Proud to Present...

My first Zucchini & Cucumber!

Yes, that's in inches...

This is the same zucchini from a previous post that became ripe, but I stumbled upon the cucumber on accident while looking at the garden as I was walking into the garage. I was in total shock when I found it because of the fact that I had no idea it had been growing there and the size of it!

Garage Sale!

This past weekend we hosted a garage sale at our house with Amy and Mel. It was a great opportunity to get rid of some stuff that we no longer needed and to make a few extra dollars. It feels good to know there are people out there that can make use of your things.

Stuff...
...stuff...
...and more stuff.

The three of us together made $170.66 on Friday and $106.90 on Saturday for a grand total of $277. Amy was the top money maker with $124.90, Mel made $54.25 from some old windows she sold, and I made $98.10. It was good money for a fun two days of work!

It's Growing...

The plants are finally bearing fruit:

It's a baby watermelon, the size of my fist...

So yesterday morning I noticed that the zucchini plants were leaning almost flat to the ground. It looked as if a big dog ran through our garden. Then as I took a closer look, I noticed that the zucchini leaves had a fungus growing on them, so I thought maybe the fungus was killing the plant and therefore it was drooping. But when I took an even closer look, I noticed that the cucumber plant was wrapping its vines around the zucchini and pulling it down. Needless to say our garden is growing out of control, but still bearing fruit which is the most important part.

I found this zucchini by accident while trying to clip some leaves off that have the fungus on them. I also had to give them a milk bath to keep the fungus from getting any worse.

I also found this guy, a baby cucumber, only 2 inches...

1st Harvest...

When Shannon was here we decided to harvest the Komatsuna leaves and make a stir fry recipe we found online. Shannon was the main chef and I, her sous chef, so she says...lol! Our stir fry turned out really good and even Cisco had nothing but good things to say about it (and you know he has zero tolerance for anything green). And the taste is very true to it's name; it tastes like spinach with a kick of mustard.

The Komatsuna leaves with some green onion & basil...
Mustard spinach, ground turkey, and pine nut stir fry (yum!)...

My Garden Exploded!

When we came back from Disney World, I seriously thought we pulled up to the wrong house because before we left a lot of the plants in our garden were only inches high, and when we came back it looked like this:


Needless to say, I couldn't believe my eyes, literally EVERYTHING had grown more than I thought it would in less than two weeks. I left Mel to water my plants (thank you Mel!), so I thought she had done something to them ;) But come to think about it, I did fertilize the flowers and put cow manure (trying to stay organic) between the plants before we left.

Now, 2 weeks later, it looks like this (just took this picture minutes ago):

Below are pictures I took of some of the plants right after we got back from Disney World 2 weeks ago:

When I first planted the Marigold, it only had one flower. I guess the fertilizer did wonders for it.
Petunia & Gerbera - Thanks to the fertilizer the gerbera has kept blooming!
My three Tomato plants that are actually flowering now, so the fruit should be coming soon.

The big, bushy Zucchini that is also flowering and taking over.
The Komatsuna or Japanese Mustard Spinach that was our first harvest from the garden.
The Cucumber is also flowering.
The 2 little Lettuces that have so far survived the rabbits by growing next to weeds.
Carrots - I wish I could see what they look like underneath.
Watermelon - also has flowers.
Sweet Basil - Have been using a lot of it.
Lavender - I'm thinking this is lavender and not just weeds...we'll find out.
Bunches of Cilantro - We now put cilantro in almost everything.