The latest addition of Gardens Gone Wild

What a strange growing year this has been.  This spring was so wet and rainy that most everyone I know, including the farmers, were delayed in planting.  Our yard was flooded.  The rain finally stopped and then we were in a drought.  We needed to water our garden most days.  We haven't had to mow our lawn in over a month.  Our entire lawn was brown and dormant.  The rain started again and now the garden and lawn are growing like crazy.  It's a jungle out there!!  The zucchini and tomato plants are almost as tall as I am.  I'm no giant but I think a 5' 4" tall zucchini plant is pretty big.

August 8th we picked...

• 9 cucumbers (some of them had been lost and were the size of large zucchini)
• 4 "early girl" tomatoes
• 6 carrots (the inside is still a bit green so I'm not sure they're fully ripe yet)
• 20 Hungarian peppers

One day's harvest.  That big thing in the back center is a cucumber not a zucchini.  Oops.

The following day we picked...

• 3 zucchini
• 11 tomatoes
• 2 more cucumbers

What does a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 two-year olds) do with all this???  Well, the cucumbers went to the Webster Community Chest.  They accept donations of perishable items, like the over-abundance of your family garden.  Thank GOD for that.  There are only so many cucumbers a person can eat.  At least I can bake the zucchini into something.  The Hungarian peppers are Paul's and I have NO idea what he's going to do with them all.  

We're keeping a garden journal.  Logging in the harvest every day so we can analyze it at the end of the season.  What else would you expect from two engineers?!  We have everything dated so next year we can time our plantings to extend the season or at least stagger it so we're not overwhelmed.  Well, that's the idea.  And maybe we can estimate how much we saved in produce cost at the store.  I'll tally it all up at the end of the year and let you know how we did.  I have great expectations.  And I'm sure you will be sitting on the edge of your collective seats in an anticipation of that post.  Until then, enjoy.