The Shrinking Garden

With the dry and hot weather, we've decided to clean up our garden. Though we have had some excitement around here... We had one pretty bad storm that supposedly had tornado(s) in the area and that wrecked our glass-top patio table and umbrella (yea...I'm still recovering over that loss and still finding shattered tiny pieces of glass in the yard). I should also mention that we had a warehouse chemical fire that caused the entire city to evacuate for the afternoon and evening. Luckily we have great friends that fed us and housed us (and our dogs) for the evening. But in all that, still not a lot of rain to speak of.

So, the tomatos had a few left on their plants, but were drying up anyway. We pulled the last few off and decided to be done with tomatos for the year. We had a GREAT output though. Almost too much. Lesson is, next year, we use the same kind of dirt (we think that was the helpful resource) and plant less plants so we are actually able use/eat what we grow.

We also pulled up the other dead or dying things. The cilantro and lettuce. We left the rest for now, as it is still doing well and producing. So, now, we have a much cleaner-looking garden that contains (L-R), parsley, strawberries (still green, but not really producing anymore?), peppers (jalapenos, bell and banana), and the squash, cantaloupe and watermelon.The peppers are still growing and producing like crazy. As is, the squash/cantaloupe/watermelon medley. Its a medley b/c its like a tangled weave, not being able to tell anymore which vine belongs to which type of plant. Here's a pic of our latest cantaloupe which hung onto the fence for a long while all alone. When we got home from our trip, it was already pretty big and I was surprised it was still hanging on! So we quickly tied it up. Still no ripe oranges. But lots of oranges on the tree. And they keep getting bigger so that's good right?

I suppose before long we'll be pulling out the peppers and other plants, leaving only the watermelon, squash, cantaloupe - which in the past have lasted well into the "Fall" here. We'll see....

And for an ending on total randomness, I had to include this cute picture of Barkley. He's such a gentle giant. He's big. Weighs in at about 45 lbs now and I guess still growing. Best we can figure, he'll be a year old sometime around Christmas. He'll be going in to the vet in a week for Xrays on his right front leg since he's been limping on it for the past 2-3 months now. The vet had us try anti-inflammatories first, but they didn't help. So the next step is an Xray. She has some speculation as to what might be causing it (which would probably involve a minor surgery) but is holding out to officially diagnose him until she sees an Xray to be sure. Isn't he cute? And such a pretty dog too. :-)