How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

I have a small vegetable garden, about 6' x 10' and always have fun planting it full and awaiting its gifts! I look at it each day and it hardly seems like anything is happening in there, other than the lettuce that we've been enjoying the last few weeks. Well, we were away last week and came home to find that the garden has been hard at work! Here's what I picked:

There were a few tomatoes too, but they were eaten before I got the idea to take a picture!

So there's plenty more cucumbers and green beans coming in, lettuce is still there and we will finish it all, and then I'll try planting more when it's cooler out. The zucchini is looking great and should be ready to pick any day:

I just wish the tomatoes were doing a little better. Last year they were huge compared to how they look this year, although they seem to be doing better and I did pick a few red ones already! Here's the garden:

Lettuce is in front, zucchini to the left, then the cucumbers to the right. Far left would be tomatoes and green beans along with basil, parsley and dill. I always planted the dill seeds in careful lines, but then my Mom reminded me how my Grandmother would just toss the seeds where ever in the garden, and so I tossed too. Now when I cut the lettuce, there's always a little dill in there with it and we love it in the salad! When I taste it, I always smile and think of my Grandmother! 

So as I'm picking my goodies from the garden, I'm wondering what are you picking from yours?!

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

Love your gardens.  Wish mine were more productive, at least one of our four mango trees has been giving a lot of fruit. 

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

Mango trees, how nice is that! I had to check and see where you live and you sure can't beat sunny Florida and it's climate for great things like mangoes! We are a bit more limited here in NJ!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I loved enjoying your garden. I just put some tomatoes and parsley in pots this year because it's so much easier for me. My tomatoes aren't ready and I think I may need to find a sunnier spot. The funny thing is my neighbor brought some things over for me to keep an eye on and water while she is away. It included some tomatoes in maybe 3 inch pots that she hadn't planted yet. I'm doing her a favor, after all you want the plants to produce more, by eating a couple of warm cherry tomatoes when I pass them : )

Here's my vegetable garden:

I also got one sour blueberry because the birds pick them before they are ripe. Oh well, as I noted it's a favor to share.

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

F, love your little garden! You are doing your neighbor a huge favor by picking those ripe tomatoes and encouraging new growth! lol There's nothing like picking a warm tomato right off the vine and popping it in your mouth! My Lucy, our cocker spaniel we had prior to Jack, made an art out of sniffing out a ripe cherry tomato or two and then snoozing in the garden in the sun. She loved being in there with the plants!

I can relate to your berry sharing! I have strawberries that come under the fence from my neighbors yard and I have only had maybe one or two. Those birds don't miss a thing!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Right a warm tomato is the best. And I love the picture of Lucy among the plants.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

I love this picture of Lucy.

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

Thanks F and Nna. I don't think I ever shared a picture of Lucy on DK. She was really special and I never thought I'd get another like her, but then Jack taught me a thing or two. : )

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Amazing! My one question is how do you keep jack from peeing on the veggies? I would love to carve out a portion of yard to plant veggies but I don't want to guard it all the time from Winston. My first year with my garden I'm experimenting in pots and even then it's hard to keep the doodles out of it. Winston and Sophie are drawn to the organic fertilizer I put in the pots and they keep trying to eat the lemon grass, mint and parsley.

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

Sherri, I've been reading all about your new home and your yard and gardens and you are doing an amazing job! I have to admit in public that Jack is a squatter. He slowly raises his back left paw as he pees but that's about it so far. lol He's just turned 1 and I don't know if he'll every raise a leg all the way, but no peeing on veggies from Jack!! I did worry about his silly puppy ways and him running through the garden, so this year I put in a simple wire fence. If you look closely at the photo of the garden, you will see a black wire fence. It's all hinged together and unfolds and you just push it into the ground. I set it all up and didn't count on Jack fitting through the openings in the fence! So I had to buy another set of the fence and double up to correct the holes. That did it! It's inexpensive and I got it in Home Depot. Even if Winston pees on the edges of the garden inside the fence, you could make your garden deep enough so he can't hit the plants!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

No shame there, I have squatters too. It spares all the vegetation but the grass so really it's a blessing.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I keep mine in a high planter out of doodle reach. :)  Although this wouldn't be out of Winston's reach he wouldn't be able to pee on it.  One of my neighbors has a little fence around her veggies and she plants them in the ground.  

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

Love the photo! You've got a lot of goodies going on in that single pot!