My backyard jungle is growing well.

A week of rain almost every day (including two hailstorms on June 12) and my garden is growing wonderfully! Everything is HUGE. I counted nearly 20 cucumbers (or baby cukes/female flowers) tonight, some on the vining burpless I bought (which is where I had the first baby cuke flower) and several on the bushmaster cukes. The lemon cuke plants are getting tall and vining up. I see flower buds so they won't be far behind!

Day before yesterday the boys and I harvested our first vegetables! I wanted to take photos but we ate them too quickly. 3 entire pea pods and a BIG salad of mesclun and spinach. Even Charlie ate raw peas once they were washed! I brought more in yesterday and will have even more peas tomorrow. I think later in the week I'll be planting more seeds for another harvest.

The beans were blooming well earlier this week and this morning I couldn't find any...but tonight the boys found some baby green beans! They'll be harvestable in the next couple days and I'll plant more seeds...since the two varieties I planted turned out to be bush beans I'll plant a mixture for our second harvest so we'll have beans going up my trellis :)

I've got a number of zucchini growing now...I think I counted six?
Still waiting on the peppers and tomatoes to flower or *something* but I understand in our zone it may still be a couple weeks. The watermelon may be in too much shade to produce but our pumpkin plants are getting BIG. I have two varieties growing.

I think the most exciting thing about this for me has been watching the boys get excited this week about the coming harvest. They were all about planting seeds and building the beds...but I don't think they got it until they saw the baby veggies. Eating the peas I grew was too fun for them! I bet I'll get them to eat grilled zucchini too ;) They love zucchini bread so at least I know we'll eat the zukes somehow.

Playing in my garden and tending it as it grows has been peaceful for me. I'm working a lot right now and the time I spend each day sitting out there, weeding and tending to the plants, has really helped keep me calm and relaxed. It's a lot more fun than I thought and this is something I've wanted for years if that tells you anything.

(the last photo shows the hail damage on my zuke leaves...they look like philodendrons!)

(may i add here that the garden is growing like this mostly on it's own with the fabulous soil conditions created by the lasagna garden method? i did use miracle grow ONE time...and some of the seeds were planted in miracle grow brand soil when i sprouted them, i don't even recall which now...but besides some added epsom salts this is ALL manure and compostable vegetable *stuff* down in those beds! no pest control has been needed since the only problem i had was on the eggplant and it is gone...the vegetables are so dense i don't see anything really having much of a chance of getting in there...weeds or pests.)