A neighbor and her small son were out walking their dog this evening. She paused to ask about the garden, was that eggplant I was growing? We talked gardening for about 20 minutes, with the short tour, promise of a small tree I'd dug out of a bed and put in a pot (vitex) and I'm sure she'll be another good candidate in the neighborhood for my extra eggplant. It seems if I don't plant many one year, because the last was so prolific, then I don't get enough. So this year I have several plants in, and it's like getting rid of zucchini when they're in season. My neighbors on either side don't eat them, but across the street a couple of them do, and now one more up the block. :)

I didn't finish anything today, but I suppose it's hard to say that gardening is ever completed. I working on the kitchen garden, weeded and then put down newspaper and mulch in areas where I'm not planting but I don't want it full of seedy weeds either. I don't plant crops right against the house since there was a termite treatment here years ago. I figure even though time has passed, I'll grow my veggies a couple of feet away from that contaminated zone.

I'm shaping the raised keyhole bed, I've put about 1/3 of the first row of rocks down, and filled in with mulch and weeds I dug up today to hold down a layer of newspaper. I'll get some top soil to fill it up with (I expect it to be 12 to 18 inches deep when complete) so the weeds at the bottom won't be a problem. I used scraps of mortar and old rocks and bricks from a big wall that was torn down years ago for the first row, but that probably won't be visible because the grass will grow a little ways up around it. I have some nicer stone I'll use in the next couple of layers. All of this was dumped at the back of the yard, and now I'm slowly hauling it into the front yard again.

I have peppers almost big enough to pick, the basil is now big enough to start pinching off leaves to use, I've been eating strawberries for weeks, and though there aren't many on there right now, the leaves are looking good and there are lots more flowers. The oregano needs to be trimmed back, it has all flowered. It comes back nicely after being cut back.

It's warm, typical Texas summer. I wore sunscreen because I knew I'd be out there all day. It seems to have worked. No crispy spots.

SRS