Garden Friday

It's Garden Friday

and it also happens to be my birthday!

The giving starts here with these shots of the garden

taken with my new phone.

C'mon, let's take a stroll.

Tuesday night brought a fierce storm

with ferocious winds and about an inch of rain.

The poor sunflowers held on for dear life

and I have no way to prop them up because of their size.

Some of these are upwards of 12 feet tall!

Thankfully, most of the garden was unharmed.

This butternut squash should be ready to harvest within days.

I see soup in my future...

The pumpkins started flowering this week

and were promptly fertilized.

No doubt the rainfall helped them along their way.

Last year, I grew okra in a raised bed.

This year, they are in raised rows,

and they are much more difficult to harvest 

because they are low to the ground.

I have a couple in a straw bale,

so I'm hoping those will be a bit easier.

The magic of beans, in this case,

Red Ripper beans.

Here they are in two stages,

fresh and dried on the vine.

The dried beans will be used to make soup

and also used for sprouting.

The loofah is really taking off now.

It seems to thrive in the heat

and doesn't mind one bit if it stays dry for a while.

This is the first gourd I spotted on the trellis,

and it's now turning yellow.

Never having grown these before,

I'll have to do a little research about peak harvest times.

This plant is a delight to grow and I will continue to add it 

to the summer garden each year.

It asks for very little and the sweet golden blooms alone

make it worth growing.

The melons are starting to suffer from something.

Many leaves are turning yellow or brown

and it's too late in the season to try to save them.

There is one hanging on the arches that looks promising.
Even if it's the only one we get, I'll be over the moon!

Here's a little bitty one just getting started.
This is one crop I will try to do better with next year.
We can't get enough melon around here!

Considering that I wasn't planning to grow tomatoes this year,

these volunteers sure look healthy.

I picked a couple of them so that the critters couldn't get them,

and I'll most likely give them to a neighbor as they come in.

(I'm avoiding tomatoes at the moment.)

Aren't these sweet potato blossoms just the cutest things?

The bees love 'em and I often see them fighting for space inside.

The black-eyed Susan vine is enveloping the straw bales

where the cucumbers refused to grow.

Works for me.

With summer coming to a close in the next month or so,
the butterflies will soon be bidding us adieu for another season.
They have been plentiful and spectacular this year,
and for that I am truly grateful.

Today I start the last year of my 50's.
Where has it gone?
I'm thankful to have had another year with my family,
friends and neighbors.
I hope this year is filled with opportunities to give back.

Enjoy your weekend!