Garden 2009

We've really loved having a garden this summer in our new backyard. With daily attention from Sam (see below), we have grown tomatoes, squash, watermelon, raspberries, strawberries, peppers, plums and apricots.

It all started out very humbly last spring:
But within a few weeks, just look at that squash and tomatoes:
We haven't tried a watermelon yet, but they are getting bigger daily:

Funny enough, the watermelon and squash plants have taken over the lawn, so I stopped mowing that part a few weeks ago:
And what started as four little tomato plants has turned into a giant tangle. A few weeks ago we had to buy reinforcement tomato cages in the form of a wire fence around the plants (barely visible below):
Now we have a ton of tomatoes just waiting to be picked:
"Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force growing his own hemlock. A man toting a sack of manure across his lawn is akin to Atlas letting the world spin on his shoulder . . . dig in the earth, delve into the soul. Spin those mower blades, and walk in the spray of the Fountain of Youth. End of Lecture."

(-Ray Bradbury from Dandelion Wine, one of the all-time greatest novels about American Summers)