Garden Update Week 21 - The end of the Spring Garden

This week has been HOT with heat advisories several days. Its time to wrap up the spring/summer garden. 

Here is a picture of my poor garden the day I didn't have time to water before I went to work....it was VERY thirsty when I got home!! 

My dad was right, I planted my sunflowers too late. They struggled ALL summer long... they didn't get very tall and for most of the summer they were just there... not blooming, not growing just hanging around. The first one bloomed yesterday 08/09 (for my dad??) and the other 'big' one bloomed today.

08/07/12

08/07/12

08/09/12

08/10/12

08/10/12

The vines... the vines, the vines, the vines... they took OVER the garden and didn't produce much. I KNOW now that I should have thinned them out, but I just didn't want to kill any of the plants! I think I would have had better success if I had thinned them out. I did not get an edible cantaloup, but there sure were a lot on their way!! Check em all out:

I pulled out ALL the vines today. 

I did end up with ONE deliciously edible watermelon to share with my family:

One of my biggest mistakes was not knowing the size of watermelon I was growing... I was growing the mini ones and just kept waiting for them to get large-- oops!!

The sweet potatoes are doing GREAT and will be harvested in early September.

These are the Mexican Shellflowers that my dad and I were growing. He did his inside and while it sprouted before mine his died a couple weeks ago. Mine sprouted on 06/20 on this 55th b-day.

Here are my pumpkin sprouts!! I will not make the same mistakes with these as I did with my summer vines!! I doubt I will have pumpkins before Halloween, but we can hope!!

I am glad to have a garden again and will probably keep up with it more since it is a way I can be connected to my dad.