My wife enjoyed a rather cute hobby this summer – backyard gardening. She spent a good part of pretty much every day tending to our yards, finding what I think was a healthy amount of solace amongst her plants.

She actually started the vegetable garden early this past spring, planting some seeds indoors and grew them in our spare bedroom/office which enjoys ridiculous sunlight and heat due to its big windows and south-facing exposure. Those seedlings were planted in several locations in our yards and on deck boxes, and included several herbs, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, peas, tomatoes and raspberries. The backyard bounty was harvested this week, and the results are outstanding, if not somewhat entertaining as well. Everything grew; in some cases, like the lettuce and peas, she was able to enjoy multiple harvests. The veggies that were grown on our deck boxes are hilarious – in a great way – as the shallow depth of the soil encouraged the carrots to grow short and stout, as seen above.

I’m impressed, and it will only be a short time, we believe, before she’ll get an opportunity to really start gardening, on greater lands. I’ll take no credit, as none is deserved!