In the garden

I was out in the garden with the camera a couple days ago. Here is what's going on in our garden right now.

I'm amazed when I stand back and see how green everything is. It has been a foggy and cold summer here most of the time which has aided in this I'm sure. But standing back makes me realize I really didn't suck as bad as I thought at the garden scene this summer!

The children's garden never took off and I didn't have the body to care for it so we ended up with a whole lotta sunflowers and volunteer amaranth with a few zinnias thrown in. It looked much better last year!

This was my new big idea: The canopy garden. Most of the seeds were eaten by birds, but the morning glories have really taken off and had it not been so foggy when I took this photo they'd all be open. Colven (my 3 year old) really enjoys being in here. Next year I need to reinforce the netting and use something other than hemp twine. I'm thinking some kind of open mesh fencing.
These Flying Saucer morning glories are gorgeous, this photo doesn't do them justice!

Peppers! Our jalapenos are doing terrific. The plants aren't the biggest we've had, but they are LOADED with peppers. My husband tried one last night and proclaimed they have great flavor and the perfect amount of spice. I tried really hard not to water them too much. Over-watering dilutes the heat in spicy peppers.

Every garden should have a gourd vine. This year I planted Corsicans, they will make a wide base bowl shape. The baby fruits are so fuzzy and soft. Even the big leaves are soft and fuzzy. The vines send out huge, long tendrils to grab onto things. It's really fun for kids to watch because they grow so fast. These vines have tons of baby gourds on them. I'm excited to see what happens.

When I was filling this old hot tub up with soil a friend of ours offered old organic mix from.. umm... an indoor garden (remember we are in California wink wink). Funny thing happened: A mysterious plant sprouted and grew. I confess I let it grow until it sexed haha. It was male. I shouldn't have let it grow though, and not for the reason you might think! It shaded out the Moon&Stars watermelon so now it's just this puny little thing I doubt will bear fruit. The first year aspargus is looking fabulous! And look! We finally got some potatoes in the ground. And they are sprouting! You should have seen the state of the seed potatoes when they went in. They had been sitting in their box in the dirt since spring. They looked like shriveled little deadies.

Nopales!

Kentucky Wonder bean vines with a mesclun salad mix, corn and volunteer purslane.

The Black Beauty zucchini got a late start so it is still robust and big and strong at the end of August, amazing! Newly planted (and protected from birds) are beets, scallions, Monet's Garden Mesclun mix and All American parsnips.


A tradition in our garden is a giant pumpkin vine. This is the first baby!

I had to include these photos of the amaranth. It is beyond gorgeous.


Look how long this is!

Tomatoes are slowly ripening

The first cover crop of buckwheat is already ready for tilling and re-seeding!

I also managed to seed some Purple Queen bush beans, Giant Musselburg leeks, and Southern Giant Curled mustard greens. The photo was just of an empty looking wet bed though! :)