Hello everyone. Well, the garden is really starting to take off!

What do you think? I am actually starting to like the bamboo. It is useful for some things, (see picture) and not as much of a pain as I thought when I first moved in here. and I found out that if you thin it out, the next years "crop" comes up thicker and taller. this year I Have some stalks that are ~ 3 inches in diameter. Actually, I have two different types of bamboo growing, one that grows tall with the stalks on top, (I like those) and one that is skinnier and grows with thick stalks from the ground up. (I will grow to like those as soon as I control them better.)
Here is a picture of Kathi's herb garden, it is doing quite well.

I didnt know there are many types of the same herb Kathi is growing one that is a old variety, and she really likes it. (too bad I cant remember what it was. your going to have to call her and ask if your interested)
OK, I promised a picture of the youngins. Too bad it has nothing to do with the Garden....

However, Hannah has discovered "the woods" behind our house (a half acre of bamboo and trees, really. surrounded by a fence) She askes me EVERY DAY, "can we go into the woods, daddy?"
ANd for a parting picture, here is a picture of a "pink brandywine" with "potato leaf" type leaves, and the "german gold", with regular tomato type leaves... sorta interesting.

Welp, thats all for now.

Hello Everyone.
Couple of things that are noteworthy: One, the birds in the hanging basket hatched, and were promptly eaten by something. We assume it was a snake. Kathi and I were both upset... Two, the garden is really growing!

That picture is 5 days old, and all that rain we had over the weekend really helped the garden along, so the next picture I put up will be suprising. I need to stake the tomatoes tonight, becuse they are getting too tall to support themselves. Three, The grape arbor looks nice today. It grows "muscadine grapes" which have a thick skin, and are rather large. you can squeeze the fruit out of the skin in the fall. They are really good and sweet for about a week, before the birds get them all. I suppose that is true for most grapes.

On the vegi front, all the tomatoes are about equal, except for the "boxcar willie" tomato. not sure why it is growing so much lower than the rest, but it is. The only two plants I am having trouple with right now are the beans, and the broccolli. The beans got a bit eaten by the rabbits before I protected them, so that is probably why they are stunted....
Bye for now, I will try to get a couple pictures of the children includedin the next volume.

Happy day after (the real) labor day!
Well, today I have three subjects for you. Number one is that my garden has been invaded by rabbits. The $#% things ate the tops off of half the kohlorabi plants in one night. See picture of chicken wire below for my attempt at thwarting them. The thing is, I knew they were around, and I know they like those kind of plants... but they did not do anything until now.. I guess they were waiting a little while before "harvesting".

Number two is the birds in Kathis Hanging basket. I looked them up in the "birds of the south" book, and it said they were house finches. It also said they like nesting in hanging baskets! She has to shoo it away to water the plant now. The bird is getting used to her. Kathi gets closer and closer before it flys away. (either that, or it is getting more protective of its eggs!)

and number three is our newest gardener, Melinda. Here you can see that she is getting used to the balance of the garden tools. I am sure she will be helping plant seeds next to Hannah next year!