Strawberries for Breakfast, Cucumbers for Dinner

I haven't given you much from the garden lately. Maybe I'm a little dazed from the heat or from the daily cucumbers we're getting.

The yield is coming in now and the panic is mounting. Pesto making with all the basil is getting to be more than necessary.

I'm making cucumber salads, tomato sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, pastas with shellfish and parsley. Corn salad with green peppers and jalapenos. Sliced cucumber in a bowl for O. Cantelope and cucumber salad with peppers, chiles, parsley and cilantro. There is a pizza with roasted eggplant I have my eye on.

It's also getting to be that point in the season when I am starting to think about what I will try to do better next year.

Number One: Buy supports for cucumber plants so they don't take over the whole planting bed. I don't think in the past my cucumber plants have ever reached the threatening stage. I usually get a few great cucumbers and then we're done.

Number Two: If I buy flower seeds for O., make sure we make space to plant them. It was my idea after all that she pick out the seeds she wanted so she could have her own flower garden...

What I would do again...

Number One: Hire someone who knows what they're doing to care for the garden while we are in Cape May.

Number Two: Make the huge effort to water daily (except when there is heavy rain), even if it means watering by moonlight (I wish I could have taken a photo for you of this experience the other night. It was so beautiful. I just stood for a while looking up and admiring).

Since I took these cucumber photos I found a couple giant cukes hiding under leaves. Husband held one up and asked, "are these edible?"

If they were zucchini, they'd be bread by now.