Eggplants:

Early Girl Plant, top view. The plant was about 1 foot tall when my mom's friend gave it to her...It's now about 3 feet tall...



Watermelons:


Some pepper plants:



One of the things you may notice about my garden is the amount of gravel. When I first tilled the soil, I was told by several neighbors I'd never be able to grow anything because of the rocky soil. However, the house sits on a hill that has a large concentration of limestone. If I dig more than 8 inches in most areas, I'm going to hit limestone. I have great drainage and very good soil in 80% of the garden. The area that does have the most rocks, I have been adding a lot of topsoil to the rows for the plants to get plenty of nutrients. Amazingly, in years past, the best tomatoes were produced in the rocky area without adding topsoil. 3 of my neighbors have started to garden on their own lots since they saw how successful my venture has been...

We've convinced the boss at work that we need to put in a couple tomatoes and a couple pepper plants. The only place we can find is a nice little patch covered in bermuda. Will it even be worth it and if so what are your suggestions?

I'd suggest digging down about 11 inches and removing the Bermuda grass...Then plant and make certain you mulch the area...You might even get some weed cloth and cut holes out for the plants and then planting them. Bermuda is a nasty, nasty grass that takes over everything in site...It took me 2 years to get it out of a triangle with 25 foot long sides that is now our largest flower bed...

Cucumbers in the row next to the fence...


I've mulched several rows with live oak leaves and have to add some more mulch to a few of the rows...I still need to hoe the weeds out of one row that didn't get mulched...

LSS. Your garden looks great. It looks like you get a bunch of shade, or was that just due to the time of the pictures?

Thank you very much...

Both...I get some shade in the morning (I took the pictures this morning) from the trees. Then from about 10:30 through 4:00 they get a lot of sun...After that, they get shade from the guest house when the sun has moved...It helps the plants recover from the heat faster and retain the moisture longer...It's one of the reasons my tomato plants stay healthy from March through November...

Round Up the snot out of it.

I never have, but I know some people do. Corn is more heat tolerant than say tomatoes or squash, so the main benefit would be to keep the weeds down in corn rows...Of course the water retention would be helped, but they aren't as water needy as some plants...

I had some squash come up yesterday adter I had given up on them and replanted in another area. It took the 17 days to come up. Why in the world would it take so long?? Now Im really gonna be screwed because I just planted cucumbers in that row on Sunday since I had given up on the squash......

Numerous things can cause that...Being planted a bit too deep, lack of water, God showing you He has a sense of humor, etc.

You can transplant them to another area if need be...Just remember to dig a large enough, and deep enough hole when excavating the plant...Then transplant it and water thoroughly...

+1

Here's one picture of mine. I need to get a closer picture and a picture of the corn/beans/squash bed. The squash is doing terrible, like the tomatoes. Though, I put down some Diatemaceous earth last night. Hopefully that will help..

I figured out that I wasn't watering my maters enough and the fish carcass has done wonders!