Garden Update

I posted some pics of our vegetable garden early on.  We used Weed Barrier this year to keep the weeds to a minimum, and let me say I'm so glad we did.  We were away from home for about a week, and when we came home our plants had doubled in size.  Had the weeds had the run of the garden, we would have been in big trouble.  Instead, I weeded the entire garden (basically the area between the plants in each row) in less time than it took my husband to take our girls to the park. I took these photos on Thursday, and the garden has exploded with growth even since then.

So far we've got a bumper crop of radishes, and I've harvested two zucchini. There are about 962 more radishes where these came from.

We've got tomato plants loaded with green tomatoes.  A little early for that, isn't it?

Several squash are on the vine. And I'm VERY encouraged by these big, beautiful watermelon vines, currently with blossoms. 

Deer and rabbits have been munching the leaves of our green beans, but they are full of blossoms, so I'm expecting them to be just fine.  And the peas are looking good.  I think.  I've never grown peas before, so I'm not exactly sure.

The cabbage are huge and it looks like heads are starting to form.  The pepper plants are growing pretty slowing but are hanging in there.

For the first time it seems like the cucumbers are lagging behind everything else, but a few days ago they had a growth spurt and are now sporting blossoms.

Back in June on a whim I entered our garden in our local paper's Beautiful Garden contest.  Mostly I entered because I was so excited to finally have a vegetable garden I could be proud of.  I was also encouraged by the fact that no one else had entered at the time.  The voting period has officially begun, and I've got a 2 in 3 chance of winning first or second prize.  Now I admit the other two entries are very beautiful gardens, but I'm telling myself their owners are retirees who have all day to spend tending plants. I, on the other hand, have a crazy work schedule (12am anyone?), two little ones at home, and a very busy husband.  So if you're so inclined, send a vote or two my way.  You do have to register on the new paper's site first, but once you do that it's pretty easy to vote.  And you can even vote daily...not that I'm doing that or anything!  There's a handy link to the voting on the upper right corner of my blog.  Thanks, everyone.  And happy gardening!