True Confessions Continued

I spent a lot of time being upset that my cilantro seeds weren't actually cilantro. Until one day, they suddenly sprouted the characteristic scalloped leaves I was expecting. There should be something on the seed packet telling you what the sprouts look like so you don't weed them.

This is what my little garden patch looked like in early June. I was excited that my bean seeds were germinating.
The innocuous looking plants on the left are cantaloupe vines. They say they need 4 feet, they lie.

The bean plants are now thick enough to hide my pepper plants. The same kindly neighbor who told us that our carrot seeds washed out of their planting row, also delivered some kind of contraption to force order on our bean plants. I feel guilty that these gate like things are still sitting in my garage, but I am not sure how to use them.

The cantaloupe have become the "thing that ate the northeast corner". Luckily, our neighbor doesn't live in her house our we would get complaints. Apparently cantaloupe do NOT respect fence lines.

I am so excited that little cantaloupe are trying to grow. Of course, most of them are on the vines that grew up the fence, and they will soon reach a point where they are too heavy and will fall. I am a little sad about that.

From deep inside our cantaloupe wilds, some brave carrot seeds refuse to be denied. Now I need someone to tell me when to pick them. As a root vegetable, I can't see the important part and I just don't know when they are done.

A harvest at last! Our tri-color bush beans are prolific. I will not bother with wax beans again next year (I have gotten 4 beans from them so far). We had a lot of fun picking these beans, and Elspeth was enthusiastic about eating purple beans. I forgot that they cook up green, and the romance was lost in heating . . .
Adwen didn't wait for cooking. She gobbled up the first purple bean that came her way and reminded me that this is why I am learning how to garden. So my kids can learn what a real bean tastes like. I didn't appreciate my parents going to all the trouble, and I expect my kids won't either (at least not any time soon), but when they eat something that has not been virtually stripped of all nutrients by rushed growing seasons or extended processing, it is totally worth every second.

Next year I am already planning a garden extension . . .