Allergies bring out the artist in me

Saturday was a family day at the garden. Since I'm under doctor's orders to steer clear of the weeds (oh, darn), poor Chris had to tackle the whole mess pretty much on his own. But the girls and I went along for moral support. Oh, and the adjoining playground may have had an influence on some people's decisions.

It looks much better now. Chris took out all his work-related stress on the three-foot-high weeds, and I think he feels much better now, too. The girls "helped" for a little bit, but the call of the playground is just too strong, so their tools were abandoned early on.

Thanks to my new wonder-meds (which really did work wonders for the itching and hives but unfortunately leave me feeling like I've been drinking coffee all day long) I'm in much better shape, and no one else seems to have developed any garden-related allergies, although Chris did have a run-in with a nest of angry ants.

As a result of our weed-friendly neglect, we didn't get to enjoy much (any, really) of the lettuce or spinach that we planted, we only picked a few bags full of peas rather than the gallons we envisioned, and the broccoli and cauliflower all went to seed, but the tomatoes are thriving (all 20 plants, whew!) and the zucchini and other squash don't seem to be too traumatized by the near-smothering they suffered. We also got a bumper crop of turnips, which all rotted in the fridge while we were in Alaska and during the 100+ degree weather right after, when it was too hot to do anything with them (what do you do with a bumper crop of turnips, anyway?) Our 20'x20' plot wasn't a complete waste this year, but we do hope to be able to pay more attention to it next year.

I love this time of year at the garden, though. Our plot is one of about 20 at the local community garden, and it's fun to wander through and be inspired by the more accomplished gardeners around us. So while Chris tackled the weeds, I walked around with the camera, and here's what I brought home with me:

This bee is on the garlic we didn't plant, which grew in our plot anyway.

I don't know what these vines are, but I like how they look.

This is called a walking onion. They're slightly scary and completely awesome at the same time.

Can't wait for this year's salsa and tomato soup!

Blackberries grow wild on the back fence of the garden, so we've enjoyed a plentiful bounty for free. They go great with Tillamook Vanilla Bean ice cream, just FYI.

These cool-looking flowers belong to the vines above. Some kind of bean, maybe?

In fact, apart from produce, people have planted a lot of awesome looking flowers.



I have no idea what this thing is, but it looks really Dr. Seuss-ish. I kind of want to give it a hug.

We bought sunflower seeds this year, but to my knowledge never planted any. However, about 8 sunflowers, ranging in size from ginormous to only as tall as me, have grown in our plot, undeterred by that fact.



Ah, yes, this allergy has been a blessing in disguise. Just think of the beauties I could share with you if I were allergic to housework, too.