Five Things Friday

There’s a strange feeling after you step foot in a garden again after seven weeks away. All the seeds have seemingly sprouted overnight. Plants that were only seedlings are suddenly bearing fruit. The volunteer squash (which came up over winter) is already ripe and curing in the sun.

It’s like seeing a long-lost friend after several years (which is what it feels like in garden time) and though you haven’t interacted since then, you easily fall in stride again.

Coming home to an edible garden is such a treat after many days and nights of eating out. It’s the thing I missed most about being away from home (aside from our animals, of course) and thanks to a reliable drip system and a healthy dose of compost tea before we left, our plants have been happy and productive. We have tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, cucumbers, beans, beets, carrots, squash, and all kinds of leafy greens still going strong, and I’ve picked out stacks of seed packets for plants I want to put in the ground soon.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to digging my hands in the dirt again this weekend!

Here were the five little things (out of many!) that made my week…

1. This beautiful head of savoy cabbage hung on through some hot weather.

2. A hefty King of Siberia tomato taunting me on the vine.

3. Pink blueberries! (Yes, they’re ripe!)

4. The last time I checked on the grapes, they were the size of pinheads. Now they’re nearly fully grown!

5. This tomatillo plant is the “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” of all tomatillo plants… but despite its scrawny stature, it’s already loaded with almost a dozen husks!