Glorious Garden, Day 9

7:28 PM Edit This 12 Comments »
I'm obsessed with my garden. I gaze at it longingly every night. I pluck a few weeds here and there. I take pictures of it. I commune with it for God's sake! I've been obsessed with worse things, believe you me. I'm going to take this as a sign that I believe life can grow anew and that it's worth watching. Remember when I said I got "way too many" tomato plants because they were on sale due to their "distressed" state? They are no longer distressed. In fact, I have 15 tomato plants flourishing in a space that should probably only house about three. Six yellow tomatoes and nine red. Miss M is growing Romas, so mine are all of the canning and pizza sauce variety. What am I going to DO with all of them? Three of the yellow ones already have flowers on them! I've googled roasted tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce. What else do you do with tomatoes? Help me with suggestions, okay?
This is the butternut squash. I had serious doubts about the squash. When I saw all the seeds for cantaloupe, I was taken aback. I carried the notion that cantaloupe were grown in some tropical environment, not in South Dakota! So I didn't get any. I settled for squash seeds. And they're more than sprouting. I'll have to separate them in a few days I think, in order for them to grow. What do you do with squash? I have no clue.
The sugar snap peas are doing quite well! I was very excited about the peas. My mom suggested that I plant a row of them and then wait a week and plant another row so I'd have them all summer. It's already been a week. I have not planted any more. Times a-wastin'!
And my glorious green beans. They are almost eight inches tall now and were the first things to come up. I LOVE green beans. Funny, when I was little, the rule was we had to eat the number of beans we were old. If you were six, you had to eat six green beans. Eight? Eight green beans down your gullet before you were dismissed. Now I could eat a whole can. But no more cans for me! I even know how to freeze green beans from all those hot summer afternoons; cutting off ends, blanching them and then laying them out to freeze on cookie sheets covered with towels, only to go into a big ice cream bucket in the deep freeze and come out in the dead of winter. Can I tell you how much I'm looking forward to that? Tons.
May I point out the garden was planted nine days ago when I took these pictures? NINE DAYS, people! I feel vindicated from my problems when I see my garden. Because I did it with my OWN TWO HANDS, and nothing can take that away from me. Except hail. Or drought. Or infestation. Or flooding. Or whatever. I'm growing it. So there.

12 comments:

CatKrny said...

My mom makes tomato soup that we eat all winter long. Yummy!

stooegpie said...

Salsa, dance lady. Make salsa.

Naomi said...

Take all of the veggies (using the tomatoes as a base) and make a nice refreshing gazpacho. No cooking required!

buffalodick said...

You could get into canning.. tomatoes all year long! You also could make a lot of pizza sauce, and freeze it in zip lock freezer bags- lasts a long time...

gkgirl said...

your garden looks fantastic!!
:O)

Bob said...

squash are good steamed or sauteed. dice and use them in a vegetable prima vera sauce. bake a squash casserole. lotsa good things made from squash.

Anonymous said...

That is a good looking garden!

*Akilah Sakai* said...

Wow, your garden is doing great! You should be proud and I hear it's good to talk to your vegetation. My in-laws have a veggie garden so I get to "borrow" their squash, zuchini, peppers, beans, tomatoes, etc.

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

Maybe we should swing by your place on our way to Montana to pick up some fresh produce! =)

melissalion said...

Oh you have got to come to Portland. People will tell you what to do with every single last bit of that squash. And I'll eat it however it's made.

carrster said...

You EAT lots and lots of tomatoes & squash!

Tomatoes with olive oil & mozzarella for a light lunch; I have a fabulous "tomatoes & cream over chicken" recipe that you'd love (I think); the squash is soooo good - have it sauteed, or mash it up and put it in your other sauces, pastas, etc! Use squash in place of cucumbers on salads. Yum!

I think the idea of tomato soup - frozen for winter - sounds awesome.

AND BEANS! I could eat beans all day long. It'll be awesome to have those waiting on those cold dark wintery nights!

Yay for your garden! It rocks!!

Test said...

salsa. love the salsa from the 'mato garden.

squash soup is delish too.