It's that time of year again

Last year, I didn't blog much about gardening despite ending up with a pretty rockin' garden. Energy that could/should/would have been spent on blogging instead went into the new puppy, dealing with the garden, dealing with the new house, etc, etc. Last summer was overwhelming.

My first priority was peas. I knew a "real" garden would take some work and planning and money and sun, but I could handle peas. (Please disregard the super-high-tech, dog-proofing twig fence; March 21, 2010):


The few that I got were pretty tasty. I didn't really "amend" the soil, and they didn't get as much sun as I'd hoped. And then Lucy (the new puppy) dug them up.

I brought a really beautiful strawberry plant home from the Union Square Greenmarket. It transplanted well into the sort-of-raised-bed (complete with amended soil) B created. But then one day I came home to this (June 25):


It was OK, though, because the rest of that garden had turned into this jungle (Lucy's in the back left. June 25):


We grew zucchini (July 7):


And purple green beans (July 7):


They turn green when cooked (Note super-duper-high-tech kitchen implement to keep half a bean out of boiling water; July 8):


An attempt was made at eggplant (July 7):


All seemed to be going well in Gardenland. Until... (July 12)


Something went wrong and bugs got into the zucchini. Not just the zucchini fruit, but into the vines themselves. I think they might have been some kind of borer. I remain the only person on earth unable to grow tons of zucchini.

Luckily, we had little hot peppers to distract us! Look at all those jalapeños trying to flip us off (July 12):


There was a tomato (July 12):


An ominous sky artsily framed with tomato blossoms (July 12):


And even more ominously, a wild dog with no regard for chicken-wire fences (July 12):


To be continued...