The Garden- End of August- kind of boring

So back to the garden series. (For my own memories, since this is pretty much my journal).  Tyler and I picked up and left for vacation just as the garden was starting to produce!  It killed me to leave knowing our tomatoes were going to ripen while I was 500 miles away.

Just before I left we decided to starve the tomatoes of water,  the plants were growing really well but no fruit.  I also took a paintbrush to the cucumber blossoms hoping that it would pollenate them and we could get some cucumbers!  About this same time we discovered the potatoes plants had some kind of bug.

 You might recognize this half of the garden as previously being the potato plot.  "Where are all the potato plants?" you might ask, well.......... they are all dead.  I have reason to believe there are good potatoes under all those weeds and dirt and someday when I get the energy and motivation all at once, I will dig them up and find out.  But for now I'm enjoying not having to water and weed that cursed plot of land.

I really need to get a picture with a person in there for size comparison.  To the left are the giant sunflowers, the ones that survived the wind storm and didn't tip over.  The kids like sneaking scissors outside and cutting up the big leaves at the bottom.  There is also the Kale plants that we never harvested and haven't watered in a month. They seem to be doing well.
   That huge jungle mess in the middle are the tomatoes.  They are over 6 feet tall and there are 3 rows of them.  BIG mistake.  When you plant anything and it's 3 inches tall and they are all a foot apart it's hard to imagine anything will ever grow.  Now it's impossible to harvest to the tomatoes in the middle row because the plants are so thick you can't even see in there to get anything.  The tomato jungle has eaten the broccoli plants, the jalapenos, and part of the green beans.  Our Jalapenos are coming on nicely and Kathleen was able to harvest some broccoli while I was gone.  The Bell Peppers don't seem to be ripening very quickly and when we pick them green they taste terrible and bitter.  The green beans are growing and yummy but hard to find because I don't like to squat and the zucchini plants are growing almost as wildly as the tomatoes and producing just as well.  grrrrrrr.
  Finally on the right is the corn and some purple beans that wound themselves up the corn.  The corn is starting to grow fast and the deer haven't gotten to them! HA.  We've gotten a few handfuls of cucumbers as well and my favorite thing to do is sit and munch on one while the garden is being watered and Alex is chowing down on tomatoes like they are apples.
    I'v also discovered that I have some kind of tomato or weed allergy and my arms always itch for a week after working in the garden, regardless of wearing long sleeves.  It's obnoxious.
    The garden doesn't really need to be weeded anymore and so I only go down once a week to work and once more to harvest.  We got back from vacation and suddenly there was nothing to do!  Our whole summer had been spent weeding and watering and running from one place to another every day. Now with the weeds under control, the garden producing and Kate gone, I've found myself with DAYS of free time and nothing urgent at all to do.  It's bitter sweet and might have made me a bit lazy.