4 the luv of...: Garden Update ... 6 months in the making!

borage

It has been six months since I have posted ANYTHING to this blog. I could make excuses but the truth remains, I just didn't feel like it. Freelance work, life, family and a new copy editing job took (and still takes) precedence. Sorry!
Many people have inquired about when my next post would be - well here it is and it is mostly pictures. I figured I would ease back into this writing thing and not bore you with words, unless it is something poignant (don't hold me to that statement, please).
These are all pictures taken of yard/kitchen garden a couple of weeks ago. The garden is dwindling in the summer-ish heat so I figured I better capture it quick.
The best surprise of the year has been the amount of fruit in production. We have limes, grumichama cherries, Barbados cherries, mangoes, key limes, miracle berries, Jamaican cherries, surname cherries and blueberries. In a month or so we hope to have watermelon, papaya, and lemons. We continue to fight the stupid squirrels for our fruit! Suggestions welcome. The dogs help and so does hubs air rifle. I know that is bad but where are the predators?

eggplant

Veggie production was pretty good, as well. We had/have beets, cabbage, kale, eggplants, onions, tomatoes and jalapenos. To be honest, we just didn't make as much of an effort this spring, but plan to go full-force in the fall.
Right now we are watering the garden two times a day due to extreme dryness in our part of the state. Whatever is growing and has survived with minimal effort in the way of herbs, is it. That leaves us with oregano, thyme, Thai basil, rosemary, sweet basil, flat and curly parsley although not for long) and garlic chives. We did have beautiful borage, as you can see, but just one week after the picture was taken, while I was sick and in bed, hubs decided to do some weeding. He mistook the borage for a weed and pulled it ALL out. My heart broke a tiny bit but it is a good thing it's just a plant.
While we will keep the watermelon, jalapeno and eggplant going through the summer. The rest we will dead-head and clean as it dies. We may research some cover crops but overall I find it just too hot and buggy to veggie garden. We plan pick back up in August.
The chickens were giving us a total of three eggs a day for the first part of the year and two continue to lay one per day, but our mini-chicken (Bantam Cochin) has gone broody (she thinks she can hatch the eggs so she steals the other chickens eggs and sits on them all day in the nesting box, rather endearing but a pain in the butt). She has been a bit of a challenge because she stopped laying and we have to lock her out of the nesting box once a day so that she will get exercise, take dust baths, eat and drink. We hope the end is near on that front and she goes back to normal. When we go to collect the eggs, she lets us, but not without squealing and getting irritated. There is a short video of this in the post.
So that is all for now. If nothing else, I will keep posting pictures of Home Harvest-y things we do. Thanks for checking in!