Garden Update 6

I am SO excited to show you this week's garden update! Finally, the garden is producing veggies at a visible rate, and I have even begun harvesting some of them! That doesn't mean that I haven't had bad luck this week; unfortunately, my billy goat got into my vineyard, and he ate down half of my grape vines and all of my blueberries. So this week, I am sorry to say that I didn't even bother taking pictures of the grapes or blueberries because they aren't worth it. I will continue to care for them in hopes that they regrow and if they don't produce anything this year, I will be content just knowing that they are still alive and will come back in full force next year (and by next year, they will have already grown quite a bit, so when they come back, they will start out bigger and hopefully have a better shot at life and producing grapes and berries). The second bit of bad news this week is that I no longer have the eggplant and banana pepper sprouts that I was growing indoors. A really bad windstorm blew them right off the bookshelf they were standing on in front of the window, so they toppled over and were just utterly destroyed. This also happened with my herb garden, so I no longer have herbs, either. I AM going to buy more herb seeds though, because I would like to have fresh herbs growing and now that the other sprouts are gone, that leaves me with a full window of sunlight for nothing but my herbs.

Okay, enough talk about bad stuff. Let's get on with the pictures!

Row 1:

Cantelope (full of flower buds):

Cucumber: See the cute little yellow flowers? That's not even the best part: look at the picture below!

Actual cucumbers! There is one big one (about 3 or 4 inches long) in the center, then there is a smaller one in the upper right hand corner, and between this plant and the other cucumber plants, I have about a dozen tiny cucumbers growing!





Watermelon (with a tiny yellow flower at the top of the plant):

Pumpkin (with the most beautiful, sweetest smelling yellow/orange flowers ever):

Row 2:
Potatoes (and yes, the entire picture here is ALL potato plants, and at the top of some of them are tiny white flowers, though they are hard to see in this picture):

Carrots: The green leaves have reached about 6 or 7 inches tall now, and since I'm such a curious cookie, and I noticed that some of the carrots are a bit too close together... I decided to pull one up.

Ta Da! A 3 1/2 inch carrot! And look, as teenie tiny as it is, it's still a beautiful orange, and after I took my pictures today I came inside, washed it, peeled it, and here I am sitting at the computer chomping on my carrot while I type :) It tastes amazing, just like any carrot I would have bought at a grocery store (but, you know, better. Since I grew it myself!).



Row 3:
Tomatoes:

This is my biggest tomato plant, almost a full three feet tall. And what would a tomato plant be without...










Tomatoes! I can see at least four in this picture alone, and I have 7 tomato plants with tiny tomatoes all over them.








Row 4:
Onions (This is a view from the center of the garden down the onion row. And see the pretty onion blossoms at the front!):

Row 5:
Peppers:

This here is a Green Bell Pepper plant. My pepper plants may not be very tall, but BOY are they producing! Next year, my pepper plants will get even taller since they wont get initially eaten down by rabbits.









Here's a close up view of the Green Bells. This is just one plant; I have multiple plants of each type of pepper.







This is a Red Bell Pepper plant. Look at how many peppers are on it! And I have plenty more on other Red Bell plants! I'm SO surprised at how such a small plant can produce and hold up such huge peppers.

These are Santa Fe Grande peppers. I'm not sure why they are called "Grande", since they only get 2 to 3 inches long, but as you can see, I have 3 of them on this plant.









Once again, I feel the need to say... TA DA! This is a full grown Santa Fe Grande pepper that my husband picked just this morning. It's about 2 inches long, and is a beautiful pale yellow.





This curly little pepper (on the right side there) is a young Cayenne. And if you look to the left side, you will see a dead brown flower with a green bulb right at the end of the stem. That is the beginning of a second curly little Cayenne. :)

And last but not least in the pepper row, My first tiny Sweet Banana Pepper. I almost didn't see it down there! I believe this is my only remaining Banana Pepper, because the rabbits ate the other four pretty badly in the beginning.

Row 6:
Squash:

The squash has gotten HUGE, and each week there are more and more leaves (though you can hardly tell with as big as they already are). You can even see some hints of yellow from the growing squash underneath.









Huge, pretty flowers, the same color as the squash. You can even see the squash in the background. It's all hidden under the humongous leaves, that I had to hold back to take this picture.





Right after taking these pictures, I had to pick some of the squash. A few of them were large enough to be picked, and one of them was already a bit larger than I wanted it to be. So these three were harvested and placed in my kitchen to join two other squashes that I had to pick earlier this week. So that's 5 squashes already harvest, and plenty more still on the plant and growing bigger each day. A few days ago, I even made buttered squash for the family, and we loved it! It seems like it tastes better when you watch it grow, then pick it, wash it, and prepare it all yourself, without ever leaving home.

Salad Bowl Mix Lettuce (I can officially note at least 3 different types of lettuce in the mix):

Caesar Mix Lettuce (I believe a few days ago I noted 2 different types of lettuce in the mix, however this morning I couldnt really tell them apart, lol):

Row 7:
Corn (this is a view from the center of the garden down the corn row):

 

How awesome is this: on at least a third of my corn plants, I already have tiny corn popping up in the centers!

Row 8:
Sunflowers (this is a view two thirds of the way down the garden, looking down the sunflower row):

I can't believe it, since the majority of the sunflowers are just now reaching 3 1/2 feet to 4 feet tall, but some of them have flower buds on them!







I had to take this picture for two reasons: the first because you can see the yellow center of the flower through the middle of the flower bud there, and second because there was a cute little lady bug. I have discovered a million new and interesting bugs since beginning this garden.





Here is my lemon tree, taller than the metal stake and almost as tall as the original branches that are still remaining. I snapped off most of the original branches, to make room for the new leaves when they reach that height. Unfortunately, as pretty and green and tall and healthy as this looks, it's still just one stem with leaves coming off of it; no new branches reaching out yet. Maybe when it gets a bit taller. Either way, I'm just glad it's alive and well.

And last of all, my strawberries. They still havent gotten any bigger from last year. I dont know if they are just really slow growing, or if they need to be moved outdoors. I've been looking around for places outside I can hang the two baskets that will get moderate sunlight (at first, until they're used to being outside) and that wont get too much wind (I dont want my baskets being blown so hard that they either fall or tip over long enough to dump the plants).

 

I look forward to yet another week going by. I wonder how big my cucumbers will be in a week? How many more squash will I harvest? Will any of the peppers be big enough to harvest? Can't wait to find out!