Spring has sprung

I know this because my eyes are itchy and my nose is runny, but thankfully over the counter allergy meds seem to be doing the trick this year. The temperature outside is just about perfect, mature plants are blooming left and right, and the backyard garden is now dotted with a bunch of tiny green leaves! From a distance, it still looks like a bunch of dirt with odd shapes dug into it, but up close you can see the beginnings of what I hope will be a bountiful harvest in a few months.

When I planted a few weeks ago, I put some seeds directly into the ground, and made 4 small pots that I brought inside to start. Last year, none of the plants I started outside made it and I was expecting similar results this year. I wasn't even sure the ones inside would take, the seeds having spent the summer in the garage where temperatures hover around 105 F, at the very least.

Within the same week of planting, there were tiny green leaves poking out of the soil in the pots inside. Now, they are really taking off! I have tomatoes...

...and several enthusiastic cucumber vines.

Outside, things are doing equally well, even if they were a bit slower to start. I have the start of a zucchini plant...

...new growth from an old broccoli plant...

...and the beginnings of what I hope will be an awesome watermelon vine.

I also have roughly half a dozen sprouts that are a complete mystery to me. They are coming up along the edges of the areas I have planted and don't really look like any of the other plants. My best guess is that they are from seeds that were in the compost I used to prepare the soil, and I will just have to wait and see what they become. I initially thought the one below was a cucumber, since it came up exactly where I had planted them last year, but now that it's had a few weeks to mature, it is clearly not (see second picture in post.) I am not even sure it is anything edible.

While I find all of this growth very exciting, I am also getting worried that the garden is going to become really crowded. Apart from the marigolds, all of the seeds sown outside have come up, leaving very little space for me to transplant the ones I started inside. I am planning to deal with this tomorrow on my day off.