Accidental Gardening...

When we began the search for our new home in the winter months, I began planning to plant a small garden in the backyard. As house hunting stretched into the summer I still held on to the hope that I could plant pumpkin seeds and sprout them to plant in August and we'd have a mild autumn that would allow us to harvest them in late October or early November. It seemed as if gardening had eluded me for one more year when we moved into our home in the beginning of September.

We had a few little surprises though!

A few weeks ago, my sister was visiting and noticed something growing secretly behind the church! It was several tomato plants!

They are still going strong even though the farm stands have all but closed up.

We've been picking delicious grape tomatoes and larger ones that I am guessing are the "on the vine" ones we see at the market.

I think we have one or two more weeks of tomatoes left (depending on the weather).


My next gardening surprise came today when I was out in the front yard with the children. I found this sweet little plants growing in the over-grown flower bed next to the walk way:

Lambs Ears!! We got out our spades and rakes and began weeding. Don't laugh, but this is what the little bed looks like now:

I hope that the lamb's ears take over the spot.

It was so nice to find these little lamb's ears on the day before the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God - since the religious name for the plant is Our Lady's Fingers!