In the garden

It's been a great year for the garden. We've had reasonable temperatures, regular rain and I finally invested in a bottle of "I Must Garden" (repels deer). We even did buy a chest freezer for all the surplus, and it's mighty stocked now. Still, there are areas of the garden that need attention and I'm sure I'll never be totally satisfied with it.

The tomatoes were incredible, and I loved growing yellow ones for a change (Lemon Boy and Golden Girl). I sure like hybrids. Someone will need to convince my to devote more than a tiny percentage of my garden to heirlooms - I just haven't had much luck or production from them.

The green beans (Blue Lake) were also outrageous. The same dang plants produced all summer long. Usually, I (at least intend to) stagger plantings throughout the summer (perhaps 3 different plantings?) so as to keep the production up. But this year my most productive plants were the very first ones that I planted. Every time we'd get a needed rain, the plants would burst forth again with new beans and I picked them up until a few weeks ago.

Cucumbers, not so hot. I planted a bum variety from some hippie outfit - some were good, some were awful - fuzzy, full of huge slimy seeds. I need some good cuke recs.

Other winners - green/sweet peppers, basil, jerusalem artichokes, okra, peaches and even a few raspberries (currently making a fall resurgence)!

Some nice flowers made an entry to the garden this year - pineapple sage, various purple salvias, a very happy light pink mum from Ruth (currently blooming) and of course the swamp sunflowers from mom, also blooming profusely right now. The little orange Mexican cosmos looked great, and my obedience plant bloomed for the first time. My hydrangea paniculata 'tardiva' did not bloom and I discovered that it blooms on new wood and so needs to be pruned. Noted.

So, at this late date, I'm not picking much from the garden. Lots of parsely is left, and so is basil but that won't last long (frost soon). A few hangers-on peppers and the enormous jerusalem artichoke stand needs to be chopped down and dug up (can't wait). It's time to hunker down, spread some compost (and chicken manure!!!) and start planning for next year...