It's now impossible to walk inside my fenced vegetable garden without treading on squash vines. My tomato plants are taller than I am. (I'm 5'4".)

Yesterday, I ventured inside to tie up a few tomato branches that were being pulled down by a squash vine.

I discovered a giant cucumber hidden under all those leaves, as well as two over-sized zucchini I hadn't seen before. It's kind of like a vegetarian version of the game Hide and Go Seek.

Well, you know what that means....zucchini bread! I also picked another medium-sized tomato and a few string beans.

Here's a rundown of what's growing:

Tomatoes: Lots of green tomatoes, but thus far, just a few mid-sized tomatoes that had ripened. I could have sworn that I bought cherry tomato plants, but it appears all 5 of my plants produce a mid-sized variety of tomato.

Zucchini: This has been my best year of the last 3 for zucchini. I made a special effort to hand pollinate this year and i'm getting a lot of zucchini.

Spaghetti Squash: I think these may be able to be picked soon. They went from a greenish-white color when formed to a pale yellow now. But I'll have to check online as I've never grown these before. But I have 4, maybe 5 loaf-sized squashes...HUGE. Can't wait to try them!

Acorn squash: I just spotted one large one yesterday, but that's all so far. Guess they take a while to grow.

String beans I usually grow bush beans and get plenty of beans, but this year i decided to try pole beans. I have 2 tripod structures made of 6 foot high branches and these have been absolutely covered by the beans, but so far, lots and lots of leaves (I haven't fertilized) and very few beans. Disappointing.

Potatoes: I had great fun with potatoes last year, so this year i planted both red and russets. They appear to be dying back already; this is supposed to happen by end of August, after which time you can dig up the potatoes. I expect to have a great crop.

Ornamental gourds I planted a row of these but only 2 plants came up, I think becus I was stepping in this area while weeding and forgot I'd planted something here along the fenceline. I only noticed one small gourd; let's hope more will come.

Cucumbers Last year I had maybe 4 plants and I was awash in cucumbers. I decided to pare it down to just 2 plants this year, and now it seems I don't have ENOUGH cucumbers. I've only gotten maybe 3 or 4 at this point.

Bell pepper I've never had huge successes with bell peppers. It seems to take so long for them to really take off. Haven't gotten any peppers yet, but the plants themselves finally seem healthier, with more foliage. Of course, they're being shaded out by the squash vines, which are hard to contain and control.

I also planted some sort of vining annual flower, just to add some color and attract pollinators, but while they also got off to a slow start, they have yet to flower. Just green....

I'm off to a focus group this a.m. about an hour's drive from here. I'll return mid-day with $125 cash in my pocket.

I want to lay my new soaker hose in the garden and also head over to friend's house to continue cleanup work in her garage/house and start getting ready for her garage sale. She's basically cleaning out a lifetime of accumulated stuff. I've already gotten 2 nice lunches out of it (a bison burger at the local diner, and a shrimp caesar salad and dessert at a good Italian place).

I also need to mow the lawn!