A Fourth of July Vegetable Explosion
One of the things I love about living where we do is how much wildlife we get to see in our own yard. Yeah, we have to compete with some of it for food, but they’re still fun to watch. We get butterflies, ladybugs, bees, caterpillars, worms and pill bugs, all of which the kids like. We also have a resident toad which the kids like to go look at every couple of weeks. It hides under the splash stone under the rear spigot just waiting for them.
A few days ago I was sitting on our back stairs and heard an owl, saw blue jays, cardinals, robins and finches in our yard while a heron flew by overhead.
We love living in Fridley where everyone seems to place a high value on having trees, bushes and other habitat that lets so many animals live with us.
Lots of Progress for July
Tomatoes are finally coming out. We have had flowers here and there for a couple of weeks and now we have green tomatoes. I’m really a beginner at gardening, so I didn’t have any idea how big these tomato plants would get. I put in 3-4 foot tall stakes a few weeks ago, and tied the tomato plants to them. Since that time, several of the plants have outgrown their stakes. Fine by me, more room for more tomatoes.
Green beans are growing well. They’re too skinny to bother picking yet, but we’re ready for them!
The zucchini is legendary for how prolific it can be, and it looks like our zucchini plants are getting ready to attack. We’ll let them get just a little bit bigger, and then start eating them with every meal.
Two years ago in Provo,Utah we had a garden. One of our most productive plants was the yellow summer squash. We had so much squash that we tried dehydrating it (thinking to use it in soups or something). We ate it in and with everything. Our whole family liked it, but I think I was the only one who could have kept eating it without complaining.
When I showed Caroline these squash (and the big one from last week) she groaned and said “I think I’m almost ready to eat squash again”. Stay tuned for recipes and ways we end up using squash this year!
Most of our squash (and related friends) have been pretty bushy, but a couple of them have started putting out runners. This one is one of the straighter ones. It looks like it wants to just crawl right across the yard. I think this one is a pumpkin, but I don’t know for sure yet.
