Garden Geeked: Cramping my style

gosh, I was supposed to post this a few weeks back but got side-tracked (surprise-surprise). Now that I am vacationing at my sister-in-laws in FL, I have PLENTY of time to do other things...anyway, like I said, the remainder of this post is a bit dated. When I get back from FL, I'll have to update with new garden states.

I am hoping to pick-up some cuttings from my sister-in-laws garden. She too is a garden aficionado so we have endless conversations about everything earthy. She has no veggies, difficult to grow in such a sandy location, but she's got tons of flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

I am planning on bringing back a lemon and lime tree.

Anyway...on to the older stuff:

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Well, the ground vegetables are growing like crazy. Especially the pumpkin. Mind you, I only put one pumpkin seed in the ground and it totally blows me away what it transforms into. I can't help but think about how this is all a part of God's gift to us. To create life from a seed or an egg or similar. Give it the proper ingredients and it grows. I think next year though I'll introduce a soaker system in place. I do enjoy watering but sometimes if I can't get to it, it causes me angst. I don't know if it's OK or not to cut back some of the leaves on the ground vegetables such as the zucchini, and pumpkin. The are snuffing out the cantaloup and the watermelon, so i cut some leaves off to allow them have some air. (Pictures below).

My tomato pruning is really producing some impressive amount of flowers. I don't know if it's just the pruning or the pruning in combination of having raised beds this year, but I'm quite pleased with how everything is turing out. I will of course do some adjusting for next season, such as use a different variety of marigold, re-arrange the placement of the ground fruits as well as the peas.

My backyard gets great sun, but I would really prefer a wider lot as opposed to a narrow lot. I can only access my garden form one side and it prevents me from really maintaining the back of it. Oh well...these are all future things to consider when/if we ever move into a different house.

Pumpkins starting! I've got so many...(wish I'd see this many watermelon)

Raspberry bush...I don't expect any berries for a few years. (Probably by the time we move out of this place they will be ready..sheesh)

Peas!

Peppers are happy.

I had to cut back some of the pumpkin leaves so the watermelon could have some breathing room. I hope that cutting back ground leaves doesn't effect their fruit.