Part of the Adult American Experience

I spent my childhood from 4-12 years old on 2.5 acres in rural Oregon (Barlow, to be exact). For a few years there, my parents had a large garden. The whole family was supposed to weed it. My dad was going to school at the time, and mom was supporting a family of 5 on a bus driver's income. Money was tight, and I suppose that was a pretty good reason to have a garden. I don't think that idea crossed any of us kids' minds, though.

The point is, I hated the garden. The sunflowers were pretty darn cool, but nothing else was worth caring about. The weeds grew, the veggies did ok, but it's because Roundup doesn't even kill things in this state. Everything grows in the Willamette Valley.

And now, I am proud to day that we have had 4 blueberry bushes for 6 years now. They hardly produce anything, but they are all alive. We have had 2 columnar apple trees for 5 years now. They were just about 2 ft tall when we planted them. Now they are 10 ft tall and are loaded with fruit. So we don't kill everything we try to grow. But our gardens have been a couple attempts that did not end well.

This year, I got the best spot in the back yard. The spot where the weeds grow fastest. And I tilled it and planted. Now I have sprouts and seedlings, which I now water with a soaker hose that I bought so they wouldn't die from the heat like our last garden did. And I am thrilled that they are mostly all growing.

The sweet cuc isn't too healthy. I'm hoping it recovers. The zucchini below seems to be a favorite of the slug population. This hill has lost its seedling leaves completely. The other 2 hills are fine, though. I'm hoping this one recovers.

The pumpkins are doing really well. I don't know what we're going to do with 4 pumpkin plants worth of stuff, but I expect we'll do something with them. The muncher cucs are don't too well, either. I don't know what their issue is. It may be that they are planted in a spot with too good of drainage. They seem to whither quickly. But they are looking better now than they were 5 days ago.

The yellow squash at the bottom appears to be happy, just not as robust as the zucchini or pumpkin. None of the cantaloupe have sprouted yet. Hope I get some - it's the only sweet thing I planted this year.