Week 4 Garden Tour

As promised, I went out bright and early with a 100% charged camera/phone battery, and I've put together a garden update for you.  The problem with bright and early, though is that it's...well...bright.  I think you'll get the idea, though.

 I ended up with 11 lemon cucumber plants, and they're doing well in their pots so far.  I'm hoping to get enough cucumbers to make a batch of pickles from a recipe a friend sent me.  And yes, I know that lemon cucumbers are not ideal for pickling, but what else am I going to do with 11 plants-worth of lemon cucumbers?  No way are we going to be able to keep up with eating them fresh. 

 This is the mini pepper plant.  You can just see a few buds forming.  I've never had any luck with full sized bell peppers, but I did get quite a few jalapenos last year, so I'm hoping these mini peppers will do well, too.

The bean and pea patch is a jungle.  Blauhilde beans (a purple pole bean from Baker Creek) on the right, and sugar snap peas and a random green pole bean that I'm supposed to grow and give to a food bank on the left.  I am loving the purple vines of the Blauhilde beans.

Sugar snap peas and Asparagus bean on the right, and Kentucky Wonder pole beans on the left.  Some of the sugar snap peas are taller than me now, and some of the Kentucky Wonders have made it past the apex of the trellis.  Still no bean flowers, but the peas have flowers and pea pods, some of which are very close to harvestable.

 One of the peas.  Isn't it pretty?

One of the zinnias, amid the bean jungle.  The bud is forming.

 Patty pan squash is doing well.

 Zucchini

 Poor little watermelon plant trailing out of the garden bed to escape the bean jungle.  I should have planted this little guy in one of the radish spots, but the radishes weren't done yet, and I wanted the watermelon to have a trellis to climb.  Maybe next year I'll plant a bed of just watermelons to improve my chances.

Our tallest sunflower is about 2 feet tall.  And Koko decided to photobomb.

I've given up on the strawberry patch for this year.  It's overgrown with weeds, and the strawberries are pretty much done for the year anyway.  Between the weeds and the tiny green worms, I'm not sure what to do with this space next year--if I should try to dig up some of the plants in the fall and transplant them to another bed, or start over with new plants, or just keep them where they are and see what happens.  It'll probably depend on how much energy I have when the other garden beds are done producing for the year.  On the bright side, if I do decide to either start over or transplant, I can put some asparagus in with the strawberries this time.

You've already seen this picture of our farthest along grape tomatoes.  Today I noticed our first Big Beef tomato as well, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  I've been pruning the tomatoes this year again, taking the suckers off as they form to hopefully direct more energy to the main plant and fruit production, but I missed a couple of suckers that are huge now, and I don't want to take those off, so I guess they get to stay and contribute to the tomato jungle.

I think that's it.  Did I miss anything? 

Until next time...happy gardening!