I had help shoveling composted manure today! My son is a big boy now, he can help mom in the garden. I'm so proud of him! We'll plant fun things like decorative pumpkins in part of that area, but he also wants to sow more cucumbers. Child cannot get enough of those!

Good thing cucumbers are easy from seed.

Gotta love it when the kids pitch in! When my kids were small they hated helping me but funny thing is, daughter (Jennifer) went to college and got a job on an organic farm and now she loves it. First son got into tomatoes and garlic and he's the one who bought the seven acres. Second son enjoys it but he doesn't like any of the work! Ha! But he eats it when mom plants, picks AND cleans for them! Cept tomatoes. Neither he or his wife like tomatoes. That's just not right!

How old is your son, Chelle?

Oh, I picked my first cucumbers today and one went to dear Miranda who loves her pepinos!

Found at least 2 zucchini that will be ready to pick tomorrrow. These were suppose to be vining ones, but they sure don't look like they have any interest in climbing the nice big trellis I made for them.

stilldew said:Found at least 2 zucchini that will be ready to pick tomorrrow. These were suppose to be vining ones, but they sure don't look like they have any interest in climbing the nice big trellis I made for them.

Look like the regular zucchini bush to me.

I ate 4 zucchini already this year and I think tomorrow I might pick more. These look like they might be ready soon.


On the yellow zucchini plants I bought they did say that they were compact and so far I have found that to be true. The bushes are smaller than my green zucchinis. I think I have two yellow fruits setting. Tried a picture but hard to get in there.

I have been eating peas fresh out of the garden. They don't make it into the house as I go around and snack and graze. But in a few days I should have enough to pick for a stir fry. Ate the ones in the picture already.


Even though the Sugar Lace II vines were really weird looking, I am very, very, impressed with these peas. They just make a ton of flowers and of course that means pods soon follow.

Had to put another layer of Florida weave on the tomato plants. They are growing like mad.

And I planted my Straight Eight replacement Cucumber seedlings as they were big enough to go in ground.

Arlene, he's seven now. Guess what finally got him out there and enjoying the work? That's right...they grow food producing plants on a computer game he loves! He's like, "Mom, this is just like what we do on...", and I had to chuckle a bit at how the times have changed. He just recently got into eating whole "pork" and "beef" rather than ground up stuff...for the same reason. Seems they hunt these food creatures down and make use of the different products. So, I guess this one isn't all that strange...at least he's learning something about where stuff comes from, other than just hearing mom and dad say it.

He's excited about the prospect of having his buddies over to pick a pumpkin apiece (or more ) near Halloween.

It's awesome that what you taught your children about gardening stuck in their minds into adulthood. It's great to hear that they're enjoying at least most aspects of it...even now.


I like having container squash! It's way ahead of its in-ground counterparts. I think I'm going to want to add one or two to my yearly must-have's list.

Chelle, that's too funny about the computer games. So they aren't a complete waste of time. It is really amazing how many kids don't have a clue where there food comes from. My granddaughter is only 3 and she has experience the birth of new goats twice now (not watching though, just explaining). She knows where the milk and eggs come from. She used to watch a video about, to the garden, to the garden we go...

She's very lucky because besides the garden we have bees and the goats, chickens, guineas and a dog. She can already name most vegetables and likes to eat them and she gets to eat strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches and grapes right from the plants. I have been teaching her all the flowers by their botanical name. For some reason though her dad taught her Red Hot Poker though and he's the one whose a stickler for calling things by their botanical names and she seems to be fascinated with that one!

Here's hoping you have LOTS of very large pumpkins for all the buddies!

Here's to a great pumpkin crop to make everyone happy. Nothing like some success to get the kids even more interested in gardening.

Arlene, thanks for the info on the beet green "pinching" I put the seed every inch or so when I planted, so I imagine I should thin a bit. I will try pinching the tender leaves to put in salad now.

The long beans are up! from the spacing of what I see coming up, I think they all germinated!

And Rita, even if you had spaced the beets two inches apart, beet seeds are multi-seeds, meaning it's really a clump of seeds so you could still have two or three beets germinate close together. Eliott Coleman says three beets in a clump will work because they will "grow outward" and not crowd each other.

great news on your bean germination. I am having terrible germination on my bush green beans.

daylily said:The long beans are up! from the spacing of what I see coming up, I think they all germinated!

Juli, they will grow quickly.

abhege said:And Rita, even if you had spaced the beets two inches apart, beet seeds are multi-seeds, meaning it's really a clump of seeds so you could still have two or three beets germinate close together. Eliott Coleman says three beets in a clump will work because they will "grow outward" and not crowd each other.

great news on your bean germination. I am having terrible germination on my bush green beans.

Not me Arlene. Juli's beets and yard long beans.

I still have bean seeds to start. Usually the beans come up really good.

OMG! I did it again! So sorry. I am exhausted and have had vertigo all day so please excuse me, Rita And Juli!

So used to "chatting" back and forth with you Rita I forgot to even look at who was posting...

No problem. Get some rest. I just didn't want you to think I was growing Juli's beets. But I have beet seedlings myself so the advice is well received.

I think it's time for some sleep!

abhege said:So used to "chatting" back and forth with you Rita I forgot to even look at who was posting...

And besides I probably post the most often of all the people on this forum. Always yakking about my veggie garden.