Late August Gardens

Despite the late start this year, timely rainfalls throughout the summer have provided the gardens with tremendous growth.

Doesn't this Celosia look like it belongs on another planet?

One reason for touring the gardens this morning was to get an overview of what is ripe.

Russian Roulette peppers are a prolific variety. I have been picking them for 4 or 5 weeks now and they keep on bearing.

Our zucchini-that-is-pretending-to-be-a-hosta has started to bear fruit. Pretty good for being in the shade much of the day.

The melons are the fruit I am most concerned about. I worry that I will miss them. I checked a few on my tour this morning and sadly, some little critter has been checking them too. It's going to be a balancing act - picking them ripe enough for humans to enjoy, but not ripe enough for the critter to enjoy.

Butternut winter squash have been wending their way through the rest of the crops. This one is enjoying hanging from a zinnia plant.

Our green beans have been composted now that they are finished for the year and some of our succession plantings of Mesclun mix are in place for harvesting in the fall. I still need to find places in the garden for around a hundred more plants. Hmmmm.... I think the cucumber plants will be taken out on Wednesday and we'll have a nice little plot of land for more Mesclun plants. It's been a really good year for cucumbers. We've given 231 to the Food Bank.

There is my favourite pumpkin - getting redder by the day. Whenever I get a freed up tomato stand, I'll place it in the perennial flower garden, and put this pumpkin on it as a symbol of thanks for the food our gardens grew this year.

Those two tomatoes are now on the kitchen counter, waiting to become lunch. Tomorrow, I'll be picking large and cherry tomatoes for freezing.

Pumpkins have strong stems.

My new favourite native flower, New York Ironweed is....

.... even more beautiful close up. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Women wore hats with netting in the 50's. I was so glad I didn't have to wear them.

The sky was darkening as I finished my tour....

... and my gardening buddy was patiently waiting for me. Tomorrow, we may have time to wheel some more compost for our new foundation plantings.

And, that's a story for another day.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs,

but not every man's greed.”

Mahatma Gandhi