Rain, rain...saves me the trouble

It has been raining, minus a few chilly morning hours this Wednesday, pretty much the rest of this week. I work inside. It really doesn't matter much to me if it is raining, and to be honest, it saves me a lot of trouble (and extra water) to just have Mother Nature take care of my (well, HER plants). I was beginning to worry about my little garden beds again this year. Last year, only one of them produced anything (some snow peas, one jalapeno pepper, a couple mini bell peppers, and a ton of pear tomatoes-my least favorite crop), while the other bed had a pH balance issue and gave me nothing but grief. Of course, that is only because I am NOT a gardener, I only wish to be one, so I could not be 'bothered' to remedy my situation with the proper additives. (such a lazy girl)

This year, I have a lot of green going on out there!

This is a couple weeks ago...the rain has really brought things up. I am desperate to get out and add the supports to my pea poles (which are up but not in this shot).

My peas, radish, carrots, broccoli, beans, corn and several of my herbs are all started out there from seed. This year I broke down and bought starter plants for my basil, squash, peppers, cukes, and hubby's Roma tomatoes.

Specifically this year, I was worried about my beans. I bought new seeds, but also threw in a bunch of my leftovers from last year. I am trying the 'throw as much as you can in those little beds' method of gardening this year. Maybe I will discover some crazy hybrids and become rich by accident? I guess I will just be happy if i get something to grow. Baby steps, I guess!

The reason for my bean worry (as I have gotten off-track with this commentary, somehow) is that when I went to check their status, just a week after planting, I noticed something had been digging where my bean seeds had been planted. I suspect squirrels...nasty little rats. How can something so cute be such a nuisance? I saw beans at the surface and some were even beginning to sprout. So I pushed the little devils back in and hoped for the best. Well, this week...Thursday, to be exact....I saw some lovelies popping through the soil's surface!!

And just a day later, and I am not exaggerating here, after non-stop rains, I now have these beauties...
two sets of leaves, in one day!

My corn didn't do much last year, and I know you have to have quite a bit planted to insure proper pollination, but I just couldn't resist trying again. They are now little 1-inch green spikes poking out, so we have at least some potential there.

I am always slow to start gardening projects because I never get great results, but once stuff starts to grow, it's just too satisfying to stop. I am thinking of grabbing a few more plants to stuff in there to be sure I get more delicious end product. I am sure it all boils down to my lack of desire for children battling my female hormones.

(please forgive the quality of the photos, I forgot to photoshop before posting...oops!)