Oh how the garden grows

It's been about a month since my last garden post, so I thought it was time for a quick update.

These are the flowers on the scarlet runner beans. My sister planted the beans in large pots with our twisty beanpoles, and the squirrels (or maybe the chipmunks, it's hard to say) keep digging in the pots. A few of the sprouts didn't make it, but the rest of them are tall and flowery and are starting to get beans.

Cucumbers! These three (and one or two others) have been picked since this photo was taken, but there are literally at least a dozen more coming along. I'm sure they'll all be ready to pick at the same time, too. We'll have to share some with friends and family (which we've already been doing).

The broccoli seems to be a bit slow this year. The plants have been growing, and they're a pretty good size now, but only one of the plants has florets. I'll be patient, though, because it will be nice if we have fresh produce later in the season (along with the Brussels sprouts).

This is one side of the garden. In the foreground is the broccoli, then the zucchini, sunburst squash and Brussels Sprouts in the back.

This is the sunburst squash. I love, love the bright yellow flowers. It was a bit of a challenge to get this shot -- crouching down and holding up the leaves all at the same time -- but it looks like a little squash forest.

And here is one of the baby sunburst squash. I'm not a huge squash fan -- at least not the autumn squash, although I am beginning to appreciate butternut squash more as an adult -- but I do enjoy summer squash. And these guys are just so cute.

I know I posted about the beans last month, but seriously. Go back and look at that post (it's the fifth picture), and then look at this picture. That's in a month. I feel like these are the flora version of Cousin Itt from the Addams Family. So far we have picked 1,074 beans. Crazy.

And here you can see several bunches of beans ready to be picked.

Here are a couple of the bite-sized peppers. We haven't picked too many peppers, but a few here and there is good enough for me.

We haven't had too many tomatoes, either, but there are several growing on the stems. These just need to ripen and then I can enjoy a few tomato sandwiches.

After I was done taking pictures of the garden, I noticed this big fuzzy bumblebee flitting around the flowers in the hosta plants. The bees are so fascinating to watch; I just wish they would stay at one flower for a little longer. But they have a lot of work to do, so I guess they can't dawdle.

I always give the bumblebees a little cheer when I see them -- "Go, bee, go!" (Yes, I actually say that out loud. Usually after I say hello to the bee first. We're all creatures sharing the earth, after all.)

So here are the harvest totals thus far (assuming I've done my math correctly):
1,074 beans
20 cucumbers
8 tomatoes
7 zucchini
4 sunburst squash
19 peppers (some red, some green)
Red and green lettuce
Rhubarb
Chives
Basil

Yum!


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