I’m a bit embarrassed to show you these photos – since the last garden update, I totally fried my kale and broccoli plants. I sprayed them in the middle of a hot, sunny day with a mixture of dishsoap and water to kill the aphids that were munching tiny holes in them. Big Mistake. I’ve cut away the dead leaves and they look pretty bare.

I’ve harvested some lettuce, but the leaves were bitter. I think I need to grow lettuce, broccoli, and kale earlier in the year, or in a shadier spot, or maybe just try them out as a fall crop.

There are some good things happening though! We’ve got a few Mexican Sour Gherkins – I love how they resemble tiny watermelons. You just pop the whole thing in your mouth and it tastes like a lemony cucumber.

Our other cucumber plant, a Crystal Apple Cucumber is producing a lot of fruit.

I can’t wait for our first tomatoes! I wish I had grown more but I never got around to purchasing more plants.

We pulled up a beet because its “shoulders” were poking up out of the soil – it was only one inch long! Guess we need to wait awhile longer. . .

We did get to try several husk cherries. They have an amazing sweet and tropical flavor. Those little paper lantern husks fall to the soil and then you know they are ready. I’m not sure why these plants haven’t gotten larger, but I am so excited we finally got to try them.