::{ The Crop }::

Behold, the garden:

This is what I saw one of the weekends I came home in June after I had been in Indiana for a few weeks and hadn't seen the garden's progress.  I was pretty excited to see what was happening.  The zucchini was out of control, but then fate stepped in...

This is one of two zucchinis that we got.  We had a bunch that were flourishing until we went to Gettysburg.  We enlisted our neighbors to water our garden, which they did, but I like to think that a zucchini-hating-flesh-eating-pest came in and destroyed what we had while we were gone.  You can already see the death and destruction setting in above.  BUT, we still had enough to make thai food and zucchini bread, which is exactly what I wanted.

My little helper.  We made a deal with Bug, which she readily agreed to: she can get a dog as long as she keeps all of the plants alive for the entire summer.  Here she is making her best attempt to keep things thriving.  Sadly, despite her best efforts, she couldn't save the zucchini.  

[In case you couldn't tell, we're never getting a dog, or any pet for that matter]

 Part of the problem, you see.  She's easily distracted and prefers to color on the fence rather than water the plants and weed the garden.  No wonder the pests came in and destroyed the zucchini!  We're pretty sure she's a lefty by the looks of things.

And finally, I spy my little eye on something that is....

FINALLY RED!

We've got about thirty tomatoes on the vine, and they are just now starting to turn red.  I sliced up that red beauty for dinner last night -- it was worth the wait.  So tasty!

The basil is growing like there's no tomorrow, and we have some bell peppers out there as well.

All in all, I'd say this square-foot gardening thing was a success.  We have plenty of time left this year, but I'm already excited to tweak things a bit for next year.