Green, green, and more green.

I thought I'd do an update on the garden.  I wish I could show you magnificent pictures of a beautiful flower bed in the front of our house, BUT - that's just not going to happen.  The nasturtiums in the bed under the garage window are doing pretty well, and we have a few other flowers finally popping up here and there, but most of it is pretty underwhelming.  We had some very heavy rains shortly after the beds were seeded and a good portion of the seed washed out into the edging trench and even into the edge of the front yard.  I wasn't about to pour a whole lot more money into it, so we'll just have to see what we do eventually get.  The vegetable/herb gardens are doing better.  We have had some problems with a neighborhood dog and at least one of the cats that wander around here.  They walk through, occasionally relieve themseleves, and a few times have dug up a couple parts of the garden, but all-in-all, things are doing pretty well.

Some flowers we do have growing are

the climbing black-eyed susans that are

trailing up the twine I have around the

shepherds crook.

The painted lady is also climbing a trellis.

The pineapple sage is looking pretty good.  I can't

wait until this blooms in the fall.  It has beautiful,

small, bright red tubular flowers.

The regular sage is finally starting to grow.

Carrots

Zucchini.  They're taking over - but I love it!

Grow baby, grow!!

Lemon balm.  This is the healthiest of the three

plants we have.  Interestingly enough it's the one

I held out the least hope for because it was the smallest,

and at one point was covered in aphids.  I had to do a lot

of work on it right off, but I guess it benefited from the TLC.

Okra - it sprouted the quickest (after the zucchini)

but then seemed to stall for a little while.  It's finally

starting to grow well.

Tomatoes, with radishes in front.  We've already

had several radishes to add to salads.

Baby tomatoes on the Black Prince.

Another unwelcome garden guest has been here.

Can you guess who?  Yep, hornworms.  We picked

six of the ugly things off last night.  Yuck. 

One of my least liked garden chores.

These are Rutgers tomatoes I planted for

canning.  I hope the plants bounce back.

Cantaloupe.  Lots of flowers, but I don't see any

baby cantaloupe yet.

Cilantro.  Can't you just taste the pico de gallo?

Don't really know why my oregano looks kind of

pathetic.  I've never had any problem growing it before.

Maybe we can blame it on the cat-or the dog.

Some roma tomatoes and a compact, bush

variety basil.

These basils are so cute, and have a great flavor.

It's my first year growning them and I know I'll

grow them again.  The may be the only basil I get

this year since my other basil was swallowed by

one of the tomatoes.  You have to move the plant

aside to see them.

Some of the Romas. 

There are a bunch of them in there.

I can't wait to start getting more stuff off of everything.  I don't even like radishes, so I haven't had anything to enjoy yet - except the basil.  It was wonderful in the last batch of spaghetti sauce we made.  I hope you are all enjoying your own gardens.

Becky