The state of the garden

The gardens are looking very good this year but something tells me that they are right at the point before the get beyond my control.  The sunflower at the back of the garden was brought home by my daughter at the end of the school year.  The leaves had barely broken out of the cotyledon at the end of May.  Here we are, two months later, and the plant is over nine feet tall.  The flower bud has not even started to show either.  Compare it with last week's photo (in the previous blog) to see how much this sucker is growing.  It is a little crazy. 

The cucumbers and tomatoes are also going crazy.  I think I over-planted for the small area I have but I guess I'll live with it.  There are well over ten cucumbers on the vine and I am guessing there will be ten times that many before the summer is through.  The tomato plants are about four feet tall now and still growing.  We have about fifty tomatoes that I am hoping will stick with it until they are ripe.  I am loving having the rain barrel in the garden but I may need to lower the spigot.  The folks that designed these barrels installed it about the third way up the barrel so it stays one third full.  Not sure I get that. 

The front yard is looking nice also but the weather has taken its toll on anything that isn't yellow.  The sunflowers, brown and black eyed susans and marigolds look great.  Everything else seems a little stressed even though I think I have been watering things plenty.