Returning to the Garden!

Some of these pictures were taken before I left to visit my sister in Indiana.
Before I left I made pesto, for a pesto shrimp pasta dinner with salad. Everything in the salad came from our garden, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, and strawberries!!
A few pictures of the garden before I left.
This is one huge cherry tomato plant.

I've been away from the garden for five full days. It is amazing how fast things change. Clay picked 23 cucumbers in one day while I was gone and several squash. Today I harvested another 11 cucumbers and 12 yellow squash a couple zucchini and several cherry tomatoes. I cut up about three squash to freeze for later stir-frying, grated two zucchini for future baking. Later today or tomorrow I will give away as much as possible!!

I tied up several tomato branches that were dragging the ground and staked a couple cages that were falling over. The blight on the tomatoes is still spreading and the first ripe tomato Clay picked ended up being rotten. It is so nerve racking waiting to see if any of the tomatoes will be edible (not counting the cherry tomatoes). We will either be swimming in tomatoes soon or throwing away a rotten harvest. Our bean plants also have a blight, but it shouldn't be devastating to the crop. I'm thinking the beans are ready to be picked so I will be working on that very soon.

It rained last night after three very dry days! Clay watered a little bit while I was gone. Although the squash plant is producing like crazy the pests are starting to devour the plant. I have spotted the squash bug (it looks like a stink bug), and the squash beetle. The beetle larvae is a little yellow, fuzzy looking worm that I had to hand pick off today, and squish to kill, yuck! I also picked off as many squash bug egg clusters as I could find. I'm not using chemicals, but I read they wouldn't help anyway because most of the pests are found under the leaves and near the core of the plant. Hand picking before it gets out of hand is the way to go.

I also watched an excellent farm documentary last night called "The Real Dirt on Farmer John." It is a very positive and inspiring documentary compared to many that I watch that seem to focus on devastating tragedies. I highly recommend it!!!

Below is today's harvest in pictures!