Garden Progress & My Sister's Birthday

This is my favorite younger sister, well, she is my only sister, LOL, but truly she is a special person.  And she is the best sister anyone could ever hope for, beautiful inside and out!   Today is her birthday, but I won't be seeing her because we are in separate states.  So HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sister, I love and miss you!  Big giant hugs to you and lots of birthday kisses!!!

Sister, this song is for you, You Are Woman!!!  We are strong, we are invincible, we are women!!!

On to the garden...it is growing beautifully, though we are clearly behind most folks' garden growth, we just started late:)  The fact that it is raining every day, (woo hoo, this is a good thing) therefore the sun is often behind clouds and doesn't shine on things much during the day to help them grow big and strong, (not such a good thing, but we are grateful for the rain!) may be contributing to our slow growth. 

We spent some time a few days ago, giving the garden a thorough weeding, as it had become difficult to tell what was a growing edible and what was a weed (I'm sure all the rain helped with that).  We also laid straw around all the plants.  We were very happy with the results, and I do believe the plants were as well!

My exciting news is that  we have bush beans that I have harvested...5 to be exact, ha ha.  It surprised me that we already had beans when the largest plant is only about 8 inches tall! (This picture was taken before we laid all the straw.) Small little fellows, to be producing beans, an opinion based on my lack of gardening history. 

These are the 5 beans, we ate eat them raw with our dinner tonight and I have to tell you, they were scrumpdilyitious! Yes indeed, there is nothing better than fresh veggies grown yourself with no junk included!

I also harvested my first Hakurei turnip; small but I could not help myself...I saw it peaking above the soil and had to see what it looked like under that ground.  You can be sure we will eat both the turnip and the greens:), though I did not prepare this for dinner tonight, we had a "raw" meal:), I will be figuring out how to prepare this tomorrow...any suggestions?  (remember I only have 1 right now)

One snow pea is developing a flower, which is also surprising because they are still small stringy things, but I am beside myself with joy.  Speaking of, I thought I would share that I do indeed yelp with delight when I find something new in the garden, it is like coming across something new your child has learned or is doing, exciting and a prideful moment!  It is the simple things...:)

And our three sisters garden is coming along beautifully, with the pole beans beginning to wrap themselves around the corn...(I am absolutely, positively sure this is in honor of my sister's birthday today!)...it is so awesome that the beans just know to grow around the corn!

I am happy with our garden growth and continuing to enjoy the process very much!  Stay tuned for "As the Garden Turns"...

One closing thought for those people in Aurora, Colorado affected by the shooting; our thoughts are with you for healing and peace. 

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise