A Quick Tour... After our return home...

Yes, both Shibaguyz are home safe and sound and recovering from this mess of a bug that grabbed us in flight.  We're almost back to normal and wanted to share with you what we found when we walked out the back door.  Jason was not exaggerating when he sent me the text "The Jungle is DEFINITELY back!!"  It's going to take us the weekend to shape everything up but we wanted to give you all a quick shot of where we were after a week and a half of being gone.

First, a quick once around the garden.  This is scrolling from the South wall around ending in the NE corner.

On the very left is the top of the potato condo with its monstrous 5ft tall potatoes, next are the tomatillos and strawverries.  Behind the strawberries are drying beans then more tomatoes than I can name right off the top of my head.  Finally, there are more drying beans on the far right.

This is a close up of that SW corner with the beans and tomatoes highlighted.  You can see in the background where Jason has planted sweat basil in the hanging baskets that used to hold lettuce and spinach.  You can't see them very well in this picture but, behind the sword palm, there are cucumbers back there in a planter on that middle wall.  The rest are tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.  Oh yeah, all that netting on the back wall is trellis for the three kinds of green beans planted all along that wooden fencing.

This is looking toward the NW.  You can see more herb pots hanging here along the wall.  That one in the middle is still producing lettuce.  I think we're going to see just how long that will go.  On the patio and the middle wall, you can see serveral varieties of tomatoes and three different shelling beans.  These bean pots duplicate the ones on the SW side of the patio so we'll be sure to have plenty for chili and soups this winter.  Also, along this North wall, you can see the peas that are just about finished up as well as the broccoli, brussel sprouts and more tomatoes.  Again, all that netting you see is bean supports.  This weekend we're planting more green beans along the bottom of the peas to prepare for when they will be finished up here in about two weeks.  Gotta use all the space we can!

This is a close up of that North wall with the peas, the last of the broccoli, the brussel sprouts, beans and... yup... tomatoes.  If we start with the lower left next to the Jurassic broccoli, there is a San Marzano tomato there, then behind that one right up against the peas is an Amish Paste tomatoe.  In the foreground on the patio are two Green Zebras in the pot then back against the wall behind the beans are two more San Marzano and one more Amish Paste.

 This is just another shot of that same North wall.

All in all, we're pretty happy with how everything looked upon our return from Ohio.  We do have a few hours work to untangle the pots of beans that needed trellised while we were gone.  Who knew they would grow that much in one week???  Seriously, they were maybe 5 or 6 inches high when we left.  They looked good, but not THIS good!  When I walked out there last night, there were runners that I extended over my head and at the top of my arm's reach.  7 foot tall runners from starts a week ago???  Good grief...

Over the next couple of days, we're going to start trimming, pruning and shaping up some of this overgrown mess.  I think what we'll probably do is catch you up one fruit or veggie at a time with beans one day, tomatoes or roots the next.  There's just too much to put it all into one post!!  Oh... and, yes, here is one final picture for those who have asked.  This little number has become quite the rock star.  People even come up and ask us on the street if we are the guys with the "Potato Condo."  LOL  So... by popular demand:

Potato Condo!!

WOOHOO!!

Those spuds are over 5 feet tall and just started their purple flowers on Wednesday.  Looks like we'll have plenty of taters this winter.  Plans are already in the works for next year with TWO Condos with modified designs using lighter materials and mulch rather than all dirt.  Live and learn...

So that's all the news that's news for now.  I'm sure there will be more details this weekend.  The potatoes and tomatillos are blooming and the cucumber trellis is going up.  Not to mention we have GOT TO do something with those zucchini... although what we have no idea...

talk to you soon...

The Shibaguyz