The Beginning of the End

So after a few days of some much-needed time away, I am back. But before my bags were even unloaded, it was straight to the garden so see what had transpired while I was away...
Before I left, I did as much weeding and watering as I could, and plucked any veggies that were ready - hoping that everything would hold off till my return. I set more rows of carrots (who knows if they will sprout) and radishes since they did so well the first time around. The tomatoes are pretty close to ready, and I might have to call in back up when the time comes to harvest - its looking like they will all be ready at the same time and with nearly two-dozen plants out there, I'm going to have to hustle!! Anyhow, upon my return, I found myself amazed at how much can happen in a few short days. A half-dozen cucumbers, a handful of jalepenos, a couple green peppers and some more green beans were waiting to be harvested. I also pulled some basil and dill from the garden for later. The lettuce decided it was much too hot and bolted ( I guess all that shade from the corn wasn't enough) but the onions are poking their little tops out from the soil :) -
On the other side of the garden, the melon and butternut squash plants are starting to fruit - no sign of any acorn squash yet. Hooray!!!
We are still waiting to see if the cauliflower and red cabbage are going to do anything--- the foliage looks fabulous but no sign of heads developing - keep your fingers crossed!
The kids have been anxious to help me keep an eye on things, and Em is working hard to weed when she can.
If anyone has any recipes to share for the yellow squash or any ideas on how to preserve these for later, please share... I seem to have an over-abundance of this stuff and a lack of people who want to eat it!

And because cucumbers are best preserved within a few days of harvest... here is what happened to the ones that were waiting for me when I got home :

Out of Control!

So first off... I have to share the latest funny... I have been letting the kids pick the purslane from the veggie garden to eat - and today, Izaac tells me that we just "must figure out the name of that stuff we have been eating." To which I reply to him that its called purslane - his immediate response was "Oh, well I thought it was called 'greatiest tastiest' cause its soooooo tasty!"

So half of the garden looks really really great and the other half is being taken over by weeds...so tomorrow thats my morning project. We have already had an early harvest of radishes, a few cucumbers, summer squash and a few beans and peas. The problem with buying starter plants rather than planting from seed is that the plants just might not be exactly what they are labeled at the greenhouse...my climber beans that I worked so hard to build a trellis for are actually bush beans and it looks as though the butter crunch lettuce and romaine are all actually loose-leaf lettuces. They all look pretty much the same, so this is the conclusion I have come to. That what I thought I bought is not really what I ended up with. Serves me right for not paying better attention! OOPS!! Everything else seems to be alright though. The sugar snap peas don't really seem to happy with the soil in my garden. They are producing, but the plants haven't climbed much in the past month. Cucumbers and squash however are taking over their ends of the garden and the tomato and potato plants are HUGE. Corn is almost waist high, so I think these will all do well this year. I'm not really sure what the cabbage and cauliflower is up to..I expected both of these to be forming heads by now, and they aren't - foliage is pretty though. So thats something. Always and adventure/experiment when it comes to me and gardening. Also, the birds ate the carrot seeds and green onion seeds..so I am hoping to have enough time to plant more before summer is over.
 I will post more pics as soon as I can. But I have been a little obsessive this year about how the garden looks and am determined to clean it up a bit first :)

Busy as a bee..

Wow- Its been a busy couple of weeks around here. We have had some really hot and very dry days, but all the newspaper we have been putting down is not only helping with the weeds (at least in the parts of the garden where there is newspaper..haha), but it is also helping hold some of the moisture in the soil. Its been too hot to work outside or too stormy lately, so not a whole lot has gotten done.
Things are looking good out there and the kids have been doing a little bit more than making mud (whew!).
We also have more veggies to get planted this week -where I will find the time, I have no clue, but it will get done. The lettuce and arugula is almost ready for first harvest already and the radishes are looking great!!
I was quite happy to see the onions making a come-back too!
We haven't seen the mole lately, at least not in the garden - but the bunnies are still hanging around :)
I will try and get some new pics uploaded this week too. The goal this week is to get the rest of the newspaper down, plant more radishes and carrots, and maybe some more lettuce...oh...and the rest of the veggie plants. Yikes!!! Wish me luck!!!