Autumn Harvest

It's hot this week! I'm really grateful...I think this mini heatwave is just what the garden needs. You should see our pumpkins! Tommy is very excited, as he tends to think of them as 'his'. Because he picked out the start at the store, when I first started working on the garden. Hmmm...it's an interesting lesson, really. If you buy it, and pick it when it's ripe, what did you learn about tending it? Not so much, really. Scotty is the one who loves to work in the garden. More specifically, he loves to water it. Between the two of them, I have one wee-farmer.

On Sunday, I took a break from my writing project (oh, deadline, you taunt me so) and headed out to the veggies. I do hope these garden posts aren't getting boring! I just can't get enough of the garden, so I apologize if I drone on.

On many days, the most time I get to spend in the garden is the few minutes spent watering it. I can see the raised beds from the kitchen table, and also through my bedroom window (a longtime favorite spot for daydreaming, for me). So I often admire from a distance the far-reaching arms of the pumpkin plant ~ they are almost to the pond on one side, far up and across the patio out the back, and running roughshod through the tomato patch on the other side! ~ or the towering heights of the eggplants, and the proliferation of yellow flowers on the tomato plants.

But there is something so mesmerizing about really getting out there, about standing in the garden, with all of the garden on you and about you. Today I watched ladybugs and bumble bees, and, goodness even yellowjackets, and oh my gosh the ants! There is so much life in the garden. And, when I really got in there and rearranged some foppish limbs, and pulled the white flowers off the basil (which, btw, I just this year learned is the key to an ever-expanding basil plant!), and cut off any damaged leaves from a variety of plants...it was in there, with the creatures and the fresh smell of basil and tangle of plants that I found so much goodness! Yellow crook-necked squash, freshly turned tomatoes, a half dozen lemon cucumbers, and four gorgeous eggplants (my first of the season!) came inside with me!

I have more and more pumpkins; it seems daily that I find another in a different spot. I'll have to get some pictures next time, as the size differences in these things is astounding. I only planted one pumpkin plant, but they are all over the block...I guess I thought they'd grow more uniformly? Also, there are dozens of lemon cucumbers that are very close to ready, and a half-dozen (at least!) eggplant that will be picked by the end of this week. And a couple of surprises, which I've got to get figured out, so I know when to harvest them! I'll post some pictures later this week, and perhaps you can set me straight?

As for today, my favorite tomato and cucumber salad is coming to work with me. Heavenly!