It's only been a week.

Six days, really. It's hard to believe things can change so much in a measly 6 days! I guess when you see something every day, it's harder to notice the changes. I'll show you what's changed in the yard and garden since we left for vacation.

The birds were kind enough to plant these sunflowers for us. They now greet us with their bright, happy faces when we go up and down the deck steps.


The sunflowers that were accidently planted when I spread mulch are finally blooming! They're small, but they really are so cute!



Ok, ready for the big changes? It's amazing to look back at what the garden looked like about a month ago, on June 16th. Look how piddly everything was. Ready?



The tomatoes desperately need re-stringing. They're full of green tomatoes. I can't wait for that first red one of the season....pure heaven.




The lima beans are also in need of some sort of support. I could only find the pole limas when I bought the seeds. Usually I prefer the bush type, because then I don't have to trellis them.


Holy cow. What is this mess? When I left, there were 3 distinct rows here. There was a clear row of gourds on the left, winter squash in the middle, and summer squash on the right. Now it's all one huge mass of gourd/squash explosion. Something needs to be done about this. I need to somehow trellis those gourds.


Oh hi, Tucker! It's good to see you too! Thanks for keeping watch over the yard while we were gone!


I managed to do something with the cukes before we left, so they're not going too crazy. I used the huge tomato cages from previous years to keep them contained.


Look how massive those squash plants are.


The beans are doing nicely! David and I picked a basket full of the yellow wax beans (right side) last night. We're going to be swimming in beans soon!


The corn is doing better than I ever expected!


The ears are developing nicely. I'm crossing my fingers for a nice harvest.


The second crop of corn has grown at least a foot since we left, I swear.


I tilled this little strip for wildflower and other flower seeds before we left. You can't really tell from this picture, but there are tons of little seedlings popping up all through it! I think it'll look really pretty when they bloom!


The watermelons and pumpkins are growing great also. I think I'll ignore the wire grass and pretend it doesn't exist. That sounds like more fun than trying to weed it.


I planted this little patch with various flower seeds because I had a little extra space. I forget what all I planted, but I see lots of cosmos and zinnias and sunflowers.


The gourds are amazing! I think baby gourds are the cutest freaking thing.





These are big....already small orange sized.







Remember the strip of flowers I planted in front of the garage? Check it out now!




Don't mind the jack in the above picture. I was too lazy to move it.

The nasturtiums are blooming like crazy! I'm glad I got such a mix of flower colors in the seeds I planted. I wonder what the kids would do if I put the blossoms in a salad?


The flowers are so pretty. I think I'll plant a few more seeds to fill in some bare spots. The chickens have been eating my cosmos and bachelor buttons, the little rats.


And what a surprise! There were two bushes in the back yard that I thought at first were crepe myrtles. Turns out they're Rose of Sharons! Beautiful!


We have a purple bush.


And a white bush.


I'll update you on the chickens tomorrow. And I'll post some pictures from our camping trip! We all had a blast!