SUMMER GARDEN VEGGIES

Last year, Adam and I used containers for our small garden veggies. And though these giant plastic containers worked fabulously, we started dreaming bigger this year with an in ground raised bed.

One day this March when the weather had warmed enough for Adam to wear shorts and a tshirt (I was still adorned in long pants and a sweatshirt) we started working on our raised bed garden. Together we cut lumber, drilled holes, set nails, and made a box for our summer bounty. Next, we tilled the land, an unconventional task on this island.  (An island that sits out in the middle of the Atlantic like a sitting duck. The farthest east you can go in the United States. Go any further and your likely to run into the Bermuda Triangle and be spit out the other side with tales of sea monsters and gods.)We dug many feet of sand out of the earth, lined the box, sorted the sand, rid it of rocks, artifacts, and trash only to return the newly sorted sand in the last few hours of daylight. I added some compost, kitchen scraps mostly, and an old rotten pumpkin that had overwintered on my front stoop. It landed in a splat, seeds spraying everywhere. We covered the box with a tarp and went inside to rest.

The next few weeks were cold and windy. When it finally warmed again we uncovered the box to find a pumpkin patch (which reminded me of this pumpkin from last year that didn’t make it through the heat). Surprised as we were we dug up two little plants to save and then topped our garden off with a foot of black cow compost and rich soil. We replanted the pumpkins saved and other indoor and seeded plants: tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, watermelon, kale, squash and sunflowers! Watered thoroughly and watched them grow.

And my they grew and grew and grew.

Even the pumpkins covered under a foot of heavy wet soil grew up toward the sun and in between the tomatoes and converted the box into a pumpkin patch garden. As it stands today the pumpkins have outgrown the box, spilling over the sides into a new world.  Flowers and even veggies have started to form on the plants as Adam and I wait for our first bite of summer, wondering what it will be. Squash I suppose or maybe a sweet green tomato.