Who in the hell is Bruce?

In our first summer as a married and co-habitating couple my husband and I decided to build a garden. We certainly are making an effort at this whole domestic thing if nothing else. Bruce The Garden is approximately 16 feet x 2 feet, so he's not very large but certainly large enough for two people. (And of course one chocolate lab mix who enjoys munching on "salads" when he's left alone outside.) For those of you who chose social work or related fields, much like myself, due to math skills that resemble a fifth grader's, essentially it's very long, and not very wide -- it's just right. Thank you Goldilocks.

When I began to plant sometime at the beginning of May or thereabouts, I realized that I didn't read any of the seed packages prior to actually starting to physically plant the garden, why would I do that? I truly thought this whole garden concept was going to be a disappointment right way, as the recommendation on every package was to begin by planting the seeds indoors until they began to sprout. Crap. So in order to "compensate" for this mishap I decide to dig the holes as recommended and dump the vast majority of each package in. For those of you experienced gardeners, you are probably thinking, "Well wow, didn't you have vegetables on top of one and other?" Yep, sure did.

Surprisingly even with my ADD distracting me from reading directions and causing me to dump several seeds in one hole, (yes let's blame the ADD,) our garden turned out no worse off than expected. Our tomato plants, (Side note: at the time of purchase I assumed that the "Goliath" variety simply meant "big tomato,") turned out to be taller than my hips producing enough tomatoes for three large batches of pasta sauce from scratch, and contributed to many snacks and sandwiches for much of the summer. Our cucumbers which were the first to bloom, took over and we had approximately 20 during their "time to shine." We haven't tried any of our sweet peppers yet. Apparently when you plant vegetables from seed in May the chances of them blooming at the average time are slim to none. We are still working towards successful onions as well as carrots, so far we don't have much hope for the carrots but fingers crossed we'll see before the first frost. There has been a huge success with the hot peppers. While unfortunately they are stacked on top of one and other, they have truly thrived and we even discovered an additional variety last week. What type you ask? We have no idea, but we are going to add them to salsa to find out! We have a pumpkin plant that is truly taking over our backyard at this point, however, a photo of that will come later. At the end of the garden we have a small section for herbs. The basil and cilantro turned out fabulously. The parsley will serve as a topping for a chicken dish I'm experimenting with next week and that is probably all it will be good for as it has remained small however, I've come to terms with that.

Chives... now chives are a different topic. I planted them from seed, (of course) and when the didn't bloom with the rest of the herbs, I dumped more seeds in the area, why not?  A small amount began to grow and I really couldn't resist picking a few for baked potatoes one evening. They smelled delicious, however, didn't feel or look quite like the chives my parents grow at their house. Regardless, we ate them. A few weeks later, I went to pick another batch. They were taller and more thick at this point so when I brought them in the kitchen and washed them I noticed something... these weren't chives, but grass that had sprouted along with two very small chives! Epic fail. I fed myself and my husband grass on potatoes and almost did it twice. I suppose now when he tells everyone I feed him rabbit food he won't be lying. I'm clearly no gardeness, (hey it's my blog I can make up words,) however am learning as I go and can't wait to share more details about little Bruce soon!