I harvested my first jalapeno today. Not expecting ripe tomatoes until late in the month.

This was my deck last week. Those are bush beans in the large planter (4 ft x 15 in), although they appear to be looking for a pole to climb. The smaller planter (3 ft x 15 in)on the railing behind it has beet greens, and white plastic flatware, placed to keep the squirrels and chipmunks out, although it hasn't been real helpful this year. Stored underneath the planter are two 5-gallon pails - one holds aged horse manure from a neighboring farm, and the other has aged compost from my pile. At the end of the big planter are 3 large pots, one has 2 cucumber plants, another 2 summer squash plants, and the last has 2 zuchinni plants - which will all soon be trellised with string up the railing. The other planters on the floor have a variety of herbs. At the far end of the deck, not in the picture, is a repeat of those 2 waist-high planters, with lettuces, spinach, and scallions, and room for more succession planting of beans and beets. I love gardening on the deck. The main garden has more plants, but also is host to a bobcat, bears, fox, coyote, deer, racoons, skunks, and possums, who visit at various hours of the day and night. Everything is behind this year (except the weeds!) because the weather has been so weird - it's either raining nonstop for several days, or the temps are in the upper 80s to 90s.

Your deck garden planters look nice Chocomouse.

We have green tomatoes on our tomato plants, but the plants are growing tall and spindly for some reason, and the top parts with flowers are well past the supports.

When my husband bought some trees from the Indiana DNR a few years ago, he discovered some cranberry plants that were in with one of the trees. He has been growing it ever since, and this year it has cranberries. At first, I thought, yes, nice, but today he showed me that they are now the size of regular cranberries, although naturally still green. I think my husband is hoping to have a little cranberry bog on one of the terraces. It would be neat if I could get enough for scones.

A cranberry bog! That will be fun! Something new and different to learn about. Do you have a natural wet or boggy area, or will your husband need to fix up a mini-bog for them? I know nothing about growing cranberries, but have read a lot about harvesting - the old hands-on methods and the machinery that is used today. I wonder if it takes years to establish a planting? I need to do some research - not that I'll ever try growing them.

Chocomouse--our house sits on a sandy site--one reason the berries do so well. My husband is researching how to put some kind of tub in to create a little bog. A fellow botanist gave him the name of someone who has done a little bog, so my husband will ask the guy about what he did ad how it has worked.

The cranberry plants were in moss that was around the young trees when my husband bought them, so they were hitchhikers but welcomed ones.

My "garden" is still looking good, spotted my first ripe tomatoes, 4th of July variety. I'll probably pick them tomorrow.