Midget corn and gardens!

Oh my! Is the summer ever busy! The weeks seem to just fly by.

I was having an argument the other day with my sister about whether Chicago counted as the Midwest or not. Her argument was that Chicago was the epicenter of the Midwest. It was Midwest X 100. No details to back up her statement. I argued that Chicago is too metropolitan, heck, cosmopolitain even to be a Midwestern city. People did not say "doughnchanough" enough, were Amish, or have 4-H fundraising spaghetti dinners in Chicago. Instead Chicagoans get their fancy pantsy reflective bean,their own Alessi store, and a giant Arts museum. How dare they say they are Midwestern. That's like saying Boca Raton is soooooooooooooooooo Floridian. No way, man. Just because you produce 'Prairie Home Companion' doesn't mean you can share in the secret Garison Keillor midwestern jokes.

So for those of us in the REAL Midwest (before Caroline comes and lectures me about living in the real REAL Midwest) need to talk about corn.

Remember me talking about the weather being all screwy in spring? Well apparently the weather wasn't just trolling me.

It so happened that Ohio has got some record rainfall this year. Thank goodness we've been spared by the summer (some other parts of the Midwest are getting pummeled still, I hear). I'll bet my butt that there will be a drought though so maybe I should be more thankful... Anyway, what the heck is going on with the corn? I moved to Oxford just around this time last year and had corn visions until my eyes bled. The gigantuous plant monsters were checking out my size and picking fights with me on my birthday. NOW, they are only a foot tall. I could squash their little corn villages like godzilla squashing Tokyo. I think the farmers must have gotten delayed this season, hence the young crop (I don't think midget corn is suddenly in vogue this year.... Did I miss a memo?) but man does it feel weird being outside with 90+ degrees weather (here we go with that archaic numbering system again) without having my view of the road (which is curvy for no reason at all on this flat PLAINS roads) obstructed by vegetal beings.

Well, annyyywayyyyyy. Aside from the corn being tiny midgets this year (I feel your pain, corn), my garden has been doing A-OK. Aside from the aphids that seem to have blown in, everything looks as healthy as they could be and although peas are long gone, we're starting to see some of my other summer crops coming in!

OK, no one told me that cucumbers are so prolific. There are like 4 cukes coming in strong on my tiny little vine. There are going to be some pickles this year.

Unfortunately for Paul though.... I forgot to plant hot peppers this year.... erm... I THOUGHT I remembered to plant all different varieties but alas, no... all 3 of my pepper plants are paprikas.. oops.

They look good though!

Tomatoes are coming on. I think all of my plants are having a little trouble because they're only getting about 4 hours (max) of direct sun everyday (Ideally they should be having 12+) so the plants aren't as prolific or as bushy as I'd like them to be, but for the situation, I think they're doing amazing(ly)!

Green beans coming in! Paul can't wait!

And forest of basil!!!!!!!!!

The basil has been sooooooo good. Fresh pizza (homemade dough, of course), spaghetti sauce, even sandwiches all get a nice perk from fresh basil. I can't wait for these to get bigger so I can make me some delicious pesto!