Riot and Frolic

After I walked in the door from vacation and dropped my seventeen bags in the entry, I glanced into the backyard and saw the garden.  I mean, The Garden.

It had grown.

view from the weeds

The pumpkins have kicked the sugar snap peas out of the trellis.  "Squatters," the pumpkins tell me, of the pea plants.  I think they're The Garden bullies.  The orange and white varieties are teaming up, though, so they're just mean, not racist. 

the bullies

One of the zucchini twins is producing edibles, the other is holding off.  They seem cooperative like that, taking turns and whatnot.  They don't have great camaraderie with their neighbors since they plotted with the pumpkins to terminate the sunflowers.  The tomatoes are getting nervous. 

the bigger twin

The tomatoes decided to become the brown-nosers and generate as much fruit as possible (for protection's sake), since they heard me talking about how I "just want some tomatoes" one afternoon in the spring.  Class favorites, they're tall (bigger than a 3 year old), dark (so much foliage), and handsome (loads of flowers and mini tomatoes).

here here here and here

I really need to get in there and lay the smack down on those pumpkins and zucchinis (most people would call it "pruning"), but frankly, I'm a little frightened.  The pumpkins have wrapped their little climbing spirals around everything and have spread out of the bed and into the murky, weedy territory by the garage. The zucchini leaves are HUGE and a bit prickly and there are so many BUGS.  I mean, what IS this?

too big to be cute, friends with, or squash

Why can't I have a magically tidy garden like this one?

On the plus side, I harvested a couple more zucchini and they do look delightful.  

your mama is scary

So, lose, win, win?

How does your garden grow?  Did you try and fail?  Have epic success with cantalopes?  Mediocre herbs?  Are you a flower or vegetable gardener or do you do both?  

beets. bears. battlestar galatica