It's a Jungle Out There!

So, my one goal for a garden this year was to be successful growing tomatoes. Um. It worked. I have never seen such rampant tomato plants as the ones in my back yard right now.

They are literally as tall as me, and I am not a short person. The impromptu fence above is 4 feet tall, if that gives you something to measure by. These pictures were taken about a month ago, so they are even BIGGER now! So big that some of them have tipped over, cages and all, but are still growing. I potentially will have hundreds of tomatoes this year. Here's an overview of some of the plants in my garden

Tomato, cucumber, pepper, peas

My tomatoes are rocking. My cucumbers are doing so-so. I've already reaped about a half dozen of them, but several of them grow partially and then rot on the vine.  I don't get it. My peppers are much bigger now than the above picture. I'm really excited for them! My peas, which I have since uprooted since they were being overtaken by tomatoes and were out of season, were a delightful spring treat. The kids and I ate them all raw. It was a spring backyard daily task--go outside, pick peas and eat them right there. I also have lots of basil, which I don't have a picture of.

sunflower, raspberries, morning glory, carrots

Sunflowers have been fun. They are huge! Our biggest one is probably 10 feet tall. I'm hopping to harvest the seeds. Raspberries have been a surprise! I didn't expect to get as many berries as we've been getting this first year! Although, it's still not enough to last past the kids daily backyard visit, much like the peas. I love morning glories. They are beautiful. I was hesitant to plant them because they can be invasive, but I'd rather have morning glory vine than poison ivy, which is what used to be in the back yard. My root garden, the carrots and the onions, are not doing terribly well. I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the season to really see how they are doing...

This is the garden in the other corner of my yard, also with a jungle of tomatoes. Yup. I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes. In this bed, the tomatoes are taking over all the flowers around them. I have Marigolds, Forget-me-nots, Zinnias, Gladiolas (which haven't quite bloomed yet), and Dwarf Sunflowers (which I did not know were dwarf when I planted them in the back row).