Production!

In the past week, our garden plot produced lots of cucumbers. The church garden also includes three lovely peach trees in full bloom. So far, we've made a quart of refrigerator pickles, Simply in Season's blueberry-peach cobbler, and a batch of ginger peach freezer jam.

First harvest...on May 12

Central Texas has seen unprecedented rains this spring. Our garden plants have exploded:

The tomato plants can hardly be contained in their cages and the cucumber vines run up their trellis. The rains spurred growth - too much growth - in our first harvest of pickling cucumbers. If we don't grab them when they're small, an overnight rain can double their size by our next garden visit.

Now that we know how diligent we must be with the cucumber harvest, pickling time is upon us!

What's a loquat?

Along with peach and plum trees, the community garden features a few loquat trees. Originally from China, loquats now grow in temperate regions around the world. They're sweet as sugar and fun to pick and eat straight off the tree.

One month later...tiny tomatoes!

Things were looking good in mid-April:

We had out first tiny green Roma tomatoes:

After gardening in the Midwest for years, green tomatoes in mid-April are a revelation!

It's a garden chronicle....about two months too late

Sasha and I joined the community garden behind Austin Mennonite Church. Here's what our plot of weeds looked like on March 15:

Sasha, my mom, and I weeded the plot and turned up the earth:

Then we planted flowers and veggies - 3 tomato plants, a tomatillo, 2 peppers, and a hill of cucumbers. Marigolds keep the pests at bay and make everyone's day a little brighter.