I was so happy with our little garden and went out to water and tend to it daily. I tried to be as economical as I could be with this project and was using the water from my rain barrel as well as a recycled coffee can to water with. I watched it grow, produce flowers, fruit, and finally was able to pick and eat from it. We even used some old paint containers cleaned out of course, as planters for cantaloupe and some left over tomato plants. It was great!

After 3 weeks, we realized the garden needed more space, so we compensated by adding more running room for the watermelon & cucumbers. We should have staked the tomatoes at this point too, but we didn’t:

During week 4, we adopted a dog from a local kill shelter. She was suppose to become an inside dog, but she wanted outside so badly.  We bought puppy pads for her to pee on while inside. She ate them or shredded them. My husband wanted her to comfortable, so he bought her a big pillow type bed…and she ate it. She couldn’t be  in the room with the TV on. When she heard the voices, she would run to the door and whine to get out. To this day, she is still afraid of the mystical box that makes noise! We have a very old indoor kitty. She wanted to eat him, or at least, we thought she did from the way she acted. So, in short, we made a comfy home for her outside. She LOVED it. She was (and still is) the happiest pup in the world now!

Back to the garden, in week 5 we were getting 8-10 cucumbers a day among other items:

At first we ate them daily. My youngest son was eating probably 5-6 a day. We made cucumber salad, cucumber sandwiches, put them in salads, made home-made pickles, and of course at them raw after washing them. We all became overwhelmed with cucumbers! We started giving them away. We were pawning cucumbers off on everyone we met. We gave them to neighbors almost daily, and co-workers, and customers, and family, and ….anyone that would accept them!! We had cucumbers coming out our ears!!

Week 6: 

In week 7 we lost 1/2 the garden…    The newly adopted dog saw a field mouse and dug all night to capture it…. in the garden beds!!!

My heart dropped out of my chest 🙁 But hey, we sure had a LOT of cucumber memories!

End of story 🙁  🙂  🙁