Joining 
So, I will start where I left off, show you some realtime progress, and highlight a few of my successes so far.
You can see the grass is not doing so well but it is superfluous and ornamental so the food and flowers for pollinators take precedence. Peppers had taken a long time but were finally growing. Carrots were starting to flourish, strawberries had done well but were apparently done producing fruit this first year. Beans on the left were starting to climb and my hydrangeas were finally flowering on the right.
Upon returning home, you can see everything survived. The grass on the right side even showed signs of recovery!
The beans on the left doubled in width, tomatoes were starting to spill out of the box, Marigolds exploded between the tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes were now over 7 feet tall.
The pepper box in the middle filled out nicely and restored my faith that the grown-from-seed hot peppers may in fact yield some Jalapenos, Habaneros and Chilis. The carrot tops in the brand new box on the right exploded and were really starting to encroach upon the strawberries with which it shared that lower raised box.
The cucumbers have been an interesting story this year. Last year, I had none because something killed them all when they were sprouts. This year, they ALL grew and you can see some of the dead leaves that resulted from them thinning themselves out.
It has taken a long time to produce any fruit but I have at least a dozen cucumber baseballs growing now. There have been 2 bigger ones and the salad eaters said they were fantastic.
As I mentioned, I am becoming overwhelmed with tomatoes. Big Beef variety have been yielding for a couple weeks and there are a couple dozen cherry tomatoes ready for eating every day. This one is a baby beefsteak which is leading the charge for the rest of them which will probably all be ready around the same time. So, if you are in my area and in good standing with me, give me a yell and I will have some to deliver.
This one has a nice little scar on it for some reason but was perfect and juicy on the inside.
I planted sweet peppers purchased from seedlings at the local nursery. They have done very well in getting tall and being the envy of all of the hop peppers grown from last year's seeds. The interesting thing to me is that one of them has literally 20 skinny peppers growing. The one right next to it has 2 huge peppers growing. Male/female thing? Either way, a few bucks very well spent and I look forward to growing these from seeds next year.
As I mentioned, the hot peppers have really made ground on the early lead the sweet peppers had. I have even been able to harvest my first jalapeno which was a long strange shape. There are dozens of these and the other hot ones finally growing but a couple weeks from a big harvest. Til then, I will pluck one whenever I need it for pizzas, sandwiches and other meals that need some zing.
This is hopefully the humble beginnings of my first eggplant. I didn't plan to have these but 
The green bean vine looks as though it is threatening to climb up to the clouds. What it has accomplished in vine is contrasted by how few of the beans are actually growing for the last month. The good news is that there are plenty of little yellow flowers and I may be swimming in beans soon. They are a little skinny now so I will let them grow til I see at least a handful of the size I would see in the grocery store. Then, I am going to have to look up a bunch of green bean recipes if I eventually harvest as many as the vine will produce.
The sugar snap peas started out nicely but have begun to battle with the insane cherry tomato vines. They are slowing down but still producing. I think I may plan on replanting them a couple months in so there is a second crop next year.
In the carrot/strawberry bed, we have a boom of growth. The strawberries produced a dozen or so big red berries early in the year despite just having been started this year. As each plant threw out a dozen runners, I figured they were done producing berries for the year.
Here, you can see that there is a healthy second wave of berries popping up and we may actually have enough to freeze and make a jam. That is if they don't get snacked on by my voracious garden assistants who absolutely love eating them while tending to the garden.
The carrots that share that bed are also doing very well. I keep having to brush the tops back into their side of the box and the guinea pigs really love eating them.
It is SO easy to overplant carrots as the seeds are so tiny and it is all to easy to spill a dozen right in the same spot. You are supposed to thin them out as they pop up too close to eachother but I have let them run rampant.
The orange roots are starting to peek above the soil a little and I have pulled a few out as we need them. I also have some fancy multicoloured carrot breeds at the end and look forward to photographing that at harvest time.
Til then, here is what the typical carrot looks like....a little short and fat but perhaps because I have harvested a couple too early.
Here is where we stand today. The beans have gone nuts and we have had to direct them to climb sideways on the fence or else the neighbours would get to harvest on their side. Tomatoes are showing signs of slowing the leaf growth and I am pulling a dozen or more out a day. Cucumbers and Peppers are needing a little more watering and I may blast the whole thing with another round of fertilizer so we get the most out of the final yield.
So far so good and not at all bad for a beginner garden simply wanting to reclaim lawn space and show the family the rewards of growing our own food.
It is nourishing to be back blogging and connected with
