Garden Update Part 1: We Know… It Has Been A While

It seems that our garden had a slow start this year, but things are in full bloom and the veggies are starting to show up.  Gardening is said to teach us patience and this year it has done just that.

We bought some cucumber plants from a local store, because the ones that we started burnt up in the hot sun.  For our second attept we decided to use a barrel, instead of the raised beds, and move the barrel in closer to the house.  It gets full sun for awhile in mid day then it is shaded from our very hot late afternoon sun.  The plants really took off and have been putting out male flowers for awhile.  Just this week the females started showing up, making a grand entrance with 7 already on the plant.

This eggplant was picked up as something new and different for us to grow.  I’ve really enjoyed the plant itself, the leaves are big and healthy and the purple flowers are so pretty.  We had a couple of blooms come and go with no eggplant to show, but finally one has arrived and it is growing fast!  When I snapped this picture James was amazed at how big it has gotten in just a couple of days.

The okra is a little different story.  Although it did take a bit to get going it has been going full force for a month or so.  We are picking one or two pods a day and it has kept pretty well for a couple of days until we get around to cooking it.  The next couple of harvests I will batter and freeze for later use.

Although we have harvested and used a couple of smaller bell peppers this is our first really good sized one.  The plant has started a couple of smaller ones and hopefully they will all turn out big and beautiful like this one.  I think we have about 4-5 healthy bell peppers on various plants, so we should have more than enough in a week or so.

Lots of things going on, we are going to have to break this into two parts.  How does your garden grow? Is it testing your patience this year? or producing like never before?  We have missed you guys/gals – hope we are back in the swing of things again after taking some time off.