What did you pick today?

3 yellow pear tomatoes, 1 roma tomato, and 6 beefsteak tomatoes.

scallions, cukes, corn (ugly ears, but good for blanching & freezing), tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, carrots, canaloupe, pumpkins, yellow onions, jalapenos, ancho peppers. Squash borers got the pumpkin vines, but there are a few full-size pumpkins that I'm hoping to get to ripen.

Tomatoes!

I'm so happy . . . everyone seems to be having trouble with their tomatoes around here this year.

One, just one ripe cherry tomato! First of the season. Everything is slow here this year too. Hot streak in april then 8 inches of snow, Feb weather in June, cold all summer.

Aint that the truth, Silkie Chicken! I was just up your way on vacation (Lake Connor) and was so surprised at how late things are. I'm used to being up there in mid-July and being able to pick blackberries. In early August, at most places there were only teeny, tiny green berries or were even just flowering. This is the first year in a LOOOOONG time that we've not gotten to enjoy a sampling of the local berry weeds. Being from So. Cal, it's quite the treat!

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to pick in my own garden today, but I worked the church garden and picked green beans, Persian cucumber, summer squash (zukes, yellow straight neck, yellow crook neck, white patty pan, and two freaky crosses - Zuke/yellow straight neck & Zuke, yellow crookneck), a single tomato, lotsa peppers, sweet corn, and cantaloupe.

Well someone decided to pick our butternut squash and smash it into the ground!
I want to get a camera or motion detector and see whos doing it, i'm sure its some kids that are doing it. On friday someone dug all around our garlic and messed up the other stuff up there. I also found a small watermelon in pieces in the alley several weeks ago. I'm not sure if it was a person or animal since it was small but I know the other stuff had to of been a person.

Sad is the day when we must stand guard with shotguns over our vegetable gardens because of punks.

That stinks!
I don't know if this would work for kids, but I have a motion detector water scarecrow.
When it senses motion it sprays water and turns, so it gets the whole area.
Its small, I have it only a couple of feet off the ground, I leave it hooked up to the hose and forget about it.
I got it to keep my dogs and chickens out of the garden.
I forget that its on sometimes and walk out to the coop to let the girls out or I go to pick something out of the garden and I get sprayed. It works well, you don't know which way to go to get out of its path as it turns.
The only ones that can get around to the garden without getting sprayed is the black biddy gang.
I have 6 black stars and 1 americauna who like to run as a gang and don't hang with the rest of my chickens, they figured out that they can walk the long way around the yard and sneak through without getting caught.
They did it for a while but it seems like they can't be bothered going out of their way now.
It may be worth a try though if you think it could be animals, and it may bother the kids enough or it may not.

that seems like a good idea, but our hose can't reach that far. Since that one watermelon got taken off I have tried to hide them, and I thought about the sqaush but I thought nobody was going to pick it. Luckily its going to get some more but I guess I'll have to hide them now, and the vine that the squash was growing on was all messed up and bent I thought it was broken. Next year anything we do up there is going to be regular plants and any vegetables are going to have to be ones that grow underground. The hill that these plants are growing on is right next to the garage and you can easily get on the roof and people for some reason can't resist that, I know when I was younger I liked going up there but it was my garage. Earlier this year we did grapes up there, they were barerooted so they just looked like twigs sticking out of the ground after planted. Someone had been up there and they just had to put a big huge rock right on top of it. It was fine but several weeks later it broke. A neighbor lady said someone dug up her hollyhocks, she had row of them and now she has 2 left. I can't wait to move, I started my first day of college today so only four more years then me and my mom can move.

I forgot to add that something broke the bud off our giant sunflower, it was either a bug or animal i notice something ate a huge chunk out of one of the leaves and i could only find a tiny piece of the bud. Today I noticed some of the leaves were broken at the base part so maybe a squirrel. Do they eat sunflower buds?
I was so happy it actually grew, how tall it was, and when it started getting the bud and then something breaks it. oh well i'll just try next year.

Piles of cucumbers, green peppers, jalapenos, heirloom tomatoes, blackberries, green beans, kale, summer squash, patty pan squash and zucchini, honeydew and basil. Whew! It was a busy day!

That's so sad to hear about vandalized gardens The garden should be a peaceful place that brings a person joy...