Gardening: An Update

Several weeks ago, Gretch and I embarked on another step toward self-reliance, namely, gardening. We'd been talking about it for a long time, but we finally did it. For those who may have forgotten, this is what it looked like when we finally got everything planted:

Shortly after planting, our area was afflicted with record high temperatures and drought-like conditions. We watered our plants every evening, but then we started watering in the morning, too, in an effort to keep them alive. We tried our best to follow the recommendations for caring for the different plants (tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe, cayenne peppers, and crazy-hot-insanity peppers). We worried that some of the plants, especially the cantaloupe, may have been planted to late, but we decided to go with them anyway.

The hot of DOOM has subsided, and we've had a little bit of rain, but still not a consistent amount. With regular watering and constant care, though, we've managed to keep our garden going. We slacked off on weeding at one point, but Gretch was able to guilt me into getting out there with her, weeding, and then remulching. (For some reason, half the mulch we'd put out had vanished.)

One of the cherry tomato plants (the one on the far right) has apparently died, but the others have produced quite a few healthy tomatoes. The celebrity tomato plant has one or two growing. The cayenne plant has produced several healthy peppers, and the crazy-hot-insanity pepper is doing well. The cantaloupe have several flowers, and two of the four broccoli plants are doing well. (The other two were eaten by something, probably rabbits, after I mowed the back yard and got rid of all the fresh clover we had back there.)

The cucumbers are by far doing the best! They are in the front, which is why it is hard to see the bell peppers and broccoli in the picture. The cantaloupe are on the right. The other peppers are kept on the deck since they require less water than the others and we didn't want to accidentally over-water them.

Gretch has already harvested several of the cherry tomatoes, which she has used for her not-so-secret smoothie recipe. Yesterday she picked our very first cucumber. It is several inches long, and very healthy looking. We will be using it for some sandwiches we are making this evening for dinner. We are also looking for suggestions for using cucumbers beyond simply picking them. I've found a few suggestions for freezing that we may consider. If you have any suggestions, feel free to email them or leave them in the comments!