Our neighbors went out of town for a few days and left us in charge of their garden. It's a beautiful space and purely functional. They only grow what they don't already have in their pantry. Last year they focused on beans and tomatoes and canned/froze everything they grew. This year it's squash and cucumbers with only a few tomato plants to satisfy the craving for a fresh summer tomato. It's a way of gardening that is foreign to me. I like a little bit of everything in my garden and the excess is usually given away. My Pioneer ancestors would cringe at my waste and lack of food preservation. I do enjoy canning tomatoes, but the thought of growing all the produce first is overwhelming. I miss living close to my farmer relatives who had cheap overripe tomatoes I could harvest myself, and my mom close by with advice and a pressure cooker.
We had a good time harvesting, even if it wasn't our garden, and it gave me hope for our own produce in September and October. All children love finding hidden squash and cucumbers, even if they don't enjoy eating them. I'll use the next few days as our trial run. The boys were up early to help me search for veggies.
The best part about garden sitting?...
... a blueberry patch. Our kind neighbor informed me her freezer is bursting with berries from last year and we could help ourselves all summer. We can hardly wait. I'd never eaten a blueberry straight from the bush. A. MA. ZING!!
We felt like little Sal in Robert McCloskey's book, eating more than we actually put in our buckets. We talked about dew and plants, dirt and bugs, and of course, where to plant our own blueberry patch.
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