Garden News

The summer garden is in full swing. While I've had some set backs; the dog eating some plants, a couple stink bugs eating the 'matos, a few plants getting burnt in the sun, sprouts not sprouting, things are going fairly well in my little seventy square feet of city dirt.

When I dug up the ground that was covered with creeping grass and a multitude of weeds and laid down my simple garden frames, I knew I was in for some weeding since I didn't use anything to kill off the unwanted growth. So far it hasn't been too bad. Some stray grasses and weeds poke through here and there, some worse than others but a quick pull and they're gone. If I stay on top of it, it's really not a problem.

But somewhere during the earth turning and seed planting, I got an unexpected surprise. A shoot came up near the snap peas and lemon grass, a place I didn't plant anything and I didn't know what it was. It didn't look like a weed.

I have very limited plant knowledge but this didn't seem to be something I wanted to yank out just yet. It wasn't close enough to harm the other plants by choking them out so I let it be. I could always pull it later. Plus I had a fair idea of what it could be.

It grew. It vined. It got little flowers on it. And yesterday I found this.

And this.

These are the kind of funny things that happen when you garden with kids and don't crouch over them, watching like a hawk that they do everything exactly as you tell them. Seeds get planted that you don't know about and you get plesant surprises in the form of baby watermellons. Watermellon being one of Emmy's favorite food groups, I'm really hoping these babies thrive and she gets to savor the labors of her works. Even if they weren't what was intended.