn of Satan.

That Pinterest idea of regrowing celery is actually finally…working? I think I’m regrowing a stalk of celery in my garden! Crazy.

My Early Girl Tomato plant is perking up, too. For awhile there it was just…sad looking. I think it needed some sun. It’s filled in nicely and the tomatoes are bulging, if not reddening.

My deck container tomatoes…are getting scorched. They are in full sun all day, so I decided to move them down to the garden to chill and get some shade. I removed some of the scraggly looking leaves and stems.

I think they’re much happier.

My rainbow chard is also now officially taller than my daughter.

This is the part of gardening that I adore. It’s a rare day that I’m not out there with my kitchen shears and a big glass bowl, gathering something for dinner or a smoothie. My kids also love being out there and playing.

My son particularly enjoys roaming through the containers for a snack. The raspberries and mint are his favorite!

After several years of hard work, this space is starting to turn into a more enjoyable, and usable one. When I walk through the garden under the arbor, I’m reminded how much my husband loves me – so much of all of this – is for my enjoyment. I’m one lucky gal.

I hope I’ve convinced some of you out there to grow something edible. Anything – even some herbs or greens – anything! It’s a both an inspirational and rewarding experience and I hope you’ll try it. There’s nothing quite like growing your own dinner.

Pictured above: home-grown rainbow chard (left), chopped herbs (on the pasta), and hot pink garden salad (chopped chard stems, radishes, parsley, and several varieties of lettuce – all from the garden). 

What’s growing in your garden these days?