In my garden lately

The compost bed has been growing like crazy, which as you can imagine makes me chuckle.  Matter of fact, it's doing better than the beds we actually planted.  Here you see melon plants growing, with tons of blooms.  The type of melon plants are TBD. 

Speaking of melons, Mr. GV had his first ever golden honeydew, and he loved it.  And then the peel and seeds went into the compost.  So here we have a whole bunch of little seedlings.  We'll see if they do anything this late in the year. 

Peas!  Purple hulls I believe.  I have absolutely no memory of throwing out any peas in the compost so I am stumped by this one.  They are growing wonderfully though.  The wasps and bees love the blooms and we happily coexist when I am watering the plants.  I am picking them and leaving them to dry, so I just pick the few that are dry every time I am out there. 

 

This tomato took ages to turn from green to red.  I mean weeks.  I can't believe it wasn't all rotten inside.  I have had maybe 3 tomatoes total from 6 plants.  They put on blooms but just didn't do anything.  I need to read more on growing tomatoes and see what amendments I should put in the soil next year. 

 On the other hand, this one cucumber plant is growing very well.  The vine is taking up half the bed, and if every single bloom/baby cucumber were to turn into a grown-up cucumber, I would get over 40 cukes from this one plant!  I've already harvested several.  I'll be making them into refrigerator pickles. 

 Here's a couple of recent harvests.  The broccoli is finally, finally just about finished for the years.

 One bell pepper plant is doing really well too.  I'll be cutting and freezing these to add to chili and the like this winter. 

On a completely unrelated note, today marks Mr. GV's and my 24th anniversary of being a couple.  We were together as a couple for 7 years before marrying, through most of my high school years and all of college.  I had a crush on him from the time I was 12, which turned into a serious crush by the time I was 14, and we became best friends about that time too. Every now and then I think about the girl I was, and the boy he was, and get a wave of those 'first love' feelings in my gut.  Anyone who's been in a long-term relationship knows the feelings change over time, from infatuation-type love to a long-lasting committment type of love.  But that first blush of love, that pit you feel in your stomach, that swelling ache in your heart, that 'wow I can't believe he loves me' feeling--it still comes around from time to time, to remind you why you fell in love in the first place.