It's harvest time in our garden.  It was an unexpected joy to discover that we can garden in hard, rocky clay soil!  Our tomatoes were very productive and we made 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 4 quarts of salsa.  YUM!  Next year, we will need sturdier tomato supports as the tomato cages we used this year have been completely crushed by the weight of all our tomatoes.

The one area of our garden that caused puzzlement was our squash patch.  We waited and waited for the seedlings to appear and after a month, we replanted our seeds.  All of a sudden, in July we had a squash explosion and the patch is overgrown now with pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini.  We have so much zucchini that we are starting to great creative with our recipes.  We have baked regular zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini cookies, chicken and zucchini soup, and our FAVORITE chocolate zucchini cake!  We suspect that zucchini gardners across the country are in the same boat as to what to do with such an overabundance so here's a list of what you can do with extra zucchini:

*Use a large, overgrown zucchini as a baseball bat.

*Hollow out a small zucchini and use as a boat in the bath tub.

*Give away to neighbors who are still accepting garden offers.

*Giant dog toy.

If none of these silly suggestions work for you, here's my grandmother's Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

1/2 CUP OLEO

1/2 CUP OIL

2 CUPS SUGAR

2 EGGS

1 TSP VANILLA

1/2 CUP BUTTERMILK

2 1/2 CUPS FLOUR

4 TBSP COCOA

1/2 TSP CINNAMON

1/2 TSP CLOVES

3/4 CUP NUTS

3/4 TSP BAKING SODA

3/4 TSP SALT

2 CUPS GRATED ZUCCHINI

COMBINE ALL INGREDIENTS.  BAKE IN A 325 DEGREE (F) OVEN FOR 40-45 MINUTES IN A GREASED ANGEL FOOD/BUNDT PAN .

I HAVE ADDED 1/2 CUP CHOCOLATE CHIPS TO MAKE THIS CAKE MORE APPEALING TO A PICKY EATER. 

We had to start this garden from scratch.  We had to dig through the sod and the hard clay soil.  We had to add soil amendments.  Finally, we planted tomatoes, jalepeno pepper, sunflowers, onions, green beans, carrots and parsley.  The tomatoes, pepper, and sunflowers were planted last week and the sunflowers are now up!  We spent Memorial Day weekend planting the rest.  The boys are working on a gardening lapbook and learning about pollination, photosynthesis, and how seeds travel.  They will also keep a 15 day log on the progress of their seeds.  So far, the wait continues.....

We are organic gardeners and will try to keep an eye out for bugs.  So far, we have noticed the presence of slugs.  I had read in an Organic Gardening Magazine article to sprinkle coffee grounds around the plant being munched on.  I tried one plant and will see what happens.  The best way to rid a garden of slugs is to put a pie pan in the garden and fill it with beer.  Obviously, this is something Mom does.  The slugs are gluttons and can't resist this drink.  They drown!  I should try yeast water and see if it works just as well as I can't keep buying beer for the bugs in my garden.

We are also working on getting a good mulch layer as our climate is very dry and hot.  Another goal is to get our composter cooking and add compost to our soil.  The boys love to take scraps from the kitchen out to the composter.  Another favorite activity is to find worms, name them, and then give them a home in the composter.  Hopefully they like their new home.