A Spoon Full of Sugar

The Brady Backyard is in full swing, with lots of rain and sunshine, we're hoping for a plentiful crop this summer.  I picked our first ripe tomatoes this week, though I'm sure we've had a few more - I'm currently at odds with the squirrels, birds and caterpillars.  Any advice for getting rid of my pests? I've tried this and some sort of spray that promised to get rid of caterpillars of all kinds.

This is my first attempt a peppers other than jalapenos, though it's supposed to be a yellow pepper - stay tuned. We also have red peppers, but that were the first attack of the caterpillars and aren't looking too good at the moment. 

I'm also trying cucumbers this year.  I've managed to keep them contained in our little 4'x4' garden, for fear the lawn guys will have their way should a loose vine slip out.  So far, so good.  Bo tasted our first one a couple weeks ago and said it was delicious.  A little to fragrant for my liking at the time, this was still during my morning-alternating-with-night-time-sickness.  Oh, the good times of my first trimester.

As a Minnesota girl, I'd never heard of okra until moving to Memphis where I learned from a master, my mother-in-law has a great backyard garden filled will all kinds of goodies throughout the year.  I loved watching the okra bloom from our upstairs window in the backhouse when we stayed [ok, lived] there for a couple months.  They are so fun to watch because they grow so fast!  I still really only like eating fried okra; I just can't get past that slimy-when-steamed thing they've go going on.

I'm thankful to have this little backyard escape.  Something to tend to and nurture, good practice for the upcoming future?  Maybe.  Mostly, I think we all need a little something in our lives that we can take pride in and learn from.  Like, don't plant the jalapenos in between the okra and the tomatoes - they won't get enough sun...