Due to our past experience with gardens we planted several plants this year, hoping that one of each kind would survive. Much to our surprise, all of them survived, and prospered. We ended up with 5 zucchini plants, 8 tomato plants, 3 pumpkin plants, 9 cucumber plants, 6 corn stalks. So, I canned alot this year. I canned salsa, pickles, zucchini pickles, and tomato sauce. I also have a freezer full of shredded, and chopped zucchini. I do not think we will plant zucchini next year. If we do, just one plant will be great. The top picture isn't even half of what we harvested. It was so fun. We had to pick everyday, or it would be overwhelming. Can't wait for next year!
Look at these beauties! (Children included) We took a chance this year and threw in some sunflower seeds along our fence line. We planted 15, 4 came up. I am so thankful that only four came up. They grew over 8 feet tall, and produced thousands of seeds. We had never harvested sunflower seeds before, so we were all looking forward to it. We had to saw off the flower heads, then scrape the seeds out, soak them, roast them.... and we are still eating them. The next part was fun. We took turns karate chopping the stalks down. Unfortunately, the stalks were stronger than we were! HA! We ending up sawing them down as well, and then pulling out the roots. It was a nice way to wind down the summer. 
