It is not very big. But a year ago we looked out our kitchen window onto ugly brown dirt piles.  And if it had been raining we looked out onto ugly brown mud puddles.

Now out my kitchen window I can see some trellis my husband put up, to separate the nicer outdoor living area from the back yard.  My petunias are absolutely covered in flowers, and my salvias are just starting to show their red blooms.  My sons sunflowers are doing ok, they had a rough start to life - we thought they were supposed to be planted 5cm deep, but it  was actually 5mm.  About half of them finally emerged and they aren't as tall as expected and the first flower looks a bit small for something called a "Russian Giant", but they are taller than my son so thats good.  My impatiens are doing great, I love the red and white and pink.  The lobelia I have in pots looks good too, as does a pink plant my mum gave me, can't remember its name. 

In this 'nice' area there was a spare patch of garden I didn't know what to plant.  I am not used to flowers.  So I planted some veges here, some tomato plants and courgettes, and dwarf beans.  This was a bit of an after-thought, an extra bonus. 

Down the back, where the sun is most of the day, I have a variety of tomatoes in pots too.  They are the ones that were planted earlier, so I could keep them sheltered by moving them around.  These are the ones that I am starting to harvest.  The flavour of home grown has no comparison to store bought.

Around the other side, by my clothesline so I can keep an eye on it, is my salad garden.  Based on the SFG system, but my adaptation.  Lots of lettuces, silverbeet, spring onions, celery and parsley.  And my pride and joy - 12 rhubarb plants, in their own patch alongside the house, they started out about 5 cm tall, but are now huge, totally covering over the lettuces I planted in all the space in between, hopefully they will keep us going for a long time.  We love rhubarb, especially on our weet-bix.

I can't wait to develop more areas, and plan some winter plantings.  But we are taking it slowly, keeping it manageable.  I have not been too good in the past at keeping a garden, but then I haven't enjoyed and appreciated it this much before either. I am in awe that these plants, these seeds, actually grow, and grow well.  It amazes me to see flowers blooming and showing off their colours, in spite of me, their very inexperienced carer.