Garden Party

I thought nothing would grow -- as new homeowners, I feared we'd turn the front yard into a wasteland of wimpy carrot tops and inch-high broccoli.

Apparently I was wrong. The garden's far from perfect (I wish I had more variety, and more of everything), but it's definitely growing. The last two weekends I've filled the Yard Waste bin with heaps of who-knows-what, enormous weeds that sprouted up uninvited and threatened to take over the "real" vegetation.

The actual foodstuffs: We have enough chard, lettuce, and arugula to actually eat regularly.

The fennel (top right, in collage below) is growing successfully -- which is great, considering I stuffed it carelessly into a broken pot in the corner of the garden and then forgot about it. The broccoli is mostly huge leaves, but seems promising.

We ate all the radishes before I thought to plant more, and I accidentally "weeded" the beets (oops). But the carrots might be fabulous -- they're teeny, but I needed to thin them and the few I pulled out were barely bite-sized.

Last year's enthusiastic gardener left us blueberry and strawberry plants, each with more teeny fruits than I expected. The one red, ripe strawberry mysteriously disappeared -- I suspect squirrels or the newspaper delivery person.

Tomatoes are what I really want. My six plants should be more than enough, but they're slow to grow. I realize it's only June, but I'm impatient. I want last year's surplus.