Alright, so harvest might be over-stating it a little!  But we were able to pick some wonderful, crisp, butter crunch lettuce to go with the grilled chicken we made for dinner on Wednesday night!

And this whole gardening thing has had some unexpected advantages.  My vegetable-hating six year old was so excited to help pick, wash, and then he actually ATE the lettuce!  And he loved it!  My child…who generally makes pretend puking noises at the sight of anything remotely vegetable-looking…could not get enough of our home-grown lettuce!  There may be hope for him yet!

The rest of the garden is coming along nicely.  There’s been enough rain in the past month, and as a result we’ve only had to water about six times.  After each hard rain we go out and respray the plants with the cayenne pepper/garlic solution to keep the bugs away, and spray the perimeter  of the garden using the bottle of pee to keep the rabbits and birds away.  (Gross, I know, but it’s working!!)  We’ve had to pull weeds a few times, and I’ve pulled a few dead leaves off the strawberry plants.  Otherwise, we’ve taken a “less is more” approach with it and it seems to be working.   We can literally watch the tomato plants change every day.  They’ve gone from being about eight inches tall when we first planted them, to now being almost as tall as my six year old.  We have dozens of tomatoes started, the leeks and onions are flourishing, the pepper plants have nearly doubled in size, and the strawberry plants have finally sent out their feelers.

Overall, for this being our first gardening attempt, I’m thrilled with the progress so far!

*originally posted at www.fairfieldvoice.com*