Watching our garden grow

So this summer my hubby decided he wanted to grow some pumpkins and I wanted to try to grow some tomatoes. Since we have a small yard and no room for a real garden, we decided to use the front flower bed for the pumpkins (never did any thing with it after we moved in last year and all it needed was stump and weed removal and we were good to go w/ a clean slate).

Jason started some pumpkin seeds in a bowl (sadly I did not get any pics of this stage of the gardening) and then transplanted four of the growing seeds to the front bed. Meanwhile, my dad gave me four roma tomato plans and two cherry tomato plants that he had started from seed in his greenhouse (note to self - must take pics of the greenhouse he built and his magnificent garden that grows more and more each year and is now bigger than my entire back yard). I planted the tiny plants in pots and put them up on our balcony to grow safely away from the squirrels and chipmunks that roam the yard, not to mention from y sweet lil pugs, who I'm sure would find their way to them if allowed.

While the pumpkins were quickly taking over the entire front flower bed, the tomatoes were looking pathetic...hardly growing and one plant even got chewed up by what I assume was a bird. I realized that they weren't getting enough sun on the balcony, so I carried them (with the help of strong, non-preggo hubby) down to the flower bed on the side of the house next to the pumpkin patch growing just in front. Then we decided that we should just plant them there next to the house because they would get plenty of sun and I had no plans for that part of the flower bed anyway. Great idea...kind of. The tomatoes started growing just as fabulously as the pumpkins and pretty soon I saw a few lil green tomatoes - awesome. Then my sister warned me that she heard we shouldn't grow edibles next to the house because it's almost 100 years old and is likely to be covered in lead-based paint, thus causing the soil to be contaminated, thus causing the tomatoes to be lead tomatoes...boo. Anyway, we've still been watching their progress and watering when necessary, but I don't intend on eating them. I think I will try to get a home soil-test at Home Depot if they have them to check the soil to be sure, but I'm guessing it's probably not safe to enjoy my home-grown edibles this year.

I thought I would post some pics we took tonight for everyone's viewing enjoyment :)

Here's one of the first pumpkin we noticed growing, which is now a little smaller than a soccer ball..



And here's the second pumpkin that is more long and skinny, but bigger than the first...



Here's the first lil red cherry tomatoes...



And here are some green romas...



Here's Jason standing proudly by the patch (which appears to be not doing so well at the end near him...the leaves have all of a sudden gotten very dry looking, but someone said that maybe that's what happens to squash-type plants, so who knows what is happening...we'll keep watching and watering when necessary and see how they do.


Here's me next to my unruly tomatoes (dad explained over and over again how to 'sucker' them, or whatever it's called when you remove certain parts to make sure the good stuff gets all the water and nutrients, but they got kinda out of hand before I did anything and now it's too overwhelming, so I'm just letting them do their thing...hope that's not gonna hurt the lead tomatoes too much lol)...



And here I am "growing pumpkins", showing the one in my belly (we've called the baby 'pumpkin' from the beginning since she's due in October) and the one in the patch :o)...



I will try to keep posting pics/news about the garden and if anyone has any advice, feel free to give it as we are totally new to this gardening thing.

Hope everyone has a great week!

PS - Any of you bloggers using Blogger out there want to share how you post w/ several pics? Do you upload all the pics first and then fit in your text, or type first and them upload and move? I did the latter and it seems like such a pain, but I'm not sure if there's an easier method or not. Thx in advance.