Kate's Point of View

It’s always nice when you leave the house and have a nice surprise waiting for you. It bodes well for the rest of the day!

Sadly, our sunflower has gotten so heavy, it’s tipping over. But it definitely gave me a great view of this praying mantis.

I found out what those monstrous plants are growing in my front yard. Castor beans! And do you know that the castor bean is one of the most poisonous plants in the world?

In my pictures of the plant you can see little spiky pods by the flowers.

Inside each pod are three beans. Eating two to three beans is all it would take to kill you.

I mentioned a while back that I (oops!) planted some unmarked seeds near the front of my yard and they turned out to be giants. I think (hope) the plants have reached their full height now so thought I would share how crazy huge they have gotten.

Our garden is looking remarkably good this year considering we haven’t invested the time into it we should. The hibiscus plants are in full bloom right now and beautiful.

Pretty soon things are going to start looking a little crazy because someone (me) didn’t mark seeds from last year and so planted some unknown things near the front of the yard. What is growing is this beautiful, leafy plant well on its way to being 5 feet tall. Oops. More on that when the plant achieves its full height…

Gardening is a ton of work. Vegetable gardening produces things that can be much more easily bought in grocery stores. Sure, the taste of home-grown itms is often better, but is it worth it?

Yes.

I planted seeds on Monday. And as of Thursday, I had sprouts coming up. I made Wonder Boy go outside and confirm what I was seeing because it seemed to fast to be real. But sure enough. Itsy bitsy radishes poking up from the dirt.

By Saturday the Beets and green beans were also make their way out of the dirt.

My favorites are the green beans that are still trying to shed their seed.

I have basil starting to come up in the kitchen but the baby sprouts are so tiny you can barely see them. Soon, though!