Weekly Update: September 20th

Well this weekend marked the last weekend of summer. Still quite a bit of activity going on in the garden, even as signs are starting to point towards the winding down of the season. The white flies and aphids won the battle for the tomatoes, so I had to end up just cutting them all down. Next year I'll be better prepared to wage war. They just got to far out of control before I had a chance to fight back! The photo on the right shows the bed now that the tomatoes are gone. The poor peppers look pretty lonely. The only good thing is that I may now actually have some space for the fall lettuce and spinach that I started earlier this week!

(I'd actually forgotten that I hung up Jason's iron pieces on the fence this spring. They've been hidden behind plants all summer.) I also pulled out the rest of the zucchini as it had run its course and mildew was setting in on the leaves. I did manage to pick enough for 4 more loaves of zucchini bread!

I tackled a couple of small "infrastructure" projects since the planting and harvesting tasks are winding down. I installed edging around the border of the lawn. This one is pretty cool, made entirely of recycled cardboard and plastic bottles. It was a pretty easy process and should be a big help in keeping the edges of the beds and what's left of the lawn defined. The two constantly seemed to be creeping into each other, and in some cases it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.

Quite a few things are still going pretty strong: (From Left)

• The New Guinea Impatients are blooming again in full-force. I just love the bright pinks against the dark green/black foliage. The hosta and coleus in the background have also been extremely happy campers!
• The bush beans are pretty much done, but these Kentucky Wonder Pole beans are still going strong. We get almost 2 lbs per week at this point. It looks like they are slowing down, but we'll probably get one or two more pickings before the end of the season.
• A really stupid photo, but I was trying to demonstrate the height of the towering okra plants. The tallest one (pictured here) is now officially about 6" taller than I can reach. I'm thinking almost 10 feet tall now? AMAZING!

Putting this week's post together, I was going through photos and happened upon this photo from earlier this summer. Take a look at the obelisk and nasturtiums in June week 3 (on the left) and compare the photo on the right taken this weekend. It's amazing that at one point I was actually worried that they wouldn't fill in the tower fully enough. Keep in mind that I have to prune this monster every week to keep it from taking over the entire yard!