It's easy to be green.

July is almost here and I'm definitely feeling the heat. With only one window box AC I've discovered that my dog has the right idea: sleep in the basement.

But at least the sunlight has a nice impact on some things! I took some photographs for those of you who can't swing by and see the deliciousness in person.

While I have yet to use the cilantro, I have fallen in love with having mint on hand to make some delicious mojitos.

Can you believe this pepper? It's huge! I mean, it's not really huge. but I've never grown peppers before so this is pretty exciting.

I have two varieties of tomatoes growing; Roma and Cherry. I just ate my first homegrown cherry tomato today, delicious.

This photo might not show it, but my snap peas are out of control. Seriously off the hook.  Too bad Elan won't eat them!

The really nice effect of having all this growing is that I am suddenly inspired to cook with my homegrown food.  I just made my first batch of hand-made (no machine) basil and garlic linguine.

Maybe now I can get chickens?

Garage? What garage?

As I mentioned a month or so ago, the "great RI flood of 2010" turned my garage into a big, deep, pool of mud and soggy drywall pieces.  After a rather interesting, and certainly entertaining, engage with people on craigslist, we got a guy to tear it down and trash it for just $700.  Then, we got some other guy (also craigslist) to drop off 14 yards of dirt.  Apparently this included a free trimming of our bushes, as his massive dump truck drove over our hedges. Kind, right?

We got way too much dirt. So I finally got the chance to build my raised beds!

We took a two-tiered approach, using the tallest tier as a little wall when you pull into the driveway. 

The top tier is for flowers and flowery bushes, which should fill out quite nicely in the upcoming summers.

The bottom tier is my favorite. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, zucchini, cucumber, peas, chives, cilantro, mint, basil, thyme, lavender, and some other things that have started popping up but I completely forget what they are.

Ohhh I love summer.