The Garden Takes Off

From this...

To this!

Three months after starting some seeds, six weeks after planting them outside, and after surviving four weeks without my camera (which went with my daughter to camp), I'm delighted to present my burgeoning, bordering on jungly, early July garden. The Raggedy Anne Zinnias which were the first seeds to germinate are coming into bloom now - tall, sturdy plants with big, showy blossoms that blend well with the day lilies behind them.
The tomato plants have seemed to grow six inches a week, and suddenly, almost before I realized they had any flowers, they already have fruit growing. A thickly planted salad mix is ready for small leaves to be harvested, a first cucumber is forming, and two pumpkin plants are developing nicely. My beans never came to anything; they succumbed to hungry rabbits, but nothing else has really been touched. My other garden, the one in pots on my patio, is also growing nicely, but it hasn't taken off the way this one has. I planted rather closely, since my space is limited, but I try to train upward anything that has a tendency to climb rather than sprawl if encouraged, like tomatoes and cucumbers. Now is a good time to add some organic fertilizer, while the plants are flowering and setting fruit.