Watching Our Gardens Grow

Over the past couple of months we have planted some tomato plants, carrot seeds, some herbs and 3 kinds of lettuce.  It’s amazing how the first few weeks everything looks like it will never amount to anything that  you can put on a table and actually thrive from and then all of a sudden, there it is.  This past week I have been able to go outside daily and pick  lettuce for the base of our dinner salad.  While romaine tends to be tricky here in South Florida (it gets too hot and the lettuce “bolts” or begins to flower and it gets too bitter) we have had some success with ours as well as with the butter crunch.  While I could see no way the iceberg was going to actually grow into heads, there they are, 2 on each plant.  The highlight, however, is the red leaf lettuce which is plentiful as well as beautiful and delish!  We haven’t harvested any of the tomatoes yet, but we have quite a few of them in the green and growing stages.  Carrot tops look lush as we built up the soil as per Green Thumb, Ted’s suggestion.  Admittedly, I did not put much effort into this year’s garden but am pleased to see that between Mother Nature, remembering to water most days and some homemade compost mixed in the soil, the gardens are kind of doing their thing on their own.  For many reasons, it is an awesome feeling to eat the food you grow!

As Derek turns 28 tomorrow, gulp, we look forward to celebrating tonight, with whichever members of the VFT posse are in town.  It’s one celebration after another around here this time of year.  Does it get better than that?  I think NOT.

Just as we have watched our gardens grow so beautifully, so have we watched our boys grow into wonderful, men.  Just one more reason to celebrate.

I’ll be at Tamarac Fitness Center today to sub Ellen’s 10 am SilverSneakers class.  Tomorrow, at 11:30 and Monday we are back to our regularly scheduled classes.