Cucumbers

I don't know about you, but this summer got away from me. I can't believe it's over already!

The garden finally gets some much needed TLC

The end of summer is upon us and now the new school year has begun. My husband who was underway with the Navy most of the summer returned for the last three weeks of our official summer break from school. He was able to take the very last week off for vacation and we had some wonderful family time together.

New Hummingbird feeder

But my garden was neglected. Here's a weed of grass that I pulled a few days ago. BIG huh?

Tall grass

Since school and work have resumed, I've been back in my garden and have found several surprises.

First and foremost I have a very large cucumber. I can only find one, but it is very big and ready to be picked. I have never grown cucumbers before so I needed to refer to directions on when and how to harvest. Here's the link to a website I will be using.

cucumbers

My prize cucumber

Soon every little baby cuke like this one will be just as big!

Baby cuke

My cherry tomatoes are getting some nice color to them and I have had several habaneros ripen from my pepper plant. (I bought this one from Home Depot and it already was fruiting.)

Cherry tomatoes starting to turn red

My red potatoes in the laundry basket seem to be growing rapidly as well as my Aloe Vera which started out as two plants and is rapidly becoming a forest of it's own.

Bushy red potatoes

Six pots of Aloe Vera

But alas, I have been greeted by bad news as well. It appears that my pumpkin patch is dying. I have sunflowers, dill, marigolds, and radishes thriving, but all the flowers are gone and the vines are dying off of my pumpkins. My conclusion is the heavy rains we've been having as late. I will need to rethink my irrigation concept and possibly build a way for the overflow to run off. I have since planted a few new seeds directly in the now empty mounds, so hopefully we'll just restart and have better times ahead.