Fruits of their labor

As I continue with my read of Kidd's "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter," I cannot believe how someone could really know how deeply broken and flawed I feel. I'm without the ability to share, so I thought I'd share in a different way. A couple week's ago, Miss Wooly Daisy shared how her garden grows. While these picks are not from my garden, they are the result of the combined effort of my husband and daughter, who, by the way, sailed through surgery and returned home the following day. (If anyone has advice on keeping an 8-year-old busy for the next THREE months, I'm open for suggestions.)

I've heard from many people in Iowa that tomatoes have sucked this year. My husband, a man of the earth who prefers to grow his plants from seed, was quite disappointed with this year's garden. From flood to drought, it was not a good growing season...unless you were a pumpkin or a gourd. We have beautiful round pumpkins coming out our ears, but they're still hiding under leaves right now so no good pictures were had. And the gourds? These little things are EVERYWHERE!!!

Then there are the sunflowers. Marty and Moira planted these smack dab in the middle of the garden. Aren't they blinding?!

And they planted these over the graves of Tuttle and Zeke, our two wonderful dogs who are chasing that big bone in the sky.

Every other year, our plum tree blooms and this year's been another bumper crop. Unfortunately I started eating them about a 10 days too soon and my mouth is still tore up from the tartness.

And then there's my attempt at a flower garden. Help...