Happy Summer Solstice!

In honor of the first day of summer, I thought I'd share a little garden update with you. I'll have to be honest... Chris and I are probably the worst gardeners ever. After the initial excitement of planting our own garden, things slowed down a bit. Every couple of days or so, we would check on the garden's progress, mumble something about needing to weed, and wander back inside.

Last weekend, we finally got out to the garden for some much-needed tilling, weeding, and watering. It took two days of work and my knees suffered, but I'm glad we finally got out there. For some reason (frost, perhaps?) our cucumber and watermelon seeds never sprouted, so I replanted them... hopefully the land isn't cursed and we see some sprouts soon. Other than that, our little garden is doing surprisingly well.

The sugar snap peas are probably my favorite plant so far -- their flowers are so pretty and I can't wait till the peas are ripe and plump!

Hello, baby Roma tomatoes. These are Christopher's favorite. Our first tomato plants took a frost-beating about two weeks after planting. We planted two more to be on the safe side, but the original plants survived. Looks like I'll be making lots of bruschetta this season...

I told you I love these pea plants! Look at those little curlies. Cute, cute.

The mulberry trees by the river are also starting to ripen. Chris and his family don't particularly seem to care for the berries' flavor and woody stalks, but I like them. I'm wondering if I can find a use for them that everyone can enjoy. Some sort of pie or cobbler? Mulberry jam? Mulberry-orange muffins?

Our yellow squash and zucchini plants are doing well (from what I can tell, at least) and the green onion bulbs we transplanted have firmly taken root. The cilantro plants are healthy but sparse -- from the packet of 20+ seeds, only 5 tiny plants have sprouted. My guess is that we buried them too deep. From what I can tell, though, cilantro plants grow up and out. Hopefully we'll have plenty for summer guacamole and other Mexican-inspired dinners.

If you can, get outside and enjoy the longest day of the year. Southern Michigan has thunder storms in the forecast, but Chris and I are hoping that the rain holds off until after dinner... grilled burgers and corn on the cob. I love summer.