Summer means gardening and vacationing to some folks. You really can't do both at the same time though I would argue that a beer and some gardening is a mini vacation.

A week of adventure meant catching up on the garden and here is the update all you green thumbs have been waiting for.

One species of the snow peas (organic weakling blah) is not doing so well while the standard sugar snap peas are doing well and producing. Youngest one says they taste good too though I have been informed I need to let them grow longer before picking them.

Daddy's jalapenos have 2 nice big ones growing and I am going to leave them on to see how big I can get them. The camera apparently wanted to focus on the thistle rather than my babies but a poor carpenter blames his tools.

Chili peppers are growing nicely and I have picked these ones to chop into sauced and harvest the seeds for next year. Good and red for the camera as well.

Look at the size of this pepper when you zoom in to make it look bigger than it is! Anyone know when you pick peppers? @PeterPiper?

I do have a metric ass-load of tomatoes like my wife predicted. I grabbed the first one off when it was pink as I want to learn how the taste changes from under ripe to over ripe. I am pretty sure I will have lots of change to do the sampling and know best next year when to harvest.

The cucumbers have started to from up the stakes and sunflowers as planned. All over the place, there are these little 1-inch nerds growing and plenty of yellow flowers to signal the imminent blooming of more. While fertilizing though, I discovered a much more advanced one that is about 6 inches so far. Should grow to a foot or more like they did last year when unfertilized in the flower garden.

Beans are crawling up the pole from the pot I planted them in. Sprouts are popping up in lots of places. Leaves on the bottom are peeling off and the top ones seem to be having problems. It may be because you are not supposed to plant them in the pot or got too dry while I was on vacation. I watered and fertilizes so lets see what this does.

Parsley still growing modestly and my little muff of basil is looking and smelling good. I grabbed a few leaves of each of these and a handful of Greek oregano and chopped it up for some fresh cut french fries tonight. So much better than the frozen bullshit we sometimes buy.

While watering, I may have discovered the last surviving raspberry and photographed it poorly. My little one is a bit disappointed the berries are done but happy she was able to eat about 60 of them this year.

Here we have a dramatic diagonal shot of the main bush as it has grown this year. It is invasive when you let it go but I don't mind fruit bearing bushes to squeeze some of the cosmetic flowers out.

!

Here is one of the @lostandconfused sunflowers. They stand about 7 feet tall so far, seem to prefer the morning and midday sun, and are neither lost nor confused anymore. I hope the bees have a good time with these before the squirrels start to have their hay day and I get a handful of seeds for next year.

Not to exclude @lostandconfused , we have found a better plant for the namesake. Here we have a branch of the cucumber which has managed to grow up and out the little wrought iron ornamental window and into the yard behind ours. You could say it is a little lost as it has crossed the boundary of the garden into the next yard through 3 little cucumbers show it is not so confused as the neighbour will be when I sneak out and grab them when they are big.

Amazing this is my first stab at a garden and I haven't wrecked it yet! Maybe I should head on vacation again!