Becoming Me: My Garden

I haven't done a Becoming Me post in so long, but I've been working on them. Some things just aren't doable in a week...like a garden! When we were looking at houses our real estate agent said everyone in the Seward neighborhood likes to garden. In January with 4 feet of snow on the ground it sounded lovely to plant a few flowers and veggies. Last year while I was pregnant I did plant a few things but they were pretty much in the shade and I was too walrus like to get down in the dirt and take care of them. By October we got one pepper about the size of a gobstopper. So instead I wandered around the neighborhood drooling over everyone else's gardens. The pictures don't do these justice, but check out this front yard rain garden (garden meant to absorb a lot of rain instead of like our front yard with grass on a slope where it runs off into the street causing erosion and pollution in the nearby Mississippi.)

Sometimes I see the owner sitting on the chair with a cup of tea and I want to ask if I can bring my book and join her :) Hopefully next year I can find some good shade perennials to plant and make my own rain garden with cute garden chairs.

Now let me show you a veggie garden in our neighborhood:

This is just half of it! It is about the size of an entire lot, so yes, this is an extreme example, but there are some pretty spectacular veggie and berry gardens on every block. And now the city of Minneapolis allows chicken coops. We live in the city and I know of 5 houses with chickens! Crazy, huh? Thankfully no roosters since they are only raised for eggs.

I don't think I'll get a chicken coop. But I did start a veggie garden with Christopher's help when he visited in May. The garden is in the alley next to our garage because it is the only place with enough sunlight due to our huge mature trees. I got a rain barrel from the co-op so I've been able to water primarily with rain water. Unfortunately I only had one zucchini plant live from the whole tray of plants I grew from seed. I think I planted them too early. I don't know if the zucchini is going to actually produce anything. I'm pretty sure I planted it too close to a pepper plant. Lesson learned to actually pay attention to those spacing instructions. When I got the peppers from the farmer's market they seemed so small...I had no idea they'd get so big. And good thing my brother planted the tomatoes the full 18 inches apart. I tried to talk him out of it and I have a wall of tomatoes.

But anyways, we have had success! Chris and I said success would be growing and eating just one item from the garden and check these beauties out:

Just a small square this year, but I've got room to grow. We put the fence around to stop people from taking the turn too tight and rolling over my tomatoes. Our elderly neighbor is quite concerned that someone will steal our veggies. She told me she keeps watch during the day. That motivates me to make sure it is watered as these are very cared for plants with their own watchguard.

Here's Penelope with the sign she gave me on Mother's Day

And ahhh....look at that! This was just minutes after I picked them

Yes, I took a lot of pictures. They are just so darn pretty!Chris sliced them up with some french bread and mozarella cheese made at the co-op. A little olive oil and salt on top...Delicious! Now I need to take a canning class so we can save a little of this yummyness for winter.