Ambitous Gardener

There's nothing like a vine fresh tomato dribbling down your chin. One than you just rubbed the dust off of....

Well, you could call me an ambitious gardener. Every spring, I get very excited, eager really for the new planting season. I can just taste the fresh tomatoes, strawberries and corn. I feel the potatoes forming under the dirt. Mmmmm...I do love it.

So, every spring I start a bunch of veggy babies at my patio door, coaxing them out of their seeds. The kids spray them with water mist and talk gently. Generally the spinach crop does fine, we have fine salads made out of their tender leaves. Then the strawberries come up from their slumber and we have a few great handfuls of their sweetness.

As the season progresses into summer, that's when it becomes tough for our veggie babies. We live in Northern Nevada. As you can imagine, water is not a plentiful source, the sun bakes the clay/sand soil and the 4000' plus elevation is a bit tricky as well. Maybe I'm using all these things as excuses, as I've seen other people's gardens in the area flourish. Maybe it's really because the kids and I love the garden, but are busy enjoying other things too...

The aphids munch on my brussel sprouts and grasshoppers ravage the corn. The ants ate my watermelons and cantaloupes. After much fertilizing, my cucumbers produced on little fruit. Oh the woe of my little garden. So much prep and time put into it, but due to my lack of tending it as it should be every day for an hour...it has become a dry, shriveled mess.

So, the main conclusion I have came to is that next year we will have an abundance of sunflowers, several tomato plants, spinach, potatoes and carrots. There will be raspberries and grapes.  And a little herb planting. It will be a snacking garden!

*side note* The garden shown above is not mine. Similar, but not quite. I didn't have a photo of my own available before post. ; )