in the garden

There are cucumber seeds in the dirt! I just couldn't bring myself to pay $3 for a cucumber plant when I could pay less than $2 for a whole packet of seeds. Even though the cucumber plant in question was one of those yummy lemon cucumbers.

I've got tiny thyme seedlings and tiny forget-me-not seedlings coming up! (Does anyone else ever look at all those flats of bright, blossoming annuals at the home improvement stores and think, "Yeah, but if you buy those, you miss all the fun!" I mean, they're beautiful plants, but you didn't get to watch them grow, to peek every morning to see if they were poking their little green heads out of the dirt, to peek again to see if there were any blossoms and if maybe, maybe, maybe today was the day those blossoms were going to open!)

I found some cool new plants at a discount, including a poisonous one that is NOT going to stay in the backyard where I put it because, well, it's poisonous, and my kids have a habit of sticking things in their mouths. Hooray for the ability to search the web for plant info! (It's a Natal Plum. Apparently the fruit is edible but the rest of it, including the seeds inside the fruit, is not.)

The sunflowers at the front of the house, which are not getting enough sun, are terribly spindly-lookin'. The ones at the back, which are getting enough sun, are looking hardier, but a little bug-eaten.

The small green tomatoes on my Early Girls are getting less and less small. Mmmm, I can almost taste them now. I think tomatoes you grow yourself are as good as apples when it comes to snacking.

My neighbor's loquat tree has very graciously draped itself across our back fence, and we're enjoying the fruits of its labors. Yum.


I wouldn't have guessed a year ago that I'd ever enjoy gardening this much. I feel more greenhorn than greenthumb, because I just don't know that much about plants yet, but in some ways, it's a glorious hobby in which to be an amateur. There're so many plants that are forgiving of mistakes, and just grow their hearts out no matter what you do to them. And they're so pretty and fragrant and heart-lifting.

Seriously, there is something world-resettingly right about gardening. I think it's 'cause we were made to be in gardens, from the very beginning. This daughter of Eve is content to go back to that life, at least sometimes.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica