Why I love my sis and garden update

Reason number 846 why I love my sis: she knows, without me having to tell her, to save the packaging of any Kelloggs or Keebler products so I can redeem the codes for points through the Kelloggs Family Rewards program.  The people who live here can't even seem to remember that (but at least they recycle...)

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So, for no other reason than it's Tuesday and I love my garden, it's time for another garden update.

I have a gallon-sized bucket sitting on my fireplace just overflowing with gorgeous red tomatoes.  These lovelies, which I grew in my garden, and picked this morning, are destined to become salsa, aka summer in a bottle, later this afternoon.

I have 4 pumpkins that are close to harvest size--now they need to ripen.  Remember, these are pie pumpkins, so they're only about 6-8 pounds at harvest.  There are also a few others hanging around, getting bigger.  Based on my pumpkin success this year, I may be willing to try jack-o-lantern pumpkins next year.  Maybe.

I also have 3 spaghetti squash that are close to harvest size, and just need to ripen.

I was really bummed when I stepped out into the garden yesterday and realized that something had been gnawing on my biggest honeydew melon.  I'm hoping that whatever it was is a ground-based creature, and it won't be able to reach the melons that are hanging.

Something has also been eating my tomatoes, ripe and unripe, the silly thing.  The tooth marks are similar, so again, hopefully whoever it is won't be able to reach the upper tomatoes.

My lettuce has disappeared, but I'm not seeing any chewed on lettuce stumps, so I'm choosing to believe the lettuce was eaten by creatures of a human variety.  I'm probably wrong.

I harvested my lone zucchini last week, and this morning I saw that another female flower is forming.  I'm choosing to see it as a blessing that I'm totally able to keep up with zucchini production this year (especially after finding bags and bags of frozen shredded zucchini from last year in the bottom of my freezer).  :)  I used about half of my zucchini to make noodles, and I'm planning to slice the other half, and grill it with olive oil, salt and pepper tomorrow night.

I picked my first pickling cucumber this morning, but none of the others are even close to harvest.  So now I'm a bit concerned about this whole pickle thing.  I'm wondering what the absolute minimum batch size is for canning pickles, and if I'll have enough tomatoes ripe at the same time to fill the canner.

Still no baby watermelons.  The carrots are getting bigger, and I think the grape tomato is just about done.  I also have some lemon cucumbers that are just getting started.

And...I think that's it.

What's growing at your house?