This Time of year in the Garden

This time of year in the garden things are slow, but will be picking up soon.  This weekend, if, and that is a big "if," things dry up just a little bit, I will be planting all of my tomato seedlings into the garden rows.  Additionally, if things are dry enough, I will transplant all of my broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage seedlings as well.

We are still picking okra and some peppers everyday, along with some eggplant, but as soon as the heat lets up just a tad, the peppers' production will get better.  The sweet potato crop looks to be a bumper crop and we will be harvesting in another month, I figure.  Here is a colander of various bell peppers and okra, both the clemson spineless and burgundy varieties.  We have been eating LOTS of okra!

You can see some of the darned stink bugs on the peppers and okra.  They give us fits!

During the lull that the garden is in, I wanted to show you something we grow that you can't eat. Here is a trellis of luffa and birdhouse gourds:

As I pull back some of the large leaves so you can see the fruit, a brilliant ray of sun shines through. I have a bunch of seeds for both luffa gourds and bird house gourds.  If anyone is interested, I'll gladly share.  These things make copious amounts of seeds.

Here is a birdhouse gourd on the same trellis.  I liked the loooong neck of this one and thought it would make a nice bird house, but a marauding rat ate it before I could dry it.  I got vengeance on the rat and you can read about his demise HERE.  There is still time for other ones to mature for bird house making.

These luffas are about the right age to be converted into bath sponges.  They are about two feet long. If I get all the seedlings planted this weekend, I'll pick these and skin them so they can dry out. Luffas can actually be eaten when they are less than 4 inches long.  They are in the cucumber family.  I cannot vouch for how they taste as I've never tried them.  I will put that on my list of things to do!

Here is another bird house gourd.  Although it doesn't have the long, skinny neck like the other one did, it will make a fine bird house.

It is kind of boring in the garden right now due to being between seasons and with all the rain.  That will be changing soon and I look forward to it.