My Garden Update

      About 3 weeks have passed since I posted about my garden. While some hopes of growth have been dashed not all is lost. While I don't have the normal large assortment of varieties of tomatoes, a few plants are growing (but no 'maters yet!). I have three beautiful watermelons growing by leaps and bounds and the cantaloupe vines are huge. I expect to see blossoms and melons starting any day now.

Row of gourds

This my "second"plot with the watermelons, cantaloupe, pumpkins & corn. There are rouge corn stalks and sunflowers growing all over it from the bunny food!

YEA! A watermelon! I thought it was the first and only, but a day or so later I found two more!

Sunflowers. This is the opposite side from the other photo from  3 weeks ago. They are MUCH taller since this photo was taken

     Now normally I am very neat about my garden. My rows are usually ruler straight, properly labeled so you know exactly what is growing where and it only gets messy when it comes time to stake things up.. This was no ordinary year.... it started with the tornadoes. We stayed with my in-laws because of the power outages and to consolidate our other resources. During all this mess, our son had his tenth birthday. He had been asking for rabbits for most of a year so that's what we got him... We came back home about a week and a half after the tornadoes..... What does birthday bunnies have to do with the garden? Well I am pretty big on recycling and reusing things, especially where gardening is concerned. I save paper all year to line my rows to keep weeds out and I save all our eggshells, coffee and tea grounds to till into the soil before planting. I had read that bunny waste is great for composting so I began disposing of the shavings on the plot I use for our corn, and melons. I just dumped everything.... left over food, shavings and old hay. It all got turned and tilled several weeks ago and I went on my merry way planting my seeds. Well not after plenty of water and sunshine, imagine my surprise last week when stuff started coming up all over the place! Instead of neat orderly rows, I have an entire part of my garden just popping up with corn stalks and sunflowers interspersed with my cantaloupes, watermelons and pumpkins! It took my a few minutes to realize why. Rabbit food is like bird seed - a mix of everything from grains and seeds to sunflower seeds and corn kernels. I am looking at it like a bonus!
I got to eat a "home made" radish today and it was delicious! And the rabbits loved the greens from it! I also have gourds planted and they are going absolutely crazy! I spotted several blooms and a tiny little gourd is growing. I hope to get lots so I'll have plenty to use for crafts!