Garden Update: End of Summer

I had hoped to do more garden updates, or even to spend more time working in the garden, but alas. Life happened. But I thought it would be fun to show you what it ended up looking like by the end of August. It is amazing how much it has changed since it was first planted in May (can see photos here).

Here you can see the mizuna was a wonderful success – I over sowed the seeds and they nearly all grew… and then I never even whittled the crop down. At one point, I was mesmerized by its flowers and then nearly overnight at the end of July they bolted and made those seed pods you can see. The leaves were still edible so I let them be. I hope to collect the seeds for next year.

Speaking of flowers and bolting, both the sage and sorrel bolted early in the season producing flowers and seeds. I eventually cut those off once I knew it shouldn’t be there and the plants are looking great now. My sorrel was inflicted by spinach leaf miner earlier in the year, so it is nice to see it healthy now.

You can’t see the tarragon here but it didn’t grow that much and in this photo, you can see the volunteer tomato plant and mysteriously showed up (and even gave us some cherry tomatoes!). I am not sure how it got there since I didn’t plant it, but perhaps from compost or a critter. Not sure. Likely compost.

This was my experiment with Ayocote Morado runner beans. As you can see, the plants were huge and I had a ton of pretty red flowers. Sadly, they didn’t turn into pods. I think I spotted one pod but I am not sure where it went, so I don’t even have any more seeds to try this one again. It could have been because it isn’t in the sunniest location or the summer was just too hot for the beans. Not sure. I am really hoping to have a trellis for the beans next year and I love the idea of this DIY cattle panel trellis.

Interestingly enough, the goji berry tree didn’t bloom either this year. It is hidden amongst the beans.

 

Here is my front yard kale and marigolds. The marigold seeds did not work out very well so in late June, I bought some marigold plants. You can spot the one Orange Gem Marigold that grew from seed (in the middle with all the blossoms). I love how the blossoms actually taste like orange. I know marigolds can cross breed, but I am still saving some of these seeds. We’ll see what happens!

The kale is growing well although the two end plants – tansy and bergamot – never had flowers. Since they are perennials, I hope things improve next year.

A single tomatillo plant with lots of asparagus ferns and flowering chives. I am so excited to see what happens with the asparagus next year since the spears keep coming up and they are becoming quite thick!

I had 4 tomatillo plants (2 in pots and 2 in the garden) and the ones in the garden fared better. The potted tomatillo plants were always thirsty and produced smaller fruit. My first harvest came from these plants, so it worked out nicely. There should be plenty of tomatillos to be picked, as you can see there are still many on the plant and still plenty of blossoms! The plant in the above picture actually could have been bigger but the master shoot was broken off so it mainly hung around the grass.

Here we have the tomato jungle. Lots of leaves and some tomatoes. We still have plenty of tomatoes for my liking but I would have expected more tomatoes from a jungle this size. Earwigs and critters are definitely helping themselves to the harvest, though. I have to pick the tomatoes while they are still green if I want any chance of keeping them intact and eventually in my belly.

How did your garden adventures go this year?