Jack Frosting

We’ve enjoyed lots of flowers this summer, including my Mother’s Day gifts of Mexican Sunflowers and Pansies from the twins and Joe, respectively.  We planted a wild flower mix in a few empty patches (used to be Hostas, but I got SO sick of them all over the place!) and had Zinnias, Stella Doras, pink Rose bushes, Geraniums, Petunias, mini Snap Dragons and Annabelle Hydrangeas.  It really was lovely at it’s peak. 

But… last night, ‘Jack Frosting’ visited and killed most of them.  The boys came home from school talking about Jack and how he brought you stuff.  “Yeah, like frosting!”  me: “You mean frost?”  Luke: “Oh.  Yeah.  Frost.”  It was a sad realization for little boys that must have been expecting an October St. Nick.

So, that was the end of my garden, too.  I had peas early on – they only amounted to 2/3 cup when all was said and done.  That’s a lot of work for something I can easily get at the freezer section for a dollar.  I also had cucumbers that were very plentiful until the massive rain and flooding in July.  They all just rotted on the vine, but before that, they growing up my big sunflowers.  It was fun to harvest them hanging off the flower stems!  I had lovely zucchini and squash plants, but for all of the room they took up in the garden, I got ONE yellow squash out of it.  My biggest successes overall were the lettuce in the early spring, my carrots that just kept growing all summer, cherry and pear tomatoes, and the beans.  For a while there (as in, up to yesterdays last harvest) I could get one meal’s worth of beans every few days.  The boys, surprisingly, loved them just steamed with nothing on them.  yay!  Most of the carrots made their way into lunch boxes and snack bags.  Can I say that there is something very satisfying about feeding your children something you’ve grown yourself?  Have farmers and gardeners throughout history already known this?  I know, I’m late to the show.