backyard gardens

one of our favorite summer traditions is to grow a garden in the backyard. seriously, we all love it! a little TLC and we've grown some nice big cucumbers. (lots of water and rich soil) they are sneaky and tricky to see at first. they start out looking like this. the first one we found was already 6-7 inches long. they hide pretty well on the vine. the taste is so fresh out of the garden!
the boys find the lady bugs right away
, and the nice honey bees.zucchini has always been hard for us to grow. it starts out looking great, but then the heat zaps it dead. maybe this will be our year. fried zucchini! yummyokra, strawberries, peppers, onions...all the good stuff ;} thankful for a great gardening season thus far. we are really enjoying all our raised beds in the back.