messiest (and best?) garden ever.

future potatoes

volunteer spinach and lettuce!

This is the first year that I have not flipped the soil of the entire garden at the beginning of the season. I had a little patch of garlic where I managed to get bulbs in the ground in the fall (for the first time ever) and a bunch of grass and weeds. Then my daughter planted some zucchini in little pots (with help) and then we cleared out little spots for them in amongst the weeds. Today I cleaned out a row under the bean trellis and planted beans. I also cleaned out little spots for yellow squash, butternut squash, watermelon, sweet melon, and pumpkins. There is a big messy spot in the middle waiting for tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants that I will have to buy this year unless the plant fairy helps me out again. So its the laziest garden year ever - in between the plants are some weeds, but there are also fun surprise volunteers - spinach, lettuce, carrots and what might become a forest of basil (yay buckets of pesto!) because I let bunches of things go to seed. So, if I hadn't let everything go to seed and I had flipped all the soil, I wouldn't have all these extra goodies. So, I am happy about it. But it is preeetty ugly. Most people wouldn't want to share a picture. Is that a garden?

There are a lot of firsts in the ground for me this year: butternut squash, potatoes, and pumpkins! I know, how is it I haven't grown pumpkins and butternut squash?