Garden Update July 24.

The garden is absolutely growing like crazy right now! We've had  a very long hot spell/heat wave, and I've managed to keep up with the watering and boy, all those veggies & fruits just LOVE the heat. I thought I'd change things up and show you some of my decorative plantings on the deck before I show ya the garden.

These photos were shot sitting at the table in "my" seat. This is my view when I sit outside and watch the kids in the pool or drink my coffee in the mornings (when it's not 98 outside!).

So, looking to my left I see the neighbor's back yard. It's just grass. Only grass. It's mowed, but it's nothing to look at. The Adirondack chair was made by students at my former school. It's pretty comfy & needs to be sanded & stained. I have a dwarf Russian Sage at the edge of my deck which is HUGE and some old variety of black eyed susans. Bryce's little playhouse is there, too. He likes sitting in it and talking with the neighbor's dogs. Sooo cute! The large grass in an unknown variety of miscanthus. It reaches 12-15' tall. That's right--15' feet when in full bloom. It's incredible. We have several clumps along the cyclone fence to act as a bit of privacy. Oh-our deck is just low enough that we don't have to have a railing, but high enough that it's a nice elevation.

Straight in front of my seat is a new pot I got from my friend, K, and I put a .50 unknown miscanthus I got from Lowe's. The little bench is for little boys and I have a planter with sweet potato vine, some Wave petunias and some almost-blooming cosmos. I have a great view of the kids when they're in the pool.

This is straight out my doorwall (sorry...sliding glass door to you non-metro Detroiters) I have lots of pots with lots of stuff in them. I have perennials mixed in with annuals and I like it. You can see our cute blue shed in the back.

And the view to my right when seated....the kids play area and the garden way in the back corner. That table frame is our actual patio table. It met it's demise last summer when Brendan accidently broke it. We're going to tile it at some point this summer. Another project for another post!

The jungle!!!!!  I finally weeded the paths and Brad made a make-shift trellis for the cucumbers that turned out to NOT be "bush" type. The trellis is just an old section of lattice. The large 4x4 posts are supporting some netting to keep out those nasty varmits THE RABBITS. They continue to just plague the garden.

Here's a close up of the brassica bed...cauliflower, chomped broccoli, and a few brussel sprouts. If you look at the back privacy fence, you can see my climbing cukes starting to climb.

A few more cauliflower plants. That netting thrown over the top has kept the animals away.

This is kind of a wierd angle, but I've been training the cantaloupe to climb along the rabbit fencing, then over to the little "gate" and then onto the privacy fence. It's a matter of going out there a few times a day to train the new growth. This is some fast-growing stuff!!!

A "secret" cantaloupe (Brett's words!) that I found growing outside the rabbit fencing. I'm hoping no other critters find it and start chomping it. I might wrap it with some netting to keep the nibblers at bay. Oooo-I just noticed an itty-bitty cantaloupe in this photo. TWO growing outside their protective fence. I'll go wrap those today.

The biggest cantaloupe-it's approaching full size and is starting to develop a hint of the "netting" on it's skin. It'll be ready to pick SOON!!! Have I mentioned that the cantaloupe vines themselves smell sweet? It's hard to not just run your hands through them & inhale. Can't believe we never grew melons before this summer!!

Another biggie cantaloupe. I could take photos of the trillions of itty bitty cantaloupes that are poppin' up in the cantaloupe bed. They're sooo cute!  But the big ones are easier to see. And they smell yummy. (yep, that wet newspaper is my lame attempt at keeping down the weeds.)

In my not-bush-but-climbing-cukes, I found two little cutie cukes growing happily. YAY!!!!

Here's my watermelon helper, Bryce. He LOVES looking at the watermelons and talking about how big they are. He also loves hunting for itty-bitty watermelons, which are still appearing. The funny thing is that Bryce doesn't like watermelon, but he talks about "I gonna PICK de watermewon" when it's ready. I'm hoping that his interest in them growing will translate into him eating them. Bryce has come a loooong way with his eating!

We now have 7 watermelons this size. There are a few more that are ping pong ball size and a smattering of itty bitties. This variety is "Sugar Baby" and the seed packet says they mature at 10-20lbs. These are a solid 5 currently. Not too much longer to wait! We'll be sharing with the neighbors as I'm pretty sure all 7 will ripen at the same time and there's no way we can eat that much watermelon!!!!

This post linked to A Southern Daydreamer Outdoor Wednesday.

This post linked to Ms Green Thumb Jean

This post linked to Fishtail Cottage-Cottage Flora Thursdays