August Garden

Our backyard garden is growing like James: tall, fast, flourishing, and a lot of work.

I love looking at early season garden photos and comparing them to late season garden photos. By next March I'll tell myself (like I do every March) "no, there is no way the garden was that green, that tall, that dense" and then by August the tomato plants are taller than I am and the pumpkins are bigger than our carseat.

We've had a hard time enjoying our garden during the day for the last few weeks, due to the heat wave we've had. The only time I've had to enjoy my garden is after the baby is in bed (which is really sad for him) and dusk if falling.

Well yesterday the heat wave broke (like it knew that it was September and it was high time for some less-than-oven-like temps). As E and I ate dinner outside on the patio, I commented that for the first time since June I wanted a sweatshirt. There was a touch of chill in the air.

Gah I love this time of year.

So onto my garden photos. Yes, Jessica from next March, the tomatoes were really 5.5' high and, yes, things really were that green.

Remember the planter boxes when they were new? The plants were tiny. And just like every year, plants rock and roll in August and I can hardly keep up. And zinnias in my back garden. One of my favorites.
Sweet 100s (the red tomatoes) used to be my favorite. I still quite love them but sun sugars (yellow ones) have taken over the title for "yummiest tomato ever eaten".
View of the mountains from my driveway. I love this city.
The zebra grass is probably 6.5' tall. It's huge and still one of my favorites. And need any serrano peppers? Because I have three of these plants, and at 200 peppers each, I have about a zillion to give away.
Have you ever tried pattypan squash? Neither had I until a neighbor gave me a plant this spring. I love them! The skin is super tender and easy to cut (and eat!). We grill them up, top with balsamic and olive oil, mix with fresh garden tomatoes and basil and seriously, best side dish ever!

And second row of photos? Those are the pumpkin vines. I mentioned to my grandma early in the season I wanted to grow my own Halloween pumpkins for James. She got me gigantic pumpkin seed and off we went. Now? There are about 10 huge pumpkins, as you can see from the last photo, with my hand in the foreground for reference.

Glorious.