Fruits of My Labor

Inspired by my friend Erika's quest to grow all her own food, I decided to plant a garden this year. I was very excited and spent a lot of time planning it, buying sprouts and seeds, and managing Lance while he did all the actual work to dig up the plot. How did it go? Well, it is still early, but let's look at the evidence so far...

My garden.

Now, in case you have never had a garden and your first instinct is to say "Wow! It looks like some things are growing!", allow me to present my neighbor's garden, aka. what a real garden looks like in july:
Lest you think his garden was a freak occurance, here is my other neighbor's garden:


I now have multiple books on gardening and am starting an intense study for next summer. I think I am even going to start to compost. I'm not very optimistic about my green thumb... I thought it was bad luck, but now that I am looking with a critical eye...

My neighbor throws out a packet of wildflowers -

I carefully choose, plant and tend to these lovely potted plants adorning my front porch -

I am (obviously) not an expert, but I am starting to admit to myself that it might not be the garden, but the gardener : )