Got back my gardening mojo!

I've hardly dared comment on my vegetable garden this summer for fear the slightest little boast would put a hex on it. Let's face it, last summer's miserable gardening results left me shaken and bereft of gardening confidence.

In June I planted timidly. I didn't bother plant many of our favorites, such as swiss chard and radishes, thinking they probably wouldn't come up anyway. I planted fewer tomato plants than usual; ditto with the green pepper plants.

It's taken me a long while to get back to the confident gardener I used to be, but I'm almost there.

I'm so almost there that I'm going to take a brave step and show you some of my garden produce from the past few days.

My garden is such a happening place that I've been canning tomatoes left and right, using lots of green peppers in making huge batches of dynamites, freezing chopped summer squash and zucchini to sneak into soups and stews this winter, and just plain glorying in the sight of a morning's trip to the garden as it's displayed on my kitchen counter.

Dynamites minus the final step: the meatballs. I made this batch last Saturday, photographing as I moved along. But then friends dropped in, we invited them to stay for supper, and I couldn't bring myself to let them see me photographing the dynamites once the meatballs were added.

So imagine two dozen meatballs nestled in amongst the celery, green peppers, onions, and tomato soup.

As you can see, my vegetables are as happy as I am. I caught a few of them forming this happy face on my counter this morning. Little rascals that they are.

Now there's talk of a possible visit from Hurricane Earl. That could devastate the dozens of tomatoes still in my garden, so if the hurricane appears imminent, I'll just go out and pick them all, bring 'em inside, and let them finish ripening here.