Our garden "bounty"

Our garden "bounty", a photo by Sesser on Flickr.

Last spring, Mr. Happy and I decided that it was time to plant a garden. With the rising price of food in mind, we rented a rototiller and Mr. Happy set to work tilling the bed. 

Never mind the argument we had about the placement of the garden (an argument that only took 5 months for Mr. Happy to concede I should have won. Ahem), and never mind the incessant rainfall, we thought it might be a good way to supplement our "stores".

We planted carrots, onions, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, beets, green and yellow beans, sugar snap peas, lettuce and a couple tomato plants.

The carrots and onions grew, though only a little. Despite their size they are still delicious and appreciated in the various dishes into which I've thrown them.

The red cabbage, though a bit neglected, did grow and was delicious. The brussel sprouts were steam rolled by a small boy and his wheelbarrow. The beets, well, that was a sad loss.

The beans, both yellow and green were picked and devoured quite readily.

We did our best to use the "natural landscape" of our yard wisely. We planted climbing things near our fences. The sugar snap peas flourished on the fence at the end of our driveway. They were a tasty temptation when we arrived home at the end of a work day.

We did learn a valuable lesson about the sugar snap peas, however, after eating handfuls of the delicious pods raw: They are extremely hard on your mouth if eaten in large amounts. I spent a week at the cottage in "SSP addiction recovery" waiting for the skin in my mouth to return to normal. It turns out, they are still quite delicious if served lightly steamed.

The lettuce was the crowning glory of our garden and heartily fed many guests at our table over the summer. We hauled table and chairs outside at every opportunity and set about pretending we were dining on a backyard patio under a Tuscan sun. In actuality we were in our own backyard, surrounded by our ugly metal fence, near a busy street and under a Haligonian sky (though that setting does have its own charms).

Our lessons for next year are as follows:

• Improve the soil.
• Move the garden or cut the tree (hence the springtime argument).
• Get the seeds/plants in the ground earlier.
• Pray for more sun and less rain, yet encourage child to water plants in a gentle manner.
• Remind toddler how to walk in the "valleys". between the rows and not across the "hills" with his wheelbarrow.
• Make the garden bigger MORE MORE MORE!
• Plant squash (oh wait, we did. It died.)
• Plant pumpkins (pumpkin shortage in the city this year)
• Do something to that dreadful fence.
• Invite more friends over to enjoy our garden bounty with us, however small.