The Gift Of Fresh Vegetables & Ivy’s Sleeping Patterns
Last summer and the one before I had maybe one vegetable to harvest from my garden the entire summer.
The Luxury Of Fresh Vegetables:
This year I feel like a queen and harvest fresh veggies every single day.
It really spoils me though. I won’t want vegetables from the grocery story come winter because you can’t match the taste of homegrown fresh food. You just can’t.
Grocery store vegetables taste like cardboard.
Homegrown Harvesting:
It’s so wonderful to just walk outside with my snip cutters, peer into the many leaves of the cucumber plants (there are two) and often I will see a great big cucumber I would have missed had I not been looking closely.
And I swear the peppers grow an inch overnight. The tomatoes are plentiful. So I have all these wonderful tasting vegetables along with whatever supper I come up with every night. Can’t beat it.
Ivy’s Quirky Ways:
Ivy has a way of sleeping that always strikes me as odd.
Either she’s sleeping with her paws up in the air as though someone is holding them suspended in the air with strings attached. Or she’s sleeping on her back or her legs are all splayed out.
Ivy is simply not your normal cat. I’ve had plenty of normal cats. Ivy is one of a kind.
When she stretches out she’s really long. And she has quirky ways and a personality that just keeps me laughing all the time.
The sun is out now. This morning I thought there might be another storm as the sky was gray and that feeling of an impending storm was in the air.
But then it went away and was replaced by bright sunlight.
Watering The Plants:
I will have to be sure to watch the cucumber plant through the French doors and note when the leaves are starting to wilt.
Then it’s time to water, which happens anywhere from twice to five times per day depending on the heat and the duration of it.
Mystery Basil Plant:
And then there’s this basil plant that inexplicably came up through a crack in the cement, as you can see. I did not plant it. Every year something comes up in this crack and I never know what it might be.
Oddly enough, no matter how hot it gets, that basil plant never wilts. And it’s got maybe an inch of dirt surrounded by hot concrete. I can’t figure that out.
Why is this basil plant more immune to the heat than the rest of my plants? Tis a mystery.
Every once in awhile, a pet comes along that is so unusual…those are the ones that can amuse us so much!! We have had one unusual cat and one very unusual dog. It is so nice you are getting some fresh veggies every day…it should show up in how you feel too!!
Brenda, I could not agree with you more, veggies from your garden or a friends are so much better than from a store.
This summer we are the lucky recipients of our neighbors crop! I cannot tell you how many tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and more we have. I am also lucky enough to get fresh produce from my yoga garden.
Both are encouraging me to start a garden next year. My fist.
Have a great week.
I don’t have a green thumb and there are lots of little bandits in my yard, so it’s been a very long time since we’ve had anything fresh grown in the garden. Looks good though and yup, nothing tastes the same!
There is nothing like garden fresh produce. I won’t eat supermarket tomatoes (gag!) but I love fresh ones. Mine are just now starting to ripen.
Did you plant your cucumbers in pots? Do you have a trellis for them? I’ve never tried cukes in pots, so I’m wondering how you did it.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a “normal” cat, lol. Every single cat I’ve had, even growing up, has been quirky in their own ways. Sometimes I even tell my cats they’re weird. 😉 That’s just one reason I love cats so much. They have such individual, distinct characteristics.
That basil growing in the cement crack is Thai basil. Seeds must’ve blown that way or a bird carried and dropped them. I grew it last year just because it was such a pretty plant!
Yes, everything is in pots. I’m using standing garden art I had on my patio and tying the cucumbers to them with jute. So far working fine.
Your fresh veggies sound delicious! I have some cherry tomatoes but that is all.
My Molly sleeps on her back a lot, especially in the summer. I think she is cooling her tummy. ha ha
In the winter she sleeps curled up to keep cozy.
Your flowers are still beautiful. Hubbys cone flowers are blooming now.
A mystery for sure…someway…somehow. Nature continues to delight me every day.
Remember, bigger isn’t always better when picking cucumbers. They are all seedswhen they get that big.
I agree. Much better before they start getting the white spots. I have tomatoes coming in here and there. Only one plant and it is a lemon tomato so it is yellow and smaller. They aren’t too bad. Have a great day
I’m certainly no gardener, but I wonder if the rogue basil plant doesn’t wilt because its roots are in the ground and not in a pot. This is the first year I’ve ever put a tomato plant (Indeterminate cherry) in the ground, and it is huge! It has doubled in height and width in 2 weeks and is now up to my shoulders.
Opposite for me this year. Last year I had an abundance of veggies, but unfortunately not this year. I think June brought too much rain and not enough sun. I guess we never know what we’re going to get. XO Laura
Your mystery basil plant looks like Thai basil to me. It sort of has a licorice aroma if that is, indeed, what it is.
I never liked tomatoes until I tasted a home-grown one. What a difference!
I have a huge cat too. She loves to sleep on her back with her paws in the air all splayed out. She especially loves to sleep in the main areas where we have to walk. She won’t budge and she seems to have complete faith that we won’t step on her.
Nothing better than fresh veggies from your own garden. Ivy is too adorable. Hope your week is good so far.