By now its all about experimenting...

We have already hit the 2nd week of July and still pretty much nothing from the garden.  Last night I went to pick some basil for our dinner and was able to collect a handful of grape tomatoes.  My bell peppers are starting to produce so hopefully there will be some in the near future to eat.  My zucchini squash plants are big but still no fruit.  As for the rest of my plants... I must have got a bad bunch this year.  

I decided to construct a greenhouse structure over the beds to help conserve water and to speed up the growing process.  I also created a shade structure with a tarp for the bucket garden since it gets way more than 6 hours of sun a day.

all the cords are also being used to dry our laundry

I would feel like a total failure if my neighbor weren't having the same problem.   He has gotten a few big boy tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes.  A few jalapenos and a couple of eggplants.

Its been a few weeks now since we had any useful rain.   That would be the case that as soon as a make a rain barrel it doesn't rain.  Maybe I should also get some gutters installed too. hehehe.

The one positive thing going for me now is my compost..  its definitely getting the heat additive.  Last night I went out to dump our kitchen scraps and nearly jumped out of my shoes when something jumped out toward my feet.   At first I thought it was a rat, but then noticed that it was my little frog friend (I think) from a few weeks ago.  I guess he decided to hang out in the damp compost since there isn't much room in the gutters now.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!