How Does My Garden Grow?

Notice I say "My Garden" because the Mrs pretty much has left it to me to tend to. She did pick out most of the plants for this year. Mostly from a school fundraiser. She bought 72 tomato plants and we ended up planting around 50. So we're up to our necks right now in tomatoes.

We set up the garden during the first week we were permitted (I think it was around the 2nd week of April). The town plows the entire garden under that week, so it's a good idea to get set up because the weeds grow with a vengeance here. About 3 weeks in, the Mrs noticed a lot of sunflowers popping up in gardens that hadn't been set up yet. So she poached them. Legal and moral issues aside, they're only flowers and (as you can see) everyone gets to see them. Some are at least 8 feet tall.

In the foreground, we have cucumbers, hot peppers, one eggplant and some other stuff I'm not sure of. In the center are three pumpkin plants that aren't doing to well. We were late planting them, but some people have huge vines with basketball size pumpkins on them all ready. In the background are whats left of the strawberries, some jalapenos that I planted and some asparagus that didn't do well at all. I'm sure there's some tricks to the asparagus - I just don't know what they ae. This is the 3rd season for the strawberries. I take them out at the end of the season, pot them and put them in our backyard (covered with leaves). They keep coming back.

Here's a close-up of the ill-gotten sunflowers.

Here's the loan egg plant that I hope to use for Intuitive Eggplant's Smackdown.

My Jalapenos. They're doing pretty good.

Here's a shot of a good portion of the farm. We have a corner plot (A1) and, although I've never really paid attention, I'll bet I'll bet it goes down to Z1. I'll have to pay attention the next time I walk around (there's markers at every plot).

Oh, I forgot, here is probably the biggest cucumber we ever grew.

Part of my routine when I visit the farm is to pick and weed our garden, hit it with a bunch of water, then go for a walk around the entire farm. This is for exercise, to let the water soak in (I water again after my walk) and to see what's doing in other people's gardens. I'm nosey that way. This woman's flower garden is probably the best on the farm. She's there practically every day.

A lot of people grow sunflowers (all the better for the Mrs to pilfer next year).

Last year there were probably 3 dozen plots that went unplanted. That is, people signed up, paid their fee and did nothing to the plot. The woman that runs the farm is really cracking down on this because she has a wait list of around 50 people. This year I noticed only around 1 dozen plots unattended to. There's a lot growing up here. Some people have interesting and unusual planting techniques. One Asian guy uses a lot of PVC pipe and roof gutters for planting. I'll have to get some pictures of some of the other plots for a later post.

Tonight I'm going to attempt a vodka cream sauce and pasta with some of our tomatoes. Then I have to get up to the farm for watering. With this heat and lack of rain (a huge storm hit about 2 miles south of us last night and we didn't get a drop) I have to go up every couple of days.