Donation Quilt Finished - Mini Garden

Finished this cute little quilt and will return it to the Quilts for Kids table at the guild meeting tonight.

This morning I work at our church's Food Pantry.  As part of this ministry, several of our members grow vegetables to distribute to Food Pantry patrons.  I admire their willingness to share the bounty of their gardens with others.  In addition to giving to the Food Pantry, they make fresh vegetables available to the congregation on Sunday for whatever donation they are able to give.  These donations help buy staples for the Panrty as needed.  

The mini gardens are doing pretty well.  We have picked cucumbers, zucchini and grape tomatoes and it looks like we will have yellow summer squash in a few days.  I noticed that one of the Roma tomato plants had some blossom end rot so went to the Hardware and bought some calcium to spray on the leaves.  I will also treat the zucchini plants.  I bought some dipper gourd seeds today -  we'll see how they do.

I love how these little tomatoes grow in cascades.  This one plant has loads and loads of fruit. 

Gardening

 April 30th.

May 15th.

May 27th.

 It's been years and years since I've had a real vegetable garden.  The past few years we've grown tomatoes in bags of potting soil,  layed on top of the ground and covered with pine straw, which is great but requires lots of watering.  
Last year John bought 3 of those Topsy-Turvy bags which required even more watering.  One mocking bird thought it made a great place for a nest in May.  I know it was like a sauna in there once it really got hot outside. She moved out in June. 
We probably spent $50 for the few cucumbers we picked from one bag.  I think it was just too hot for the tomatoes.  We gave the bags to our SIL Jesse to try to grow flowers on their porch this year.   
This year I decided to put the plants in the ground under the clothesline posts (same place I put the bags of potting soil) so I have 2 mini gardens.  I planted tomatoes, zucchini squash, basil, cucumbers and summer squash. I saw a couple of tiny zucchini last night.

Gardening

 Our Giant Solomon's Seal is so pretty right now.  We have two big clumps of it on the north end of John's workshop. They are about 18" to 24" high.

These pictures sure don't do it justice.  Of course I took the pictures right in the middle of the day. 

I bought this plant from Tony Avent's about 10 years ago.  I have moved it, divided it, shared it, planted it at church etc.
All in all, I'd say I got my money's worth for what I thought was a pretty expensive plant at the time I purchased it.

I have seen a few of the native Solomon's Seal plants up at the lake. They are 8 to 10" high at best.

Aren't all those greens just gorgeous?