The garden is exploding. Sun in the morning and rain in the afternoon makes for a flourishing garden. The peas are more than plentiful. The potatoes are so vigorous the few potato beetles I spot are inarguably losing the battle. My eggplants are gorgeous specimens and the rainbow chard is just beautiful. Oh, and the coreopsis, poppies, roses, penstimon (Huskers Red- there is nothing like it!) and hydrangeas are traffic stoppers.
Now that I have bragged about my garden sufficiently enough to jinx myself, I must tell you about the disappointments. My pepper plants are just not growing. I hope after giving them a dose of fish emulsion and a layer of compost they catch up to the rest of the garden. My gherkin cucumbers, I was so excited about pickling this year, are truly pathetic. What did germinate is barely visible having been eaten by cucumber beetles. And I have officially given up on my larkspur and blue bread seed poppies germinating.
I stood knee deep in weeds this afternoon, looking at holes in the kale leaves and dwarfed melon plants that need to grow fast, because we have such a short season. I felt overwhelmed. Then my daughter shrieked with joy at finding the first ripe sungold tomato and a few minutes later I spotted the first dragon langerie beans. I picked a bouquet of flowers, radishes, mesclun and raspberries for dinner and was again filled with satisfaction. It is so easy to see all the work that needs to be done, but it feels so good to take pleasure in all the sweet offerings a garden has to give, which as gardeners, you know are abundant.
