First Harvest and other growing things

Lettuce, basil leaves, three cherry tomatoes and the first strawberry of the season -- harvested from the garden this past Monday. The lettuce, basil and tomato plants came from Dunkler's Farm on Collier Rd. The cherry tomato plant is in a hanging basket and was full of green tomatoes and yellow blossoms when I bought it two weeks ago. All the recent rain and cooler temps have brought the lettuce along at a very fast clip. It's salad time in the city!

The strawberry plants were here when I moved in. They have migrated to the other side of the garden patch over the course of the past ten years, but they never seem to diminish in their spectacular juicy red abundance. Tomorrow, there should be enough ripe ones to fill a good sized bowl.

Vegetables are not the only things thriving in my garden. Check out the electric purple and blue stars blooming on this clematis I planted only last year. It is three times the size of last year already.


















The garden isn't the only thing that is growing fast. Hamlet is now four and a half months old and a graduate of puppy class already. We work on the training every day, and the results are very gratifying. He is very quick to learn and enjoys new challenges in between bouts of intense chewing, as his adult teeth are in full erupt mode. I've been giving him ice cubes when his gums look red and swollen -- the ice brings him some relief and he happily licks and noses the ice around the floor until it has melted.




















So far, Hamlet's been very good about chewing appropriate items, such as bully sticks, Kongs and various fleece toys. I quickly learned not to leave my shoes and socks lying about, and he has been very good about all the books. Shortly after he arrived, he pulled "There's No People Like Show People" off a shelf and gave it a few licks and nibbles before I caught him in the act. A loud "Uh Oh" stopped him cold and he hasn't gone after a book since.