Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I did it!

I grew something in my garden, and then I ate it before a rat did!

Those of you have been following my gardening woes know that last year, my maiden voyage of front-yard gardening, was a complete and resounding failure. All of my plants died, and not one produced any sort of food. This year, I tried some new tricks, but it looked like my garden might still follow a similar course. First of all, it was, once again, really hot and dry this summer, but I was much more diligent about watering than I was last summer. Second, I actually planted these plants in the soil, instead of just in large pots.

Anyhow, things started off with a whimper, as my zucchini plant shriveled up and died in less than a week. But my tomatoes were growing steadily taller, and my peppers weren't shrinking, so that seemed like a good sign. And in August, something exciting happened: I saw an actual tomato on one of my tomato plants! It was still tiny and green, so I decided to wait for it to grow/ripen. That ended up being a mistake, because the day I finally went out to pick it, I discovered that a large bite had been taken out of it! Oh Noes! My conclusion was that a rat had eaten my tomato. I was a bit discouraged.

Then came September and the floods. Not literally, but almost. We had a whole heck of a lot of rain the last part of summer/early part of autumn. The result: my peppers started to grow! And yesterday, I was finally able to enjoy the fruits of my labor when I ate a banana (I think) pepper grown in my own front yard! I ate it in a quesadilla, for anyone wondering. It was delicious!
This is not an actual picture of the pepper I grew in my yard, by the way. I tried to get of picture of that, but my camera is dead, and going to the store to buy batteries was not something I wanted to do. But this gives you a pretty good idea. 

So that's my success story. I also have a bell (I think) pepper growing, and I'm really hoping that I get to eat it before it dies or gets eaten my rodents. My goal for next year is to be able to eat at least 3 things from my garden. Any gardening tips, faithful readers?

Saturday, October 8, 2011

I'm famous!

Because I am mentioned in a very fancy pants book blog!

But first, some background. This blog was written by my pen pal. That's right, I have a pen pal! I'm cool like that. Seriously, though, I never had a pen pal when I was a kid (when most people have/get pen pals). But I always thought it might be cool, so when the lovely ladies at FYA (a site I have mentioned here before) started a pen pal club, I signed up immediately.

Anywho, now I have a pen pal. And her name is Meredith! I know what you're thinking, but it's not me writing myself letters so I will feel popular. It's actually another person whose name is also Meredith! She lives near Boston, and in spite of the name of her blog, is not a librarian. So you can see that we are, in fact, two separate individuals. But she's awesome, and a totally great pen pal. Every time I get a letter from her in the mail, it puts a big smile on my face. There's just something about getting mail, and getting mail from someone who is only my friend through the United States Postal Service. Hopefully we will be pen friends for a very long time.

There you have it! My 15 minutes of fame! BTW, in case you haven't already done so, now is the time for you to go back and read the fancy pants book blog that mentions me. I'll wait. Welcome back! I wish that my blog about pen pals could be as clever and filled with action figures as hers, but let's be honest. Even if I had action figures, I could not put them on this blog. My camera's batteries are dead.