...21 Days Later

Here's what the garden looked like on June 15th. I was so excited that the plants were starting to grow.

Here's what it looks like today. I am absolutely AMAZED at how much everything has grown in only 21 days! The squash has totally over-taken the sweet peas and has finally breached the wood container wall. We picked one of the onions yesterday to put in our salad. It was so very yummy.

Here's the 12 tomato plants that I was afraid wouldn't make it. 8 of the 12 have finally passed the top of the tomato cages and come up a little past my waist. Just this last week they finally bloomed tons of little yellow flowers. The bees have found a new place to hang out which is great because that means we'll have Roma, Big Boy (like Beefsteak tomatoes), and Jubilee (yellow) tomatoes growing in no time flat! Oh-and we have a brown cottontail bunny that likes to hang out in the garden. He doesn't eat anything but I think he likes the cool shade and the protection from being seen by the hawks that we have around here.

I wander through the garden several times a day checking out all the little bushes. Sometimes I talk to the plants and ask them when they're going to grow something other than leaves. They must have grown tired of hearing the same question over and over again because two days ago, I noticed that the Hot Portugal pepper plant had a bunch of tiny green peppers. Now they're longer than the span of my hand. They'll turn dark red when they're ready to be picked. This particular bush has about 8 peppers growing on it right now along with the other one.

The jalapeno bush has the most peppers of all. It takes about 88 days for the pepper to ripen. The pepper at the very bottom that is starting to turn black is the very first pepper that I took a picture of back in June. As you can see, lots of little sisters have joined since then.

Here's the second yellow bell pepper that has grown on this particular bush. The first one didn't make it because the plant was too immature. It's put on lots of leaves and doubled in size so now I feel a little better that it will be healthy enough to produce some fruit. I'm not sure how tall pepper plants actually get so I'm only guessing on the healthy part. :)

I can't forget the herbs. The one on the top is sweet basil. The one on the left hand side is cilantro, and the smaller one is mint. The oregano is still struggling a bit but the thyme has really sprouted and is growing marvelously. I'll have to take a picture of it next time. The only one that really didn't grow was the rosemary the second time around. I know what I did wrong so next year I'm pretty sure we'll have some rosemary to plant in the front.

Here is the first of the summer squash! They're huge! and I have 2 or 3 more on the vine that will be ready to be picked next week. I gave the very first one that I picked to Jana and Robert our most beloved neighbors that are moving this weekend. With 3 squash plants I'm sure I'll have more than enough to hand out to all the neighbors. I'm really looking forward to having fried squash with stuffed Portobello mushrooms for dinner tonight. Yum!