Garden Fun

The garden is in full swing now. I thought it would be nice to show you'ins what it's looking like.

The cucumbers are in the long bed running vertical in the picture. They have grew so much in the last couple weeks it is a solid wall of vines and they have trailing out across the ground next to the bed. For some reasion they really like this one bed. If I put them any place else they do horrably. I put them back in this bed and I get a bumper crop.

Which leads us to this. It's canning time once again. I have caned one flat of pickles already and will do anoth today after wrok. I have a feeling we will be giving away pickles this year for christmas. I am also going to try my hand at salsa. I put in a few to many tomato plants and they are already as tall as my 8 year old. I have had to tie them up to fence post because my tomato cages are to short. I think I will be able to do my first batch of salsa by next month. I have been seeing lots of blooms the last couple of days. 

The green beans are just now taking off. I planted 2 different varieties this year. One is a climbing variety and the other is some sort of yellow green bean. We ended up with the yellow ones just because the girls thought yellow green beans were funny. I will try to grap a picture of them before the girls eat them all. We have already had a few but the girls ate them right off the plant, I never even got to see them. They did report they were tasty so there is that. 

I am trying my hand at growing Lufa's this year. Im not sure how they will do but a neighbor is giving me a couple more of those mineral buckets you see in the picture and I will plant them in those. I have some Remesh that I will wire together to make an A frame for them to climb up and over. I think it will make it a great height for the girls to be able to help me harvest them once they have dried enought for sponges. I am told they are quite tasty if you pick them young. I will let you know if I get brave enought to try eating one. I am growing them mainly to use as sponges as they are my favorite and I like to put them in my hand made Lufa soap. I think it would be nice to offer soap that has something grown in my own garden. 

So that is my gardening update. If you have any gardening picutres advice or canning recipies feel free to send them my way. I would love to hear from you.