and grows

After quite a few weeks of neglect Friday night Mom helped me fight back the weeds and tame the vines that were all over my garden. I had let a mystery squash vine grow to see what it would produce but it had a few leaves with powdery mildew and was choking all the other plants so I ripped that monster out!  Since this is my first large scale veggie growing experience I am trying to note all the things I am learning along the way.

So far I have learned to identify weeds, have learned it is best to pull all mystery or hold-over seedlings, and that weeding is fine on a weekly, bi-weekly or sometimes tri-weekly (as in happening every two or three weeks).  

 It's a FULL bed.

 I have resigned to letting the vines grow over the sides.  They are mostly cucumbers.  I will probably plant a few less of those plants/give them more space next year.

 The volunteer cilantro has bloomed so maybe it will make some seeds for me?

 My lettuce has bolted.  I don't know that this a good thing but oh, well.  I think it is still edible.  Green smoothie time?

 The tomato plants from Aunt May are just huge and FULL of tomatoes.  Yum.  Lizzard, you can have some when you come visit.

 These are my cucumbers.  Yes, they are round and yellow!  There are called Lemon Cucumbers and are heirloom.

 I like them sliced with salt and pepper.

 Definitely the start of something good!

 All those yellow blossoms are on the cucumber plants.  I think I may have to pickle!  I told mom that and she said "have you ever done that before?"  I told her "no."  She said, "neither have I."  My response was, "we'll have to learn."

 Somethings getting a nosh on my cauliflower and kale.  Serves me right for not harvesting it.

 I haven't gotten a harvest out of these yet because I keep eating them off the plant as soon as they pop up.  They are like candy.

One of Mom's big ol' volunteer sunflowers.  Beautiful and make me miss my two sunny southern (transplanted) ladies.

 
I'm pretty happy so far with this garden.  I think it about the right size but I am thinking of how next year I might place certain plant together and keep others farther apart.  Such as my snow peas and cucumbers...they should not be together because they compete for climbing space.  Maybe growing some green beans in the bed with the sunflowers might be a good combination.  What a fun experiment!