The garden is really starting to go crazy, even though I was so late in planting a lot of it. We've got a grand total of 448 square feet of garden this year—four 4' x 25' beds and two 3' x 8' beds. I've been having small salads every day—mostly just lettuce, spinach and chard plus a few radishes and green onions.  The potatoes and tomatoes have started to blossom, although I pinched off the first tomato blossoms. I think we have at least 30 different things growing this year: potatoes, radishes, parsley, garlic, zucchini, carrots, lima beans, oregano, red onions, cantaloupe, white onions, cilantro, chives, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, green beans, watermelon, Roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and a mix of heirloom tomatoes, gourds, butternut squash, basil, hot peppers, bell peppers, dill, chamomile, and pumpkins. In the house there’s also catnip and rosemary and more basil, plus some cabbage seedlings. Oh, and I forgot the two kinds of sweet corn and the pickling cucumbers (out in the garden of course!)

I keep praying a hailstorm doesn’t come and wipe it all out. We should have quite a bounty otherwise. The only major problem so far has been a plague of baby grasshoppers. They decimated the basil so I planted some more, but now the ones I thought were total goners look like they might survive. The new batch of basil has sprouted, so we could be totally overwhelmed with basil this year (or get nothing at all). We already have an absurd amount of oregano and parsley.

Next year I want to add still more types of veggies. I don’t know where I'll put them, though. I'll have to expand even more!  I still haven’t had luck getting any broccoli seedlings going. Either they don’t sprout at all or they die off as seedlings. This is the second year in a row I’ve had issues with broccoli. So I’d like to get some broccoli next year. Also, rutabagas, turnips, and parsnips, Brussels sprouts, maybe start some rhubarb and strawberries. Grow kale, collards, bok choy and celery.  Try Spanish peanuts and horseradish. Okay, so all of this would require at least one other whole bed, maybe even more space. If I could just get the side yard fertile enough to grow herbs, I could move all the herbs there. Not that that would free up a huge amount of space, but it’d make a dent.