Get Dense: The Garden That Almost Wasn't

This post could have been titled, "OMG, What Am I Doing?" "The Garden That Volunteers Built," or "Phew"

. . .just to name a few.

Aaaand just to give you an idea of how much I'm learning (::cough, cough:: living by the seat of my pants!) each season.

This year I thought it'd be neat to have pumpkins in our front yard. Though, I didn't realize how much space two seeds would take up!

I know what you're thinking: Amateur.

And, you're right.

Some roses, mums, herbs, and whole lotta pumpkin vines and leaves!

At least we have some pumpkins actually growing. Three definitely, and perhaps two or three more.

This one (below) decided to start growing in the middle of the rose bush. I can't get it out now, and it's already torn up from the thorns. So there's that. Never mind the orange-y love I'd hoped would be visible from the sidewalk is covered in vines and leaves.

And here's a picture of our pepper plant.

(One of several of our volunteers this year.)

I didn't think I even planted peppers in the front yard. This is a pleasant surprise.

And here we have our very intentional, and majestic, sunflowers.

They seem to get taller every year! Say, about 11-12 feet, at least!

Okay, now comes the funny part. You know, the part where you laugh at me for being so...smart.

In our backyard we had a decorative area where hastas and other non edibles lived. My DH and I wanted to change that. So we planted greens--parsely, kale, cilantro--last year.

It turned out well, so this year I put compost there before planting. You know, compost with SEEDS in them.

Roughly about 42 cherry and grape tomato seeds, to be exact.

Wonderful, right? The grand irony? Canning regular Brandywine and Beefsteak tomatoes has been a learning curve for me. But canning CHERRY tomatoes?!? Yeah. I'm happy to take suggestions and receive links on what to do with all of these things!

Oh, and anyone happen to notice the RAIN this spring in the Northeast...and maybe everywhere north of the Mason Dixon? Just another reason why all the veggies have taken so long to harvest. I had to reseed 3 times!

That aside, one nice thing we didn't have to do was simply receive apples for the picking by our adjacent neighbor's yard.

No, we don't know them.

But if the branch is on our side, it's sorta "implied apple rights" . . .um, right?

And our cukes are lookin' pretty good. If the fall can just hold off for two more weeks, we will be harvesting these by the dozen.

Just kidding...we'd be very lucky to get a dozen. Or maybe a half dozen. Total.

One little lonely acorn squash is growing for us. I'd never seen or known what they looked like in a garden before this year.

I hope it grows a little bigger so I can make an acorn squash soup.

Our kale was meager, but our herbs did really well.

We're in the process of harvesting all the seeds for next year. A big thanks to my MIL for sending us a care package recently to contain and label all seeds for the winter.