Cantaloupe, red peppers, tomatoes, and a GIANT surprise!

The community garden continues to grow well.  Even with the heat, the plants are thriving and producing lots of veggies- well over 400 pounds so far!

There are lots of cantaloupe, and we have harvested many already:

We planted a few different types of pumpkins (pie, jack-o-lantern, and GIANT).  We have one GIANT pumpkin growing:

Red cherry tomatoes!  Isn't it neat how they ripen?!?

Red pepper:

Acorn squash growing right in the center of the plant:

Overview of half the garden:

Tomatoes!!!

The big news is: we have red tomatoes (well they are cherry tomatoes, but they are red tomatoes!)!!!!!

Here are the donation totals so far:

Broccoli: 7 pounds

Swiss Chard: 40.5 pounds

Onions: 9 pounds

Zucchini: 177.5 pounds

Snow peas: 8 pounds

Cucumbers: 40 pounds

Acorn Squash: 2 pounds

Green peppers: 2 pounds

Green beans: 0.5 pounds

Carrots: 4 pounds

Here are some of the latest pictures from the garden:

Green beans:

Cantaloupe:

We got the jalapeno pepper plants in late, but they are starting to grow quite well now:

The potato plants are starting to die down and are getting ready to be harvested:

Zucchini (177.5 pounds of these have been harvested and there's still more to come!!!) :

Acorn squash growing quickly:

That's a lot of zucchini!

The community garden is thriving in all this heat we've been having!

Last Monday 100 pounds of zucchini were harvested!!!

Here are the total weights of veggies we have donated to food pantries so far:

Broccoli: 7 pounds
Swiss Chard: 35.5 pounds
Onions: 9 pounds
Zucchini: 112 pounds
Snow peas: 5 pounds

Everywhere you look veggies are growing!

Tomatoes (still pretty green, but they are tomatoes!):

Green peppers:

Acorn Squash:

A pumpkin (you have to look really closely to see the pumpkins growing under all the big leaves):

Cucumbers (here's 18 pounds worth of harvested cucumbers):

And peas!

Peas and Zucchini and Vines

The bean plants are having a fantastic time climbing up the trellis.  Numerous plants have already made it to the top!

There are quite a few snow peas that are near ready to be picked.

The zucchini are getting big and almost ready to be picked!

The carrot tops are getting big!

 Tomato plants are doing quite well...no tomatoes yet though:

Some of the pepper plants aren't doing so great.  A couple plants are doing well:



The viney plants are growing and their tendency to want to take over is quite evident.

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The poor tomato plant in the center left is looking like it might get engulfed in the zucchini plants



Despite the lack of rain...

We have had very little rain in the past month, but thanks to a dedicated watering crew and abundant sunshine, the community garden is flourishing (but it would be even better if it had a nice rain, so pray for rain!). 

We have harvested broccoli and swiss chard and brought them over to the food pantry.  The broccoli will be done soon but the swiss chard will keep growing.

Here's a few other exciting updates:

We constructed a trellis for the bean plants to grow up.  The bean plants are already loving being able to send vines up the trellis.

The pea plants are about 2 feet tall now and have pretty white flowers on them:

Here's a flower on a cantaloupe plant (the fruit will grow where the flowers are):

And the prize for the most ginormous leaf goes to:

The cucumber plants are growing up their fence:

The swiss chard is growing well and colorful and even grows back more when we cut some away.

Right in the middle there you can see a zucchini starting to grow! (it's horizontal and has light and dark green stripes):

First visible veggie!!!

Every time I go out into the garden there are new and exciting developments!!!  Below are some pictures of the latest developments...  

We have had an excellent crew of people who have helped with weeding (a never ending task in an organic garden) and with watering.  Thanks to everyone!!!

The most exciting thing today was the broccoli!!!  Last year we had beautiful broccoli plants grow, but they never formed any heads of broccoli (we think we planted them too late last year).  But this year, one head is already starting to form!!!

Broccoli head starting to form!

The pea plants are growing taller and are looking for something to climb on

The pumpkin vines are getting pretty sizable

the swiss chard is looking gorgeous

the colorful swiss chard!

Zucchini vines

Flowers on the potato plants

Seedlings: they grow up so fast

Everything is planted in the garden and seeds are quickly turning into seedlings and seedlings are quickly turning into plants!  I just love it when I go out to the garden one day and see little sprouts that weren't there the day before.

 Last weekend the youth and adults who were participating in the 30 Hour Famine helped plant the rest of the seeds and the plants in the garden.

Cucumber seeds going in 

lots and lots of tomato plants going in

Here's some highlights on how things are looking:

row of pea plants

baby cucumber plant!

Swiss Chard- this is going to be a cool plant!

Broccoli plants- already getting pretty big

potatoes on the left, onions on the right

tomato plant