Baby spinach is totally ready to start harvesting, and it's delish. The lettuces need a couple more days before succumbing to my desire for mesclun. Swiss Chard is looking good (a rainbow variety) and will be happy about this cool rainy weekend coming up. Chive heads are beautiful and tarragon's gone nuts. Three tomato seedlings are in, and I'll probably get a few more this weekend at the farmer's market, along with probably zucchini and summer squash. I need to plant beans soon.

Lettuce is ready to eat, and everything else is thriving from some recent rain and an application of organic fertilizer. The six tomato plants are doing lovely, and the cucumber vines are really busting out.

Flowers everywhere - calladium and bacopa, wave petunias, asiatic lilies, bearded tongue, black eyed susans . . . more than I can name.

Everything is wonderful now. Soon the bugs will come and the battle begins.

Been harvesting lettuce, spinach, and chard for a few weeks. We've had to institute the Mandatory Salad Rule. Chives are in full force, and the rest of our herbs are coming along, with small harvests every now and then, but no pesto amounts yet.

The beets and sugar snap peas have had their run. Their spaces will now be given over to beans and eggplant.

Tomatoes and peppers have tiny fruits and lots of flowers. Cucumber vines are progressing nicely, and corn is about 2 feet tall.

The lettuces need a couple more days before succumbing to my desire for mesclun.

Pro tip: Expand your season by harvesting the outer leaves of the lettuces, leaving the inner leaves to grow into more outer leaves. Don't pick the whole plant!

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My tomatoes are going gangbusters this year. Instead of using the automatic sprinkler system to water them like I always have, I'm using a soaker hose once a week. I think it's really making a difference. Should have ripe tomatoes in a week or two.

Potatoes are almost done and ready to be dug up. Should be picking green beans in a few days. The pole peas are ready to be pulled out -- should end up with a couple pounds of shelling peas from them. Cukes are growing, okra's sprouted, peppers are producing fruit. The zuchinni and pumpkins are blooming, but the yellow squash is lagging a bit behind.

I have spotted two cucumber beetles. One was already dead (it looked parasitized, which excites me), and the other got fed to a chicken. I'm hoping they don't turn into a problem.

I'm also worried about the squirrels. I've lived here for almost 7 years and had never seen a squirrel in the neighborhood. Four have moved in next door since the fall. I had big tomato battles with the squirrels in Austin. Not looking forward to going through that again. Hopefully they won't find the tomatoes, otherwise I'll be setting live traps.

Something is nibbling my strawberries. I've got netting up over the patch, but it's not helping. Probably mice. They're eating just enough so you can see how ripe and juicy the berry would have been had they not ruined it. Bastards!

Know what's cool, though? When my kid tells me she's going to have a snack, then comes back in with a handful of fresh strawberries and spinach. Then she flexes to show how healthy she is.

'Pups, we've got squirrels out the wazooby and they've never touched my tomatoes.

Awesome, jrossi. Good to know. Also, be watching your mail for any large packages that sound like they might have something rowdy and squirrel-like in them.

I so love your kid.

Pro-tip: Don't pay to ship squirrels in large boxes. Flatten them between the pages of a book or under car wheels and you can easily fit several in a flat-rate envelope.

(Wish I'd known about the lettuce thing before I yanked out half the heads for salads. It's cool, though. I need that space for carrots.)

Oh, yeah, we pull lettuce (and spinach) leaves off as soon as they're big enough, giving us sort of a rolling harvest. We also plant them in the same beds as our tomatoes and peppers--the leafy stuff gives out in the summer heat. But then, our yard is tiny, so we have to conserve space. This year, we're trying some lettuce in the midst of cucumbers, hoping the shade will help the lettuce.

We're battling grubs this year, with milky spore and nematodes. Aphids are usually a problem, so we've already unleashed the ladybug armageddon.

We do, in fact, have a problem with squirrels getting to our tomatoes--our cat does a pretty good job of keeping them away, and we liberally apply cayenne pepper to the plants. But we still lose a few every year.

Mine is coming along pretty well. I haven't added anything because we're in a drought, so what's the point? Some of the tomatoes are ripened. I picked a few today. Everything looks good and is alive. We need rain. Too bad that tropical storm is hitting south Florida and then the west coast, rather than the east. Bring on the storms. Rain on our heads.

I can't believe y'all already have ripe tomatoes. You're not supposed to plant them here until May 1. I was a wee bit behind and put them in two weeks ago. But they are growing (two plants, patio hybrid - whatever that means) and flowering nicely.