Well Now She Knows

My mom gardened almost all my years of growing up.  She would try to get me to help her plant and weed the garden.  I did not want to.  I usually would after being threatened.  But I hated helping.  We later realized I had a brown thumb.  Nearly everything I planted died.  I once tried to grow beans in a pot and they died.  Probably the easiest thing to grow and it dies.  My little sister, on the other hand, everything she touched grew wonderfully.

I could not find a picture of my mom in the garden.
But both pictures have the garden in the background.

Every year my mom planted tomatoes, peas, and a variety of other vegetables.  I didn't really care about anything but the peas.  I love fresh off the vine sweet peas.  I would go out in the garden and hide behind the wall of pea vines and eat peas.  I always thought my mom knew what I was doing even though I tried to hide.  A couple years ago I told my mom about it.  She said she thought her crop of peas for those years were just bad, and the crop the year I went to college was fantastic.  Well now she knows.

I did have one thing I liked to grow - strawberries.  But weeds were always a problem with strawberries.  I came up with a great idea of how to keep the weeds out of the strawberries.  We had a large tractor tire that we used to use as a sand box.  We filled it with dirt and planted the strawberries.  We never had problems with weeds again.  But we did have problems with the birds eating the strawberries.  I think my mom fixed this problem by draping a screen over the top.  Fresh strawberries are almost as good as the peas.

I now have my own garden.  I live in a rather small upstairs apartment, so a traditional garden won't work for me.  So I have a container garden.  I bought a couple rubber feed pans (for cattle) and planted peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, squash & zucchini.  I also have tomatoes, basil, mint, blueberries and garlic in pots.  With container gardening you don't have to pull weeds.  I love it.  I also love going out the back door to pick fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and mint.  My basil hasn't faired too well.  I think it's getting burnt up.  My blueberry bush will not produce this year.  I hope it will next because that's Lance's favorite fruit.  The eggplant is taking quite some time to produce and get very big.  And of course Lance loves the peppers.  I just wish I could grow limes and avocados.  It's just too cold here.

I recently found a recipe for guacamole that is perfect.  I think I could eat it everyday.  The fresh tomatoes make it even better.

Guacamole
2 Avocados
2 Tbsp chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt

Mash the avocados and mix in the remaining ingredients.


It's perfect on so many things - tacos, burgers, veggies, chips, your finger...