Happy Sunday! This week, Ann-Christine has issued a real challenging topic (to me) for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #396, which is to pick a quote and illustrate with a maximum of 5 pictures.

I don’t usually pay attention to quotes, so this took a little scrolling through the search engine to find one I like. My eyes landed on this quote:

Watching something grow is good for morale. It helps us believe in life. – Myron Kaufmann

I found this quote very relatable because I love seeing the differences the garden has to offer each passing months. I have been documenting my garden more thoroughly this year (with the exception of February) and in this gallery, it shows the progression of the raised bed in my back garden from January to May 1, 2026.

I will start from the photo on the left and work my way clockwise to describe the amazing progression of this garden.

The first photo was from January 2, 2026, when it was freezing cold and nothing was supposed to be growing outside. I love it when you think all your hard work has died when, in fact, they are alive and well under cover. This also tells of the resiliency of plants.

The next photo was from March 31, 2026 and you can see that it’s a little different. Once everything started growing again, I began picking and planting again. This year, I am practicing intensive planting, which I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job as I’m still spacing my plants pretty wide.

The next photo was from April 21, 2026. I can’t remember the exact date I started harvesting daily but I know that it was before April 21st. Maybe sometime in March? The plants in this bed may look small but that’s because the leaves have been harvested.

The last photo was from 2 days ago – May 1st, 2026. What a difference, right? It had just been 10 days. Maybe what they say is right – “a plant just want to grow.”