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"It all begins in May, when the air is still crisp in the morning and it&amp;#039;s just getting warm enough for flip-flops. I drive my trusty minivan to the nursery to pick out the packets of seeds and the six-packs of seedlings I&amp;#039;m going to plant this year. As I place each one in my cart, I visualize where it will go. I&amp;#039;d like to think I&amp;#039;m as methodical as a landscape architect (which my sister actually is!), but the truth is, my garden ends up more like a crazy quilt. With my seeds and baby plants ready and the ground freshly tilled, it&amp;#039;s time to kneel down and dig in. The soil feels cool and moist like coffee grounds, and I start dreaming of what&amp;#039;s to come. I plant beets, zucchini and eggplant, and chives, dill, cilantro and rosemary. I wish it would all sprout overnight, but it takes a few weeks for the plants to begin peeking out, teasing me with what&amp;#039;s to come, both in my garden and the other plots nearby. June brings the plumpest, juiciest strawberries at the &amp;quot;U Pick Em&amp;quot; patch not far from our house. My daughters and I make the annual trek, and then I have strawberries coming out of my ears. July means it&amp;#039;s time for peaches, my very favorite fruit. Is there anything better than biting into a cool peach bursting with flavor, or giving your cereal a complete makeover with a few slices thrown on top? And, of course, late summer brings zucchini the size of my forearm. I feel like the Bubba Gump of zucchini: fried zucchini, roasted zucchini, grilled zucchini, zucchini bread, stuffed zucchini. Maybe it&amp;#039;s good that zucchini season doesn&amp;#039;t last forever! Then, August: The cherry tomatoes glisten in the sun and they&amp;#039;re so sweet you can eat them like candy, or make a tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo and plenty of salt and pepper. As the long days grow shorter and there&amp;#039;s just a hint of fall in the air, corn comes to the rescue. I ride my Hello Kitty bike (yes, I have a bike with Kitty&amp;#039;s face on the tires) to the farmstand just minutes from my house and fill my basket to the brim. Silver Queen corn from Maryland is the best, though Long Island corn is a close second. My daughters like to spread mustard on their corn the way their dad ate it. I&amp;#039;m a salt-and-butter gal myself. By late August, I&amp;#039;ve harvested my garden and enjoyed the ever-thinning bounty on the farmstand tables. Those last bites are bittersweet, because it means summer is coming to an end. Nothing lasts forever, but that&amp;#039;s what makes it so special. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/real-women/a7037/katie-couric-on-vegetable-gardening/>