Garden update

How about a tour through the garden? I am actually surprised that it is doing as well as it is! We had a light frost AFTER the last frost date, days of 20+ mph winds coming off the fields, and torrential monsoons! Somehow it all survived and is thriving.

Starting on the right hand end is the corn and watermelon patch. Sweet corn is planted closely (for better pollination) and is about knee high right now. Behind the corn is about eight watermelon plants. We should be eating our fill of watermelon by July 4th!
Just to the left of the corn is three rows of mammoth sunflowers. We'll toast and eat what we can then save the rest for the birds.

On the right side of the picture, growing on trellises, is my melon patch. I have one row of honey dew and two varieties of cantaloupe - some of which are already putting out flowers! Just to left of the melons is swiss chard, zucchini, and summer squash.

We'll start eating the swiss chard this week. By cutting just the outer leaves, the plant will continue to produce all summer long. I am hoping the large zucchini plants and trellis will shade the chard a bit, I don't think it's too keen on hot Texas summers!

Tons of tomato plants are growing and putting out their first flowers as well...and flowers mean fruits! I have six rows of tomatoes with five plants each row. The boys check on them daily, they can't wait for the fresh homemade salsa to start flowing!

I'm growing a number of winter squash as well. It's funny that winter squash are actually grown in the summer! They are supposed to last in cold storage until winter...we'll see!
Here you can see a baby acorn squash just starting out. I am also growing spaghetti squash on the trellis.

Next in line are the beets and carrots. My carrot crop didn't do so well last year and the year before that they tasted "soapy". Not sure what I did wrong but I'm bound and determined to get carrots this year! Pictured below are beets. I've never had beets before but we are all willing to give them a try. You can actually eat the leaves in a salad! I pinched off a few to try and even the stem running through the leaves stained my fingers blood red!

Doug loves green beans so I planted plenty! I have two varieties of green beans (one row each) and one row of lima beans. I'm staggering my plantings so that we will eat these weekly and then I hope to can the last of them at the end of summer.

Here at the far left of the garden is my pickle patch! Two rows of cucumbers will be growing up the trellis. Ryan loves to pull a cuke off the vine, salt it and eat it right on the spot! I hope to make enough pickles to last us all year (I still have two jars in the fridge from last season!)

Well, that's the tour! Make sure you come down for a visit this summer and take home a bushel of produce! We've got plenty to share and I'm sure my neighbors will be avoiding me like the plague come late summer....one can only eat so much tomatoes and zucchini!