unexpected garden

I have this first-year plot at friend Anne's house, and since it is 30 miles away, I don't get there every day. I have been there recently, hoeing and picking lettuce and bolting broccoli. Today I finished the hoeing, doesn't look half bad for a first year, mostly untended plot, as far as I am concerned anyway!

However, while I was working today I discovered a surprise. Actually several... There were a few snap peas, one of which I ate and the rest were brought home for salad tonight, along with another couple of baby broccoli. The coles (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts) I seem to remember as heavy feeders -- not necessarily wanting fresh manure, but they do seem to need more than this garden -- which was unfertilized lawn last year and for many years past -- has to offer. Well, no biggie... I am glad for anything that grows. This garden was mostly symbolic, to let the Powers That Be know I wanted to stay, to help keep me sane while we look for a house, and so on. I was honestly not sure that the seeds and plants would still know that, when I put them in the ground, they were supposed to GROW... it's been that long since I had a serious garden!

But the surprise... of all the veggies I expected to grow well in Maine ... of all the veggies I have strugged with and had little success in places where they were known to grow well... I would never have expected to find not one, but SEVERAL baby bell peppers on my plants! This little guy is an Ace.

And until recently the tomatoes were looking pretty pathetic. Some of them still do, compared to the best ones in Anne's patch, but these little Celebrities are at least getting ready to give it a go!

The wild things are getting productive too. On the way back from Anne's after a trip to a local pick-your-own strawberry farm, I stopped to take a share of St. Johns Wort flowers that the bees were working.

And I have to share a shot of my berry picking efforts. They are mostly now frozen, though we enjoyed shortcake one night and have a quart in the fridge to eat from. They were great on this morning's oats!