Adventures in Gardening

I planted a garden this summer. It's the first year we've had a garden since we were married. We tried last year, but the plants didn't survive the late snowfall. This year we actually have plants!

We do have one surprise, though. I planted green beans, but only one plant in that row grew, much to my disappointment. And it didn't look quite right. I let it grow anyway, just to see. It's been a long time since I grew beans, so maybe I just didn't remember what they looked like . . .

Yeah, it's a sunflower, not a bean. Seriously. One of those huge "I am going to devour you because my flower is bigger than your head" sunflowers. Am I the only person who plants beans and gets sunflowers? Whatever happened to that whole "reaping what you sow" business?

I also bought a little pumpkin plant for the garden, naively thinking we'd get a little pumpkin or two for the kids from our darling little pumpkin plant. I've never grown pumpkins before and for some reason thought they grew to, oh, three feet in diameter. No, no, pumpkin plants are enormous. The thing stretches from one end of the garden to the other and drapes over the sides (we live on a hill and our garden is terraced above the yard). I think the plant has also eaten some of the other plants, like the Swiss chard, because I can't see some of them anymore when I look out the window. It's time to wage war against it, but I have to confess, I'm rather afraid of it. It grows inches every day and, well, would my neighbors think I was crazy if I gardened with a sword?