Friday Garden...

...Saturday version.

This is petty much what the whole back yard looked like, only times elebenty, when I got home from the hospital six weeks ago.  And I was in no shape to do a damned thing about it.  This, by the way, is the kitchen patch.  You can see some sage amongst the wild growth.

The good news is, one of the sweet basil plants had a good enough hold to be taller than the weeds.  I harvested some once before I left, so there's more to dry and use!  (I put some fresh leaves in a Subway Meatball Marinara sandwich - yum!!)

Most of the tomatoes looked somewhat like this:

That said, I got about 25-ish lbs, and put up about 12 pints of salsa roja for tamales and enchiladas.  Here's what two of the Early Girls look like:

I also have two "wild" tomato plants.  This one is an Early Girl, based on the shape of the fruit:

No fruit on this one, yet, so it's a mystery:

 
Not terribly successful with the melons.  Got these, and two more that are in the fridge.  I figured out that planting melons and tomatoes together is a Bad Idea - too much competition for water, so the tomato plants dried up and the melons didn't do much.  Next year, separate beds!  (Tomatoes and peppers together seemed OK, though.)

Tomatoes and peppers:

 Garlic and onion - about zero garlic, and the onions are kind of stunted.  I'm thinking that maybe I didn't plant them deep enough.  Garlic was fine when I got home, then poof! - nada.

I planted Thai Hot Pepper seeds, which seem to be doing OK (the bush in the upper-right).

Another angle on the onions and peppers.

The Rosemary was getting choked out by the weeds, so I potter her.  This will let me take her inside for the winter.  One of the nursery people I spoke with told me that we are right on the edge of the zone where Rosemary can winter successfully.

Blackberry is OK, but fruitless.

 I'm still getting some tomatoes and peppers, so I may do a little more canning.  Spent a goodly part of the day cleaning the yard up - pulled out the watermelon plants - roots were a bit entwined with the tomato, hence my conclusion about the water.  Trimmed out as much of the dead tomato vines as I could, so the plants don't look so ragged.  I'm pleased with the results, and pleased with what I learned about tomatoes and melons.  All in all, a good, productive day.