How Quickly They Grow

Yes, that's a tiny little tomato growing along with some fellow blooms. It's amazing to me that a couple of weeks, a little rain, and lots of sunshine can make such a difference in the garden. It was just a short time ago that these tomatoes plants were barely big enough to need baskets. Now they are taller than the baskets and producing fruit. Fresh from the garden homegrown tomatoes are the absolute best in my opinion. I love a BLT sandwich, but add a fresh tomato to the sandwich and it's gourmet fare for me! I can't wait until they are bigger and get ripe. There is bruschetta, fresh tomato sauce, tomato basil and feta pizza, grilled cheese with tomato, basil, and oregano, and many more dishes to be made with wonderful tomatoes. I can remember not liking tomatoes as a child. I truly believe that there are some tastes that we must grow into to fully appreciate their value. Tomatoes are that taste for me. Come on darlings, grow and ripen!

Not only are my tomatoes plants getting bigger by the day, but so is the cantaloupe. We only planted one due to space issues, but that plant is making the most of the space allowed. It has multiple blooms so hopefully we'll get several cantaloupes from it. Jason likes his cantaloupe with vanilla ice cream. But then, he pretty much likes anything with ice cream! My favorite is just a slice with a sprinkle of black pepper on it. Black pepper may seem weird to pair with cantaloupe, but the flavor contrast is wonderful. The slight spice from the pepper complements the sweet melon. Only a few more weeks, and we should be harvesting them as well as many other plants. Until now we haven't done much more than water, weed, and kill aphids. It's about to be a busy summer!

Sudden Sunflower

The other day while weeding the garden I came upon this little guy. Just before I plucked him out of the ground I noticed he's not a weed. That's a sunflower! A couple of years ago Jason and I grew several giant sunflowers and they were absolutely beautiful. We so enjoyed the bees buzzing around the large sunflower heads. And as the heads dried we were able to watch the birds feast. One afternoon we looked out to see a squirrel sitting on the fence munching away at the sunflower seeds. The squirrel even took off with it! If the squirrel buried it there may have been a giant patch of sunflowers growing somewhere.

This year we've not yet planted our sunflowers. We plan to, just haven't quite gotten to it yet. That's why I decided to let this one continue to grow next to the squash plant. Jason and I assume that it was accidentally planted by one of our bird friends. I know that I'll eventually have to move it or just pull it up. But for now, it's just nice to see a sunflower growing again.