Madness, Mayhem and Quirky Pets...and Raspberries!

Well the garden has exploded over the past couple weeks, and I am overwhelmed. There is no room in the fridge for regular groceries, as the rest of the space is being hogged by tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers (still!) and cauliflower..at least till I can make the rounds and pass some of this stuff out! We have canned salsa, pickles, jalepenos and other goodies crowding the kitchen and I'm sure there's more to come. Don't ask what the secret is...cause I haven't figured it out! Half the garden hasn't been properly mulched or weeded (in weeks) and we never fertilized anything. As far as I can tell, its mostly a product of good luck and over planting :) But this crazy mess in the corner of my back yard is starting to grow on me. Though the weeds are high, they aren't really crowding out anything, and I'm kinda starting to find it fun whenever I stumble upon and errant radish or onion and other tiny treasures hidden away in the mess.
In other garden news, our new puppy seems to find tomatoes absolutely delicious...I take her out with me to harvest and she heads straight for the tomato 'aisles', picks a ripe on and plops down, proceeding to enjoy her snack. Another tasty favorite of hers is carrots- which she will only eat out of my gardening clogs...why? I have no clue. But as I seem to have a knack for finding the oddest animals with the weirdest personalities, we are just going to take it for what it is, and hope she doesn't make herself sick!
This weekend, I am off to pick raspberries. Mostly for making preserves (a tried and tested favorite in this house)- not from my garden, but from Rainbows End Farm , one of the best local growers I know. One of the things I find important is to support local growers and sustainable farming, and here, they practice both! Plus the berries are AMAZING!! They have a nice selection of greens, mums, and corn for making popcorn -so please check them out if you are ever in the area.

Yummy! Fresh beans from the garden are my fave!

Again, no explanation for my luck growing tomatoes like this

Molly..sans carrot or tomato, but this is the "do i have to go inside?" face. priceless.

Seriously? Where am I going to put all this stuff?

P.S. found these little buggers in my strawberry patch. WTH? thought
strawberry season was over 2 months ago!! 

here and there...and everywhere

Things in the garden are going well ~ The tomatoes look AMAZING...I mean, not so much the plants themselves, but the fruits...the tomatoes are so big and growing so fast, I'm convinced they are sucking the life out of the plants. Funny how things work out that way. We have been harvesting lots of jalepenos and cucumbers and made some salsa and zucchini relish too.
I am, as always, amused & surprised at how certain plants grow and change through out the season, as well as by what each plant produces. Take for example, the green pepper plants...every plant looks tall and healthy, but is producing very tiny (although perfectly colored and shaped) peppers. At the end of the season now, the cucumbers are turning into short fat, little cucumber balls.. and the green beans are still producing, but again, miniature versions of what they should be -whether it's because of lack of water or maybe nutrients are lacking in the soil, I'm not quite sure. We still have onions, squash, corn, potatoes (my word will we have potatoes!!!!), and cauliflower (lets hope I don't mess these up AGAIN!) and red cabbage left.
Come to think of it, the only thing that is really done is the summer squash and the large cucumber plants are on the way out...oh, and the lettuce is done (but we are blaming summer heat for that one!)
I will try and get pictures posted this week...things sure are  looking interesting out there.
I've been working on some ideas about what to share with everyone this fall, while the garden is wintering over, and I have some fun stuff in store for you!!!
The Garden is far from being done this year, there is much to do and talk about, so stay tuned :)

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 :