Around home: My parents' garden

Keeping with the gardening theme from the last post, I wanted to show off my parents' garden. We convinced them to start a kitchen garden last summer as an experiment, and this year they've really run away with it! Last year the garden amounted to their neighbor tilling up some sod, planting some things, and putting a rough metal fence around it. Of course, the squash and weeds took over. In an attempt to keep things more orderly and accessible this year, my parents put in raised beds, simultaneously making it more permanent, beautiful, and organized! They daily receive accusations disguised as compliments about the "best looking garden in the neighborhood." Who knew they'd entered some sort of unspoken small-town contest? Anyway, the garden has really flourished in our hot weather. Check out the photos!

The garden on June 19.  Looking orderly and hopeful.

The garden on July 1. Looking like the squash are already taking over!

More photos below...

Herbs potted in empty olive oil cans.

Some pickle cucumbers are already growing! This is great news,
since last year the cuke plants never came up at all.

Several spaghetti squash are well on their way to being delicious.

The watermelon and cantelope are just biding their time...

Our first try at eggplant - looking good!

My dad's Father's Day present - a jalapeno pepper plant
 for making his salsa.

Tomatoes already outgrowing their cages.

Romas are first out of the gate.

Cherry tomato flowers

A zucchini almost ready to pick. We had the honors of picking
and taking home the first two!

This is ONE spaghetti squash plant.  Oh no! The trellis is an
attempt to wrangle it in. We'll see how that goes.

My mom and I with the squash and sunflowers.

Since these photos were taken, we've already been able to bring home some zucchini and cucumbers. One of my favorite summertime dishes is pasta with zucchini and garlic sauteed in olive oil, topped with some fresh basil and parmesan cheese. I can't wait for the cherry tomatoes to be ready to add to this light summery  dish!