While we did go briefly to Mexico, where Boombadeus got to finally see where I grew up, we have been hardworking on various things. One of them being our little 10′x20′ plot.

As summer starts, I start kissing most of my weekends goodbye. Weeds grow fast if not checked. Bugs attack at any given time. Plants develop and start shadowing others making you have to transfer or trim back.

But, after all the hard work, this is the delicious reward that you get:

for delicious salsa, and these

which are delicious caramelized  along with a steak; or perhaps these:

which can be made into a delicious salad like this one.

Not everything makes it though. We had a bout of flea beetles, and lost our broccoli rabe and broccoli to that. The green beans grew so healthily they blocked the light to the snap peas. A couple of cayenne peppers were lost somewhere in between the patty pan, which grew quite a bit larger than I was expecting.

But the best part is that I get to enjoy a lot of these:

(I’m planting more and more flowers to attract more pollinators to our little spot)

But you know what? it’s okay. I’ll enjoy what I got and as for the rest, I’ll give it a try again next year.

That’s what having a garden is like. Cycles of beautiful lush gardens, flowers and outdoors; cycles of harvesting the produce you’ve raised from seed and cycles of cold that are enjoyed indoors, baking cookies and getting ready for the next year.

Well, the newest cycle has begun. Our windowsills are being taken over by seedlings…and I can’t wait for it to get slightly warmer out!

*for some reason the word cycles doesn’t really have even half of the impact that ciclos has in me. Must have been a childhood full of those seasonal trucks coming down the dirt streets in Mexico with the guy in the back screaming “tomateeees” (tomatoes) or “sandiaaaa“(watermelon) that made me race to my parent’s side screaming “the -insert fruit name here- man is here!” while thinking of the treats that would be eaten later that day. Or it might just be a psychological, mother-tongue, sort of thing…like when I swear…

Last week I ordered from Amazon the book You Grow Girl! by Gayla Trail. I’ve followed Gayla’s blog for over a year now, and her handy “Lazy Gardener’s Automatic Seed Starting Chart” came in handy last year…

Our first year at the garden I started the tomato seedlings too late. I grew up surrounded by fruit trees in warmer, closer to the equator weather, so I didn’t know much about this “plant by” and “frost free” dates. Our second year I was more organized and the tomato crop was plentiful that we were able to share.

The book, hopefully (well, really depending on Amazon, which has been a little spotty lately), shall arrive just in time to start planting lettuce and greens and shall give me time on how to plan for placement of second season crops, rotations and placement of “pollinator attractors” (AKA flowers) and such.

My other reading materials so far have been an older-than-me but extremely useful copy of “Step-by-step to Organic Vegetable Growing” by Samuel Ogden (who Bear mentioned, at yesterday’s ForkYou taping, happened to be one of the pioneers of organic gardening) that I believe I got from Boombadeus’ mom.

I also have a barely read copy of Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon (bought mostly for my plant molecular biology amusement) that I got at Bookhaven. Don’t ask me why but since I was a child I loved plant leaf crossections…to the point that dad had no other choice than to get me a small microscope. Yes, I got the “I want to be a scientist” bug as child.

In a month or so, and if we end up adding our Flickr stream to the site, you might be bombarded by cute seedling pictures. Since we don’t have pets (unfortunately) get ready for Cute Plant Overload!