Monday Garden Club

First the good news, because well, yeah, there is some bad news to report from the garden this week, but first the good...

The peas are doing well. Still not yet flowering, but soon...
The vine portion of the garden is starting to get a little nuts. I may need to thin out some of the pumpkin and squash plants before they take over the entire yard...
Most (but not all) of the tomato plants are doing well and are starting to produce green tomatoes...


onions...
peppers...
These funny looking plants below with the red stems are Okra. They are actually a red variety of Okra as opposed to the traditional green. Okra is a new one for me this year so I have no idea what to expect, but so far so good.
The sunflowers seemed to have shot up a foot since last week and guess what? So have the beans, right up the stalks of the sunflowers!
The Gardener and I, almost in unison said "I'll be damned" when we noticed it for the first time this week. So cool that it's working as planned!
The first of the raspberries have started to ripen...
Not enough to make a dessert, but enough to keep the girls happy.

I picked these 4 zucchini last night and we ate them for dinner. Delicious!
Radishes and cilantro...

My little helpers have been great this year about working in the garden. I started some chore charts for the summer and one of the chores they get credit for (stickers they collect, then cash in the chart for some money at the end of the week) is gardening. 20 minutes at a crack seems to be the perfect amount of time to get something done but not so long that they lose interest.

Mae weeded the broccoli row this week and did a great job getting in between the plants.
She also spotted a huge thistle growing up in the raspberry patch that she had some trouble getting out. Not giving up, she called sister over to give her a hand, or more like a tow...
Now for the not so good gardening news. We found this summer squash plant broken off laying about 2 feet from where it was growing. Not sure what happened to it but I'm thinking those naughty dogs from the pig farm across the road or a wandering deer could be to blame...
As if a dead summer squash plant (with squash on it!) wasn't enough for the week, Friday night a nasty storm rolled through that produced some damaging winds...
Broken tree branches and shingles from the roof of the barn were strewn about the yard,
Potted plants were overturned...
The giant daisy plants not quite blooming yet were knocked over. We staked them up but still, they look pretty sad...
Some of the tomato plants too were damaged and blown over...
One cauliflower plant was lost as well...
It could have been worse, but still this is enough destruction for the season. You hear that Ma Nature?

Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments and I'll add it to this post.

Participating Blogs:
Out In Them Sticks
Ma Vie Folle
Easy Eco To Go