I just want to say that my garden is coming along way nicer than I thought it would be. Most of my plants really took off in the last several weeks. The squash and tomato plants really grew HUGE! My squash plants have even started to clime over the top of the lattice. So much so that I've had to use some cloth strips to help hold them in place. I use the cloth strips since I read somewhere that it less harsh on holding the vine in place. The squash is hiding some of the tomato plants that are in the second bed. BONUS!! My pittie Kila is in this pic. She loves it when I let her go in there. She loves to chase the toads that hang out in this area. I do NOT let her kill them because the toads do eat some of the bad insects.

You can check out the pics from "My garden is coming along nicely" post to compare the pics. 

This is the bed (pic below) that is taking longer than it seems it should to actually grow like the squash and tomato plants I have. They probably have me spoiled. :)

In order left to right:

• Mustard plants - I want to make my own mustard one day. These plants will mainly be used to save seed for next year.
• Beets - Not growing as much as I hoped they would
• Red lettuce - I thought these would be much bigger also. I have been casually taking a few leaves here and there to put on a sandwich.
• Marigolds - No where near as big as the marigolds in squash beds.
• Spinach - Barely there. Not sure why, but I will definitely plant again next year.
• Cayenne Peppers - No where near as big as I thought they would be. Who knows, maybe just late growers?
• Jalapeño peppers - Same as above. I thought these would be at least twice the size they are. Granted, they are bigger than my Cayenne peppers.

This is my lettuce that I have allowed to bolt. I wanted the seeds for next year. I did tear a few of the leaves off when it was no where this big and either ate them right in the garden area or put them on a sandwich. This pic shows the flower buds that will be opening in the next few days hopefully.

This is the bed that has my cucumbers, spaghetti squash, peppers and of course marigolds. This bed hasn't done very well over the course of the 3.5 weeks except for the last 7-9 days, the cucumbers really took off. It seems like almost overnight they started taking over the bed! The dead plant is where one of my lettuce plants broke and I tried to replant it to get it to regrow. As you can see, it didn't work.

This is one of the squash plants I am growing on the side porch near the kitchen. I just have to open the kitchen door and step out about three steps to pick them. Its coming along pretty good too. This is the largest squash on that vine but there are more buds that will hopefully be pollenated.

The next few pics are some of the veggies still growing on the plants with one head of lettuce I brought inside. I have also picked a few zucchini but didn't take any pics of them along with more heads of lettuce.

There are several more of these, but they are smaller.

A zucchini that will be ready to pick in about three more days.

Some of my Amish paste tomato's.

You can see several of the cherry tomato bunches growing nicely.

Yes, I did eat this my FIRST EVER home grown head of lettuce! It only took me about three days to finish this off. I will say it was the best lettuce I have ever eaten. Way better than store bought in my opinion. Of course, I am biased towards something I've grown vs store bought.

I am sorry to say that everything I had in the gutter section did not grow. The plants started to come up but either a squirrel got them or they just died. I will try again next year.

I'm always open to tips to try if you have any that can help me become a better backyard gardener. I write them down in my little log book so I can go over it next year with how my plants did and so forth. Thanks for reading!