Garden 2012

Last summer was our first attempt at gardening -- just a few potted herbs and pepper plants. It didn't go well, thanks to the drought and high temps and our inexperience. In the fall, Tony built a 4x4 raised bed, and we tried sowing some seeds. That didn't work out, either. We got a few sad little carrots and nothing more. We were starting to get depressed about our black thumbs. But we figured we would give it another try this summer and, so far, we are doing a lot better. 

The cherry tomato plant is producing like crazy. We've already had about 20 ripe cherry tomatoes, and there are dozens more on the vine. There is nothing like a garden-fresh tomato. The ones from the supermarket just do not compare.

We have two regular tomato plants, and they are full of green tomatoes right now. Since I've already made fried green tomatoes, I'll let these ripen.

We also have serrano and jalapeno peppers, cilantro (it wasn't doing well from the start, so we're letting it go to seed), orange mint, and two basil plants.

I love having all the fresh basil I want. The other night I made Fusilli with Potatoes, Green Beans and Lemon Creme from Vegan on the Cheap, topped with lots of chopped basil. I used penne instead of fusilli. The kids loved this dish! It makes way more than 4 servings like the recipe says, but the leftovers got eaten up.

I didn't know there were different varieties of mint. The nursery was sold out of regular mint plants. They had apple mint and orange mint. I went with orange. With my first bunch of leaves that I picked, I made mint chocolate chip banana soft serve. Yum!

Are you growing anything this summer?