I so totally have a green thumb!

Everything in the garden is thriving! We have lots of zucchini and yellow squash. We picked a handful of our first beans over the weekend. We have lots of tiny (and a couple of not so tiny) green pumpkins and acorn squash coming along nicely. We have lots of big green tomatoes just waiting to get red and scrumptious. The sunflowers are up to their full height (I think they did turn out to be the smaller ones that are only 4 feet high) and starting to show little buds. The onions are all grown up and starting to get big and round on the bottoms (I'm thinking maybe I was supposed to plant them a bit deeper, but i piled dirt on the ones that were showing, so I think it'll all be good.)

The herb garden is also flourishing. Even the basil is happy, despite my regular raids on its foliage. The sage, rosemary, oregano and lemon thyme are trying to take over the bed. I need to start cooking more I think. I'm also thinking that I might cut and dry some of them. You're supposed to do that before they start to flower for maximum potency. A lot of them are already flowering, but I pinched back what I noticed. I'm sure they'll still be very tasty.

I think I want to expand both the vegetable and herb gardens next year. I can eat zucchini every night of the week happily. I also want chives, parsley, dill and maybe a few other random herbs. I bought a good looking book off Amazon last night which I'm thinking might help inspire me to new levels of nerdy gardeness.

My grandparents are coming up this weekend with another relative and I'm planning this delicious, elaborate, but light meal which will include as many garden goodies as possible. I'm thinking a zucchini soup will be yummy. Although Salmon chowder would also be Very tasty. With the soup will be a pasta salad with green onion and fresh basil and maybe oregano? I'm debating putting green beans in it too; I usually do it with asparagus, which is similar right? I love my pasta salad, it has an olive oil dressing and lots of colorful veggies and yummy herbs. I'm also debating whether to use this really fancy colorful fun shaped pasta I have, or a plain, but still fun shaped pasta, which would highlight the veggies and herbs more.

Thougts?