Garden + Voting = unrelated

Remember this? The garden we planted what seems like a year ago? I took this picture at the end of April when it was about a month into the growing process. Well, in spite of the negligence of its caretaker and the fact that it spent several months completely covered in 5 foot trees weeds, the garden is still thriving. Don't ask me how.

The squash and zucchini basically spontaneously combusted because I planted about 12 plants in a 2x4 foot area. However, this was not before they spit out a few squash and zucchini for us to taste. Here are a couple of tidbits of info that I have taken away from this experience....

1. It is easier go ahead and put in your tomato cages and poles for the cukes before they are actually full grown plants. Some may think this is common sense... anyway...

2. Squash and zucchini plants get REALLY large so they each need at least a 2 foot area to grow in. If you plant them too close, one day you will walk outside and find that they have completely split and grown as far away from each other as possible (literally over night), smashing some of your other plants. Then they combust. It's very strange.

3. Herbs are the absolute easiest to grow. My basil, parsley, rosemary, and especially the mint have thrived and are all still kickin. I have used the basil and rosemary the most. I decided that I do not like the taste of parsley, so, easy as it was to grow, I will not grow it again.

4. Water actually works. Shocking isn't it? I was really really bad about keeping the garden watered, especially in the time of stifling heat. It is a miracle that we still have any plants left. However, Ben recently started regularly watering the garden and it even brought back a squash plant that is now flowering! We are getting more jalapeno and bell peppers than we know what to do with and some basil spontaneously sprouted in the yard next to the garden. The water also brought back some of our tomatoes and strawberries that I thought were a goner. It was honestly weird.

5. If anyone reads this who is actually successful at gardening, could you please email me and let me know what you do with all of your produce? We got more tomatoes and peppers than we could eat. We gave some away but others just went bad. I hated that part.... I would appreciate any tips on how to save, cook or store the produce so it all gets eaten.

The thing about the garden that never ceased to amaze me was that I planted those little plants in the ground and then they gave me food. Every time I would bring in a tomato or pepper or an herb, I would be baffled over the fact that it even existed. I couldn't physically make the plants grow and produce fruit, it was the way God made them and they just did their job! The whole thing has been a wonderful learning experience and maybe one day I will have the discipline and knowledge to keep a garden growing in every season!

And now on to the unrelated.....

Today is voting day! I hate politics. I don't say much about politics on this blog because I don't see the point. In fact, I feel that the less I know about politics the better off I am because the less angry and stressed I am. I hate personal agendas and greed and just plain stupidity. I love this country and I think that we are very blessed to live here. I also think that the founders of our country who worked so hard to establish our great government would be very disappointed if they saw how things were going today.

Ok, that's all I can stomach to say about my thoughts on politics. All I know is that we need to pray for our country and pray for our leaders and pray that God will put the right people in charge. So, please pray.

Happy voting everyone!