Diggin' It and Not So Much Diggin' It

Growing up, my mother always, always, always had a garden planted in our yard. And she didn't mess around. Just about every square inch of our yard was covered with flowers and the whole back corner became a huge vegetable garden. The same is true for her now, even with the small yard of her townhouse. She's always given me great advice about what plants I can put in certain places in my own yard. When it was just Mark and I, we didn't really ever grow a vegetable garden. Now with the kids being at that perfect age, I put in a new veg bed last year. It was late to start though and we didn't get much to speak of.
This year was different. I got the bed cleared out, soil turned over, and revamped  my plan as to what I wanted to put where. Adam was excited to try some new things; Lucy just wanted in on it! So now we've got ourselves a nice little vegetable garden that we hope to be able to eat from this year.
Adam chose beans (I bought the bush variety to save space) and brussels sprouts (yes! he really did!) and carrots. Lucy just wanted sunflowers because they look happy. And then she thought we should plant morning glories as well. We also chose a bush cucumber and green peppers. Tomatoes always are fun, but I decided to put them in pots this year. They already have flowers and they are getting bigger. We're diggin' it. It's fun to see our seeds come up, our plants get bigger and taller, our flowers bloom but then....

it's time to WEED.  I'm pretty sure that by now our mosquitoes actually are immune to bug spray and are beginning to thrive on what should in fact kill them. I filled an entire lawn bag with thistle weeds, stray grass, foreign green stuff and more thistle. Apparently our neighbor enjoys filling her bird feeders with thistle seed for the finches. Lovely for the birds, not so much for  my garden.  It is my least favorite part of gardening, but most rewarding after it's all done and the flower beds look beautiful again. But for now...
my aching back, legs, arms. Mosquito bites and all.