How Does Your Garden Grow

It's hot. So hot that it feels like August today...and I am not complaining. I like it! Everyone is outside walking or working in their yards and sweating. AHHHH!

We took full advantage of the warm weather to get some planting done and to get the vegetable garden in for the summer. Chloe helped me pick out the veggies we will grow this year--

• RUTGERS TOMATOES
• CHERRY TOMATOES (because they go squish in Chloe's mouth)
• BROCCOLI (b/c Chloe likes broccoli with ranch dressing)
• JALAPENO PEPPERS (for Daddy)
• PEAS (she didn't say why, she just likes the plants I guess)
• YELLOW & RED ONIONS

I learned a valuable lesson last year---no heirloom tomatoes for the garden. I have to select the disease resistant, modern varieties due to the small size of our garden. Last year our heirloom tomatoes did not produce much and I had to pull them out at the peak of the growing season because of blight.

The garden looks a little different this year than last. I added a netting fence around the raised beds to keep one dog named Flash out. He was very upset to learn that this is NOT his digging area. Lets hope it keeps him out and he doesn't crash or chew through it.

We still have other plantings to do in the yard. The nursery did not have a lot of plants in yet because it is usually much, much cooler here. As a general rule, summer planting doesn't begin until after Mother's Day in our area because freezing temperatures can occur until early May. Luckily, the warm weather looks like it will be staying through next weekend, which takes us past the window of a chance of frost.