The View From Here #3

It's been a couple of weeks since I've given an update on the progress of things around here so I decided I better do so as there has been some tremendous change.

The cherries are starting to ripen. They look nice and delicious, but they still have a ways to go before they will be ready to eat. I think they will be ready by the end of the month and I.cannot.wait.

Moving on to our own garden, our strawberries are doing fairly well and some are starting to ripen. We've even tasted a berry or two over the past week. Yum! So delicious. They are going to yield a really small amount, so we'll probably go picking next week to have enough to freeze for baking, jam, and smoothies throughout the year.

The lettuce is up. We had some trouble this year - only a few bunches came up so I think we will try to replant so we have lettuce to last us longer.

Swiss Chard - soon we'll be able to enjoy this tasty green!

Radish - yuck. That's the FD's department.

Onions - red and white.

The beans are growing strong. I think (knock on wood) that our problems with critters are all over with so hopefully they will keep growing and won't get nibbled on any more. We have never had problems with critters in the past, presumably because Nika always chases things away. However, Nika has become much more (how do I say this nicely), lethargic in the past few months so I'm not sure she has been upholding her part of the deal. Read: I think she sleeps under a bush all day every day.

The potatoes are is blossom...

The peppers that got nibbled by the creature are starting to make a come back. So, some are doing very well and some are still trying to catch up but overall, they are okay.

Some of the tomatoes did not fare so well in terms of reviving themselves after the incidents with the critter. We are having trouble figuring out what went on because, as far as we know, most animals would love the beans and pepper plants but would not love the tomato plants. Anyway, whatever it was that was getting in our garden sure did love the tomato plants. Some of them revived themselves but we ended up re-planting 8 roma plants because they just were not catching up. Hopefully that will do the trick.

The Okra is growing strong! Fingers crossed for some heat so that we get some kind of crop off of them.

Cucumbers...
Beets...
Acorn squash...
Turnip...

This hill of squash is not doing so well, but I'm hoping to nurse it back to health...

Crook neck summer squash...

Butternut squash...
And, last but not least, zucchini. Caley's Dad had a great line in his speech at her wedding. "Only plant zucchini if you have lots of friends". So true, so true!

Like I said, hopefully our run ins with whatever was messing with our plants are done and now our garden can continue to progress. Within a few weeks, we should be starting to harvest some things (lettuce, beet tops, swiss chard etc!). I am so excited.

And, of course, I must give you a glimpse of our wild life. We had added some new babies to our family.

5 Baby Chicks!

We got them when they were one day old and in this picture they are 4 days old. Aren't they cute?

Nika seems to think they would make excellent "play mates" but she has done pretty good at staying away from the crate that they are in until they are big enough to move in to the real chicken coop with the big boys (err, girls). Our other chickens are all for eggs but these ones will be for, um, dinner. Sorry if that bothers you - I know it's hard to picture eating these fuzzy little babies but trust me, they will get ugly soon and then it's not so hard :)

I'll be back again in a few weeks to show you another garden update!