Growing Pains

This spring I planted a vegetable garden.  I decided to start small (very uncharacteristic of me - usually I start projects too big and then feel overwhelmed).  I enlisted the help of the Darling Husband and asked him to build me a 4 ft. by 6 ft. box to start with.  We went to Lowe's, got the lumber and lag bolts, and in no time he had the box built.  He ordered dirt, filled it for me, and then we went to the Farmer's Market where I bought four varieties of peppers and four varieties of tomatoes for the garden.  I absolutely ADORE fresh tomatoes, and I love making and canning homemade salsa, so this is a salsa garden.  I bought grape tomatoes (which I eat like grapes!), Sweet 100's which are cherry tomatoes (good for salads or eating) and some Early Girls and Better Boys for the salsa.  I bought jalepeno peppers, Hungarian wax peppers, a red bell pepper, a yellow bell pepper, and an orange bell pepper.  I also bought a flat of marigolds to plant around the perimeter to keep the rabbits away.

Here's how it looked when I planted it:

Things went along pretty well for 10 days or so, and then I left for a lacrosse tournament and college road trip with the Oldest Son.  We drove 2,000 miles and had a ton of fun.

We visited Penn State University (above), Lehigh University, Georgetown University, sweated our butts off walking around D.C. for a bit, took pictures of the White House, and then headed to Annapolis for the tournament.  We were there for two days, and boy was it hot and humid!  I stayed in an Aloft Hotel in Hanover, MD, near Annapolis.  It was very cool - I highly recommend.  Here are some pics...

BTW, I would just like to say that the Darling Husband and I had this SAME IDEA for refillable shampoo/conditioner and body wash dispensers in hotels rather than throwing away a barely-used-plastic-wrapped-soap and two little half used bottles of shampoo and conditioner a LONG TIME AGO!  Sheesh - next time I am going to act on one of my brilliant ideas.  Anyway, I hope that more hotel chains adopt this - it is way more economical and good for the environment.

On the way home from the tournament the Oldest Son and I stopped at Ohio State University.  Wow - that was a tough one for this University of Michigan grad, but they have a good lacrosse team and it was on our way home... kind of. 

It had rained a lot while we were gone and the garden had really grown.  A lot.  In fact, I forgot how much tomato plants grow.  They were so cute and little when I planted them.  They got huge and leggy while I was gone.  I got some tomato cage stake thingys to stake them up, but it was still really crowded, so I dug two of them out of the middle and had to make a little side garden.  Next year, two boxes for sure!  Maybe four?  (Here I go again...)

The Darling Husband just asked how my garden was, and I showed him the picture.  He thinks we should build another box right now.  I love his can-do attitude!  If he builds me another box, I wonder if I could get some lettuce going?  I will have to look into this...

Finally, on the subject of growing things and summer, don't you just love fresh tomato and basil on sandwiches?  Mmm...

Yum.