Labor Day Weekend Sweat Off

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend and Grumpy had 4 days off. Woo-hoo, right?! Time to sit back and relax as a family...  That is if you consider driving around in a cramped truck for a full day picking up discarded palletes as relaxing. Which, by the way, is what Grumpy considers a fun time. And it was... Kinda... Sorta... Well, one massive melt down from the Princess because she was hangry ( so hungry she got angry) and tried to escape her car seat, type fun. But, we persevered  and made it home with truck load of pallets.

What he wanted the pallets for is under wraps, until he is finished with the project he has in mind.

What on Earth is he building out there?

But we also used the 4 day weekend to do some badly needed yard work. Our garden needed some serious TLC. It was over run with weeds, the squash were on their last leg, and the Sunflower stalks had been dead for about a month.

All those yellow leaves were our dying squash

No to mention that the monsoon took a break this week and the temperature keep reaching triple digits. In other words it was hot... Hot, humid and some more hot for good measure. I think our garden got more water from me sweating over it then it did from the sprinkler.

weeded and desquashified garden

The zucchini, okra and carrot plants look much healthier now that they've been weeded and fertilized.

Zucchini blossoms

Okra Blossoms

The zucchini has amazed us with its out put. We were skeptical that anything would do well in the scorching heat of the Arizona summer sun.  We've been pleasantly surprised. The zucchini has been producing 2-5 veggies every 2 weeks. The okra has to be harvested pretty much every other day. We got maybe 10 squash before the plants just stopped producing. The carrots are coming in nicely and we had beautiful sunflowers June-July.

That big one? Yea that's as long and big around as my forarm

We did have some disappointments too. The radishes started out well but died in the summer heat. The cantaloupe and water melon never went to fruit though they have been continuously blooming. The tomato plant only managed 5 fruits that were edible, but seems to be trying to produce again. The peppers seemed to not germinate at all, until recently.

We even created a new garden plot.

Before

After

In the new bed we planted more radishes since the weather is cooling, some salad greens, onions, peppers, cucumbers, more melons, and pumpkins. We just used the seeds we had on hand and really didn't plan it out to much as it was a spur of the moment thing. So we are willing to accept that some of the things we planted will not grow as they are out of their growing season. But you never know as the growing season here is long. Worth a try right?

We are already planning next years garden in hopes that it will be better organized. We are going to try companion gardening. Less of the same plants and more variety of fruits and veggies. Seriously, I think Grumpy would like a meal that doesn't include okra or zucchini... I know I would.

~Knotted