The Ugly Garden

I bet our garden is uglier than your garden.


It wasn't my intention to neglect the garden. In late spring Nate hauled in hundreds of pounds of organic compost. I planted about a dozen plants with intentions to water, prune, and care deeply for our precious garden. Instead our garden had to turn to Mother Nature for survival.

Well, I did weed . . . once.

I only planted one zucchini plant and it now resembles a decent-sized bush.

Nate is not a fan of zucchini but he eats it to set a good example.

I planted cucumber and I don't really like it but I eat it to set a good example.

Somehow the kids will benefit from all this example-setting. They, too, will become vegetable-eating martyrs for our grandchildren.

I love most vegetables but cucumbers are just not my thing. I planted a cucumber plant for Nate, but at the time it didn't register that although Nate likes cucumber, that does not necessarily mean he wants to eat one every day of the week - which is about how many we're harvesting at this point.

Despite total lack of watering (we lost a Japanese eggplant in late June when we were slammed with a weeklong heatwave and I, um, forgot to water the garden - Nate was not sorry about that loss. I was.) we have actually harvested a surprising amount of vegetables.

Svea begged for watermelon. I was skeptical, but planted one watermelon plant, hoping for the best. We now have several watermelon growing, from ping-pong ball size to cantelope. I'm sure there's more but the garden is such a mess I would never be able to find them all. The watermelon is at war with the burpless cucumber and they are both attempting to take over the entire garden.

Then there was a storm a month ago and some of our tomato cages blew over. I wanted to put them to rights, but the plants were so entangled in the cages that if I moved anything, it would risk tearing apart the plants. So they just look like this instead. Awesome.

Our surviving tomatoes. Truly a miracle they're growing at all, since I have a knack for killing plants of all kinds - flowers, houseplants, etc. One year in Delaware I tried to grow tomatoes in a Topsy-Turvy planter. Two little green ones appeared. And then they died. That was a memorable year, because after the tomatoes bit the dust, the remnants of a hurricane came up the east coast and flattened all the beautiful sunflowers I managed to grow. Sigh.

I grew up watching my folks plant and harvest tons of tomatoes but apparently their success in growing them had no effect on me whatsoever because our tomato plants are really sad. Lots of brown, withered stalks. Huh.

Yes, we also have cantelope. Because obviously I know nothing, I didn't know this could grow in Midwest gardens, but I am pleased to see it is thriving! So far I've only discovered one of these bad boys, but I am hoping for more. I love cantelope.

The watermelon is so cramped for space it grew out of the garden and is now making friends with the lawn. Hopefully Nate will take note of this while mowing.

And we have bucket loads of little tomatoes waiting to ripen.

I am currently taking notes on how to make our garden better next year. If you have any tips, give me a call - I need them.