To: You From: Me and a little more on gardening

Letters already? Whenever people would say things like, "Jimmy knew how to write his name before he could walk..." I would kinda think, "Wow. That's really nice." How things change when it's your own child! A couple of days ago, Natalie comes running to me and says "I write my name, Mom!" So I walk with her to the chalkboard and sure enough, there's an "N" and a "T" so I show her an "A" "L" "I" "E" and she's not stopped since. She's really into writing notes to her friends and family. My favorite letters are the lower case "a" it looks like a "Q" (an O with a tail) and her over zealous "N" that looks more like a "M" or "W." Mostly her notes are squiggles and lines, but occasionally actual letters make an appearance. Here's a picture of her with a letter to her friend, Abbie, on her way to deliver it to her house. She's covering the "e" but the other letters are visible.


This year we have been sooo lucky to have two gardens. We have our same container garden from past years, but we also planted a garden with some friends who have a yard. Starting a garden plot from scratch sure is...fun? After renting a rototiller and spending a few hours of "fun" in the rain, we've harvested a handful of peas, 3 squash, 1 zucchini and some lettuce. Granted it's only July, but it's sure not the bumper crop to make our horticultural dreams come true! The irony is we actually want zucchini and the vast majority of zucchini growers of the world usually are up to their ears as well as all their friends, family, and neighbors (and any poor soul who leaves their doors unlocked) ears in zucchini. Not us. And, the main reason we planted a garden at their house was to have enough space for watermelons and pumpkins. The watermelons sprouted a few vines and withered away and the pumpkins were looking fantastic until some fungus or disease hit this past week. I'm super bummed. Hopefully we get at least one jack-o-lantern size pumpkin.
Jared's not surprised about the watermelons. Sad! This makes three unsuccessful years. Don't worry, we don't plan on giving up. We're even more determined to grow a watermelon next year. Last year, we did get a watermelon about the size of two softballs. Upon cutting it open I refused to eat it but Nat and Jared each took a few bites (that's all there was) and threw up for a day or two.

As far as our little container garden here at home goes, things are green and growing. Our herbs are fantastic! Our tomatoes look to be plentious. And the flowers are beautiful. There are also finally some blossoms on the vines of our mini sugar pumpkin plants.
After all the venting, here is how we truly feel about gardening. The best measure of the success of a garden: joy. She can't eat the peas fast enough.

The sweat and muck of rototilling in the rain was memorable and really, fun. Trying to figure out what is wrong with a plant, makes me feel like I'm using my brain again, and when will Natalie ever be a "yellow-zucchini-squash-3 peas-lettuce-leaf-and-a-spring-of-mint" long again?