Garden Update: May 6, 2012

This afternoon I snapped some photos of the garden. I can't believe how much things have grown!

I've got a wall of cucumbers down the center of one bed -- in front of the cucumbers are beets and spinach.

The plants have started blooming like crazy! A mix of slicing cucumbers, mini whites, and lemon cucumbers. Should be fun to see how they come in! There are little baby cucumbers everywhere! I have cucumbers in 4 other places in the garden, as well. Good thing we eat a lot of cucs! Also in this bed are 4 kale plants and a small row of beets which are now nearly hidden by the cucumbers and the kale.

The zucchini bed is growing like MAD! The six plants in this 4'x8' bed are three feet tall, and spilling over every edge of the bed. So much so that you can only see the edges of the bed in one or two locations.

Three of the plants in the bed are yellow zucchini. The plants are doing well, and putting on a lot of fruit.

The remaining three plants are black zucchini's, and just like the yellows, the plants are putting on LOTS of fruit. I have zucchini plants in several other locations as well, so I imagine we'll be eating zucchini for a good long while. Some of the other plants are just starting to put out blooms, others are just putting on their second and third leaves, and others still have yet to come up. I did good succession planting, this year!

I should have picked several zucchini off of this plant today, but didn't get around to it. I'd better bring them in tomorrow, or we'll have some 5lb zucchini to deal with! *grin*

The trough gardens are doing great! Soon, the patty pan squash will start to hang down over the edge, and hopefully the nasturtiums I have planted in the troughs will start to trail down over the edge as well.

The mint, herbs, dill, radish, chard and these two Juliet tomato plants are growing well. The dill actually has several flowers that have gone to seed.

There are some squash plants in this bed that have grown so tall, I think they're shading out the tomatoes and peppers behind them. In the front corner is another grouping of cucumbers, and same with the corner of the bed on the left .... yup, more cucumbers. *grin* You can also see how tall the sunflowers are getting along the chicken yard fence! They are going to be beautiful!

This is one of the squash plants in the bed shown in the photo, above. Not only are the plants crazy tall, but they are LOADED with squash!

This bed has an 8-Ball zucchini, a butternut, and a patty pan squash plant. Cucumbers, some onions, and some kale are on the backside. On the left side of this photo you can see part of the Armenian cucumbers I have planted on the tree branch tee-pee trellis I built last year. They are really strong, healthy looking plants, so I hope they do well.

Every time I go out to the garden, I'm amazed at the progress. I actually ate the first ripe cherry tomato this morning, right off the vine. And it was DELISH!!

Comments

[Danielle]

I am amazed by all of the fruit I see on these plants! It's so lush and beautiful! My tiny seedlings just went outside this past weekend. It's hard to believe these 2 inch fragile babies will be producing fruit themselves one day.

Your garden is beautiful-you should be very proud :)

[diane mcvey]

WOW, WOW, AND WOW!!! The garden looks so wonderful, especially after last year's disaster!!! I am so happy that it is all doing so well. Everything looks amazing. You are going to be busy canning a lot of things! That is so fabulous. LOVE IT!

[MicheleP]

After last year - you deserve 5 years of gardens that look like this. If I can get my tomatoes to grow 1/2 this well, I'll be thrilled!

[Michele Ghent]

Anna, Anna, Miss Patty Panna,
How do your squashes grow
Yellow, and greeny and black zucchini
all spilled out and not in a row:)

that is one CRAZY prolific garden. SOOOOO nice to see after last year's drought. Already so many fruits from your labors with many more promising to come. Looking forward to seeing what you will do with it all.

mmmm hmmmm, there is no sprouting going on here. Just some weeds poking up there heads waiting to be tilled under. So weird in this neck of the woods to imagine you already eating your garden produce:)Hugs~

[Beth M]

Your garden is amazing! Haven't even planted ours yet. So jealous that you're already enjoying some harvest. Gotta go check out the peeler you posted about, looks like something I might need. Happy gardening.

[Sherri D.]

Garden on steroids!! Things look great this year and what a big change in growing from your pictures in April. It's all coming right along! Let's hope it continues!! ENJOY!

[Barbara]

Oh My gosh ! You are so lucky to have things growing so far ahead already. Here in Southwestern Ontario, we still haven't had a chance to put our garden in. Frost date is May 21 this year, although this weekend we may get it all ready for planting! So there is some hope!
Lovely garden, thanks for sharing.

[DottienTX]

Mercy! Mercy! How your garden doth grow. I love dill and immediately spotted your patch of dill and gazed upon it with envy!
You and Alan definitely have green thumbs and know you'll enjoy every bite of it. What can be better than the first tomatoes!

[Kathy Martin]

Oh my word! It's a jungle! You'll be eating well! And organic I'm assuming since I've been following you for a while and that just seems like how you roll! ;)

[Ann weyer]

Great garden!!! It looks so healthy!!! You'll be busy when all this ripens!

[Lisa Kind]

You are so lucky to have weather that allows you to have all of this already! Up here in Western NY, we can't even plant yet! :-( I'm drooling about all your veggies! Can't wait for ours this summmer!

[Shellie Daniel]

Amazing how much everything has grown since your photos on April 26--wow! Glad you're already enjoying produce from all your hard work.

[Robb_eeie]

Hi Anna :) Your garden looks totally amazing this year ~ wish I could just taste it all.
Make sure to give some cookies to my pal Bad Betty ~ hope she is staying out of trouble ♥

[Troy Louise]

Wow! This is one amazing garden - it's so beautiful & oh how yummy all those veggies must be. And, boy have you been busy with your new chicken yard. Love the pic of all of them. Thanks for sharing with us.

[kathynruss]

Gorgeous garden. Much more success than last year with the drought. One thing I remember from when I had a garden, thou shall not turn your back on a zucchini!

[Michelle]

Its incredible to me that you have this lush beautiful garden already. It's still too early to plant in Idaho. It froze 3 times last week.

[Carol Dee]

Your garden looks so lush and amazing. Our potatoes and peas are just now poking up. The beans and tomatoes went in yesterday. It has been very WET the last week. It would not dry enough to work in the soil. We are fast running out of space! So much more we want to plant! (The 8ball zucs are ready to go in the garden, too!) Have a wonderful week, hugs....

[Jennifer Woodward]

Anna, it looks GREAT! How fun to see the progress! You're going to have a bountiful harvest this year!

[Leslie]

I'm soooo envious of your garden and my mouth is watering at all the cucumbers and squash you have. It is so cold here at night we won't be ab le to plant for another 10 days..boo hiss. HBowever, I will start my squashes in 5 days indoors, hoping that. It wil be warm enough olvernight to set out in about 2 wks.

We strted Italians parsley and carrots in 4ft bins while we were traveling down south, plus some cherry tomatoes. But, the carrots drowned in Tulsa and we lost them all.

[Michelle]

Amazing! Rick just TILLED our garden spot today!

[Val]

I love your garden!