My Kitchen Garden Is Thriving

I spent some time in the garden checking on my babies and pulling weeds.  The only negative in gardening is weeds.  In the above picture are Sugar Baby watermelons, cantaloupe, and a yellow watermelon which I have never grown before.  

I cut down on my peppers this year.  I have an orange, red and green belle.  I lost my white belle. I have a Tabasco and a jalapeno planted as well.  

My Blue Lake pole beans are starting to climb.  Hopefully I will have a good crop.  I did remove the weeds and laid a path of newspaper and leaves to help keep the weeds down.  

My sunflowers are getting huge.  I started these in bottles during the winter.  You can see my post on Greenhouse Bottles here.  

I have a small bed of lettuce, which is looking good.  I have a shady spot, that receives some sun, so I'm going to start another bed this week.  Homegrown lettuce taste so much better than store brought.  

My cucumbers are starting to climb.  A few have latched onto my make-shift trellis, but it looks like I will have to train one.  I used left over rabbit fencing for my trellis staked with 2 fence posts. Last year I used a bamboo trellis, it didn't work very well.  I have Marketmore, Lemon, Boston Pickling and Salt and Peppers cukes in this area.  

This is garlic, which I will be digging up in another 1 - 2 weeks.  This is the first season that I was able to grow it successfully.  The first season I planted in the spring, and it did not do well.  I planted this crop last fall and it has done great.  The leaves are starting to dead back, so it's getting close to  harvest time.  I can't wait to use fresh garlic in my recipes this summer and into the winter.  

Stay tuned for a future post on the other veggies in the garden.  I'll be starting my seeds for my fall crops, cauliflower, kale, spinach, and collards.  What's growing in your garden?  Leave a comment and I'll stop by to check out what's thriving.