Summer Garden

Anaheim Peppers

Juicy Peach

Strawberry blossom and fruit

Tomato Blossoms

Tomatoes

Golden Pepper

Sweet BasilApple

I have never had success with a garden until this year. I am very excited to reap the fruits (and vegetables and herbs) of my labors. It has been so much fun tending, weeding and harvesting the garden. And I am being honest when I say it has been fun to weed. Typically, I despise weeding, but with this garden, it is so satisfying being out in the sun, getting my hands dirty and ridding my garden of all the invasive weeds so my plants can grow.

My garden this year has tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, red and gold peppers, and basil. My cilantro is done for the season and my parsley and mint never really took off. I tried cantaloupe and zucchini, but they both died. We also have two peach trees and two apple trees. One peach tree had only five peaches, but they are deliciously juicy. The other peach tree has many peaches, but they are small and kind of sorry looking. I still have hope they will grow into plump, juicy fruit. Only one apple tree produced any fruit this year; it has eight fun apples.

Out of all my plants so far, I'd say my basil has given me my money's worth. I harvest it often and add it to pasta sauce, pesto or salad. It is fragrantly delicious. Any other ideas anyone has for the basil I would appreciate.

I am most anxious for the tomatoes and peppers. I hope they taste as good as they look. All the tomato and pepper plants struggled in the beginning. I think I used too much compost, but they have all come back. There are many, many green tomatoes popping up every day on the eight plants I have. One golden pepper has been slowly growing for weeks and it has finally begun to get a golden hue. There is one small red pepper and just this week about eight Anaheims emerged.