Meraz Family: Our garden is flourishing

This Memorial Day weekend we trekked out to the garden to lay down some more mulch on the paths and check on its progress. It's doing really well. We now have 4 cages Michael built to protect swaths of plants from squirrels and gophers, and they work great. We have some caterpillars on the broccoli, and the birds like the strawberries, but that's about it in terms of pests.

I finally got to meet Judy...the master gardener who has 3 plots next to ours and of whom I have heard so much about from the other gardeners (I had specially chosen the plot I did because I liked the looks of hers). She did not disappoint; she was very friendly and helpful. She answered a bunch of my questions yesterday and gave me one of her extra seed catalogs and some leeks from her garden. I made a soup with the leeks but the recipe I used was too watery. I will have to try again when my own leeks are ready.

We've been harvesting lettuce on a regular basis, so lots of salads at our house, and Aaron does eat them! We did spot a ripening red pear tomato yesterday, so hopefully we will be able to add tomatoes to the harvest soon. I am still hoping to do a "summer bounty" dinner later this summer with the bulk of the food coming from our garden.

We have decided to rent the plot next to us as well. We just don't have enough room to do all we want to do (pumpkins, vine tomatoes, etc.) It may take us a while to break ground - but we figure we better get the plot ASAP before someone else does, as we are otherwise surrounded...

Here are some recent pics from yesterday. First, the usual angle...(if you want to compare it to last month's picture from the same angle, click here: Garden Update - into the home stretch! )