**Photo disclaimer: These tomatoes are in my dad’s garden, not mine!

It’s getting to that time of year where I have to force myself to work in the garden. It’s mid-July, which, in Nebraska means it’s pretty hot and ridiculously humid outdoors. The mosquitoes find me irresistible while the weeds find my garden patch irresistible. Plus, the vegetable garden, by this point in the season, is doing well and doesn’t seem to need as much TLC anymore. It’s easy to throw up my hands and surrender to the elements by staying indoors with the AC cranked up. However, I need to resist that desire because my garden is growing like crazy and someone, moi, needs to keep up with it.

This year I planted kale, mixed lettuces, white onions, bush beans, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, zinnias and sunflowers. Oh yeah, and broccoli. Tender, sweet little shoots of broccoli, which made a delightful meal for some foul beast back in May. And yet, in an odd turn of events, a broccoli plant sprouted up among the beans and when I peeked at my garden tonight, there was a green head on the plant. Awesome.

We’re enjoying Year Two of our neighborhood garden. Again we were allowed a portion of the old Zion Church lot (now it belongs to our church, Redeemer) and again our awesome neighbors measured out plots, tilled the ground, and fenced off a bit of earth. It felt like a good old-fashioned moment of Americana when we gathered together for a BBQ outside the garden in June. Everyone was introduced, or re-introduced, food was shared, the young garden admired.

So tomorrow, I absolutely have to get into my little space and pull some weeds. Perhaps it’ll rain tonight and my task will become a bit simpler. The kale is growing like mad and I’ve promised bags of it to my mom and a friend. I am sure the beans are ready for picking and an empty vase awaits the zinnias. And maybe, if I’m lucky, a tomato will be ripe.

My heart has just started to thaw from the harsh and frozen memories of last winter. I’ll take the heat, the humidity, and even the darn mosquito bites if it means I get to enjoy summer for a little bit longer.