fruits (or vegetables) of my labors

So, if I can pretty much throw some stuff together (stuff = dirt, seeds, water) and grow a massive garden, I guess anyone can do it. After recognizing that I might have a domestic bone in my body after all, Spencer told me he's going to start calling me Betty.

Here's what we got this year:

• About 350 tomatoes, Roma and Beefsteak. Originally we had 6 tomato plants and 3 were eaten by gophers. For once I'm grateful for those darn gophers! When the plants started to get out of control my dear friend suggested canning them (huh?) and then even took the time to do it with me so I could learn. Then she gave me an awesome salsa recipe. And, this week we made and canned marinara sauce. I'm going to start calling her Martha. (We also canned peaches! But we decided that is NOT worth the work. Good to know.)


• 12 spaghetti squash. When the big leaves were covering part of the lawn for just too long Spencer picked them all (slightly before they were ripe). Lesson learned for next year. (They still tasted good.)
• About 45 strawberries. The kids loved getting to eat a strawberry every day or two.
• 15 carrots.
• 10 pumpkins. Perfect for the next couple months! And I'm excited the kids get their own, grown in our very own garden.

• About 50 zucchini. While I was in the hospital they grew a ton and by the time my mom was here and started picking them they were enormous. One was as long as my arm, and much fatter - about 10 pounds! Needless to say, we eat lots of zucchini around here. And we learned how to make a really yummy dish ("goulash") with all of it, in addition to some other veggies.
• The cantaloupe starter we planted went nowhere and died. For the second year in a row. I'll need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I'd say it was a successful summer out in the backyard!