Picked peas and bush cherries. A few green beans are starting to bloom.. Babs

That stupid groundhog ate ALL the leaves off most of my bean plants! Oddly enough, he left most of the actual beans that were just beginning to grow and just ate the leaves. But I guess there goes most of my bean crop. Grrrr.

The pepper plants are finally starting to reach a decent size, and the pumpkin vine is growing like nobody's business. And there are now four zucchini squash that should be ready to pick this week. (I could pick them now and have "fingerling" zucchini, but I actually want good-sized ones to use in linguini.)

My Tom Thumb lettuces look like they're about to bolt, so I think I'll have to pick the rest of them today, and that will be it for lettuce until fall.

 Today, picked the first ripe raspberries. They smell so good. WE had sun yesterday and today. Hoping for some more sun this week to ripen up the berries. Babs

 Today, picked the first ripe raspberries. They smell so good. WE had sun yesterday and today. Hoping for some more sun this week to ripen up the berries. Babs

I've been picking my first raspberries - they are gold.  I thought they were weird, but that was all they had left.  They taste just like the regular red ones, very sweet and juicy.  I do have a red raspberry bush, as well, but the berries aren't ripe yet.  Lots coming, although I will have to watch the birds.

Getting tons of strawberries off just three plants - yesterday I picked a dozen and they were very yummy ~ I didn't even share!

My tomato plants are going great - over 30 tiny tomatoes growing on seven plants.  My peppers are so cute and getting bigger every day.  My cucumber vines are exploding, with tons of yellow flowers.

Also, my potato patch is huge - my cats like to roll in the dirt and I can't even see them because the plants are so lush and high!

Not too shabby for a first time gardener.  

 

  

 Discount Diva,your gardens sounds great for a first one. Babs

My tomatos are going to town and my lettuce is ready to trim, gonna give it to my g.pig.  My lemon cukes got picked over by some creature at night, I am thinking possom or racoon.  Not sure.  The eggplant looks like it is trying to grow!

;-)  Its been fun, but a lot of work watering.

 Still picking lettuce, green onions & green peppers. Yellow crookneck are big enough to eat.  For some reason, the zucchini is lagging behind this year. Green tomatoes getting bigger.  Temps hit 90's today, so the plants are starting to really take off now.

Thanks, Babs

Watering is a chore.  My main rain barrel keeps going dry, so I'm setting up another one in the back of the garage.  The one by the house is still half full, but it is a long trek back and forth to the garden.  It takes about six buckets a day to keep everything watered.

I'm going to look for the biggest barrel I can find.  Some should be on clearance because our city is converting to a designated trash container system in September.  Everyone will get a medium sized barrel, plus free recycling bins and pick up.  So the old barrels will be obsolete.   

Last evening,I picked more peas Picked raspberries and made some juice. More bush cherries and made 6 more jars of jelly. I have enough juice to make 6 more,hopefully today More peas to picke in the next few days..Babs

Picked tons of tomatoes, peppers, chilis and squash yesterday.  Well, DH did anyway!  Had a tomato salad for dinner and still have a medium sized mixing bowl of tomatoes plus more on the vines.  We'll be eating tomato salad a lot now!

The romas are all ripening well and as soon as they are ready, I plan to make some marinara sauce for the freezer.

I plan to make some salsa this weekend with the tomatoes and chilis.  MMMMMM!!

Also plan to make alla checca later this week-an uncooked, marinated tomato sauce that is awesome tossed with fresh pasta or used as a bruschetta topping.  Hmm, maybe I'll even do that today!  That plus corn on the cob would be a yummy dinner!

My only concern is my zucchini plants have seemed to kind of stop producing with the heat we had.  The temps have dropped back into the 90s so hoping they recover and continue producing once again.  Otherwise, they had a good run but didn't seem to like the 105* temps we had at all!  The pattypan stopped producing during the heat as well but has started again.  Guess, we'll see!  Might have time to start another round of seeds if the zucchinis don't recover.

Can't wait to pick some melon-almost ready!