The Accidental Garden

There comes a point in every person's life when they start doing something new, and eventually get to a point where they feel they're getting pretty good at it. In my case, it's the garden. Or gardens, since we've got two of them. And no, the rhubarb patch growing by the garage doesn't count.

Aside from the bare patch where the beans were supposed to be, it's a pretty sweet garden. Apparently, other gardeners on the island have been saying that things aren't going well this year. I'd have to say that they're going pretty darn awesome for us. That's lettuce in the front on the left, the bare patch that has one bean plant and some herbs, then carrots and beets on the right. Behind them in the trellis are peas, followed by swiss chard and potatoes. In the third row are the transplants Honey Bunny bought this year: Broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and tomatoes. In the fourth row it's transplanted corn and onions; the fifth row is all corn that I planted. Finally, there's our garlic patch and our raspberries and strawberries. All in all, it's a pretty sweet garden. Not bad for a second-year effort from a complete beginner.

The second garden isn't going as well; I planted a bit later than I should have, and the transplanted stuff isn't doing as well. The problem is that the soil isn't rich enough for what I put in there; next year, there will be compost thrown in. Still, it's not that bad; I've got zucchini, cucumber, melons, pumpkins, and squash in there. It looks like this:

That's the zucchini in the front and the cucumber next to it; the pumpkins are in the row behind, with the squash beyond them. Along with an absolute ton of weeds that I'm slowly extracting. Still, this is the first time growing this stuff, so I thought it was coming along okay.

Then God decided to show me how it's really done.

That's the third and fourth rows of the main garden. If you'll notice, the walkway is blocked off between them. That is what I didn't plant; that's zucchini, from seeds in the compost pile. And they are taking over like kudzu. They've covered some of the peppers, and the end of the onion row. They're spilling over into the fifth row as well. And those plants right in the front? Those are tomato plants that, again, grew out of the compost that I threw in the garden a couple of months ago.

Here's another angle showing the mutant zucchini plants. I think there are only three of them, maybe four, but they are taking up a lot of space.

So, I'm working every night and three days a week on making this garden happen, and suddenly I've got a bunch of stuff growing on top of it without any effort on my part; I wasn't even watering them because I thought they were weeds. Even the tomato plants grew without my help.

God is very generous. And He is such a showoff.