How Does Your Garden Grow?

In the past, my attempts at gardening have not gone so well. Last summer I planted three tomato plants. Each plant grew exactly one tomato! That's right, ONE! Brian hates tomatoes with a passion, so I am sure he was secretly praying for this outcome. I knew one tomato per plant wasn't normal, but I became extra discouraged when Brian went home to Idaho and proudly reported that his mom's tomato plants had at least 20 tomatoes each growing on them! I blame it on the lack of sun in our yard. Well, I am happy to report that there is at least one thing I can grow: today I picked our first green beans of the year! I planted the green bean seeds just a few weeks ago and they have already grown at least a foot tall. I have to admit that it's quite satisfying to watch something grow from nothing! I guess that's what my mom was trying to teach us all those years when she tried to force us to help her with gardening. I guess moms do know a thing or two.

I ate this one for dinner -- it was pretty good!

Other parts of our yard seem to be blooming all over the place, but with plants that I didn't actually plant myself. Last year some amazing purple flowers grew up the light post in our front yard. They showed up again this year. I should have taken a picture last week when there were three times as many flowers -- I thought about it every time I walked out the door -- oh-well!

All sorts of surprises are popping up. We're not really sure what this little guy growing by our front door is yet. All we know is that we didn't plant it and it wasn't there last year: