Pepper & Lettuce harvest, Cantaloupe & Tomato fruiting (July 7th, 2014 Garden Update)

At the beginning of April, I planted several varieties of Lettuce, Spinach, and Kale. Within a month I was harvesting greens. Now that it has been several months, the lettuce and greens are aging-- it is time to sow a second Lettuce crop for a Fall harvest.
We recently purchased a large bag of Kale seed, several large packets of Salad Bowl and Grand Rapids Lettuce.In the upcoming weeks, we will be planting our greens, perhaps Broccoli and other root vegetables.

At this time, we are harvesting Peppers. We have three rows of Peppers, approximately 100 Pepper plants.
The peppers in the photo below are the Cowhorn hot pepper (long skinny pepper) and the Cubanelle sweet pepper (light green wide peppers).

Hot & Sweet peppers

The tomato plants are fruiting. I actually documented the Tomato garden in the video here, called "Tomato Army". Check out the other garden tour videos: garden 2 of 4 and garden 3 of 4.

I am excited about my Cantaloupe growing as well. It is growing larger by the day. This was a volunteer Cantaloupe that popped up in my Strawberry bed.

Cantaloupe growing in Strawberry bed

Another volunteer plant, the Pumpkin in my compost (picture below), is so large at this point it is taking up the space of my entire Compost bin. Volunteer plants do so much better in terms of quick growth, compared to plants you personally sowed from seed.

Pumpkin growing in Compost

At the second garden, my Cantaloupe and Watermelon plants are vining healthy. Some are flowering. Besides the cantaloupe in the strawberry bed, I'm not sure I will have any other melons this year. I have such a struggle with the conditions of melons. They're high maintenance--plenty of sunlight, plenty of water, fertile, loose, sandy soil.

100 Cantaloupe & Watermelon plants

Cantaloupe 2-3 ft long / got my shoes here

Row of Cantaloupe

Watermelon

Here are some photos of Bee Balm at my Grandmothers...there contains no smell to them, but they're quite lovely~

 Can you see the hummingbird in this picture? She or he is quite camouflaged in this photo. My Grandma finally bought a hummingbird feeder, so I stand like a statue around the feeder to snap a photo of these guys...