Jardin de Verdure

As requested, I'm posting a photo of my whole garden, as well as a little map plotting the location of the different veggies. The huge tall drying plants are the lettuce plants gone to seed. Usually I would pull them out after they flower, since they're not so edible by then, but I decided to let these ones go to seed to see if I'll get tons of lettuce plants next year without sowing any. I've since pulled up the seeded lettuces to make room for the other plants and laid the lettuce corpses to rest under the tomatoes. My philosophy toward gardening is pretty liberal and permissive, for those who haven't already guessed.

Apparently, peppers do well to have their first central fruits taken to encourage further growth of other peppers. So, after the initial peppers, I have been trying to remain patient long enough to let some of my bell peppers grow larger. I measured one of the larger peppers I've ever harvested at about 8 cm tall. We'll try to do better than that! Actually, one of my container plants is growing a bell pepper that is starting to ripen in spots to a vivid scarlet! I'll be so happy if I get a red pepper -- I just need this warm sunny weather to hold up.

I also got a picture of the only cucumber I've ever had as this is my first year trying cucumbers. There was one cucumber before this one that I was just about to harvest, but when I went to get it the next day, it was already gone -- undoubtedly the work of one of the monster squirrels. The cucumber was tasty though; I felt so accomplished and connected to my nearly-idyllic little garden when I plucked my cucumber off the vine, washed off its prickles, and then chomped on it while working outside.

PS. The plan view of the garden is kind of upside down when compared with the view from the front edge, so if anyone is trying to match up the veggies with the map plan, just turn that around. In other words, the top edge of the first photo points North, while the top edge of the plan photo points South. Happy orienteering!