The garden has been a bit droopy lately because it is hot and the customary afternoon thunderstorms have either not happened or have happened two miles away.
The peppers suffer most in hot, dry weather.
I was not able to get to the garden last week until Friday and my neighboring gardeners, let me know they had watered my garden, which was really nice. On Friday evening, I saw things had gotten out of hand, so did a trash bin full of weeding and clearing.
Even the basil looks as though it’s shrinking in the heat.
There are mulberry trees in the area and as a result of feasting birds, mulberry saplings in the garden. They are long established, and it’s been impossible to dig them out, so I just cut them off, but when I don’t keep up with it, it gets shrubby along the fence line. Various weedy vines also had gotten out of hand both in the garden and out and flowers that seed, like the Love-in-a-mist, had gone completely brown. All these things came out, along with some weeds and a lot of Jerusalem artichokes (another plant that goes utterly feral and unmanageable).
Believe it or not, this is after the clearing!
That created a little room to begin to think about fall crops. Yup. In the midst of summer heat, I’m thinking about planting for fall. The cucumbers, which have given lovely fruit, are about done, so I’ll likely rip them out soon.
I always hate to rip things out and may trim the diseased leaves, but I do think these are about done…
I’ll keep the beans for the time being, but may rip them out if they don’t keep bearing and put some peas in there for fall.
There are a lot of blossoms right now, so potentially more beans. We’ll see.
I am not a tomato grower. They fail for a variety of reasons, including weather and fungus, but I always get a few, especially now that I have discovered flower camouflage.
There are three tomatoes in this picture…
This morning, I looked at my seeds, which include spinach, several types of radish, carrots, lettuces and arugula and something I have never planted, called rooted parsley, which apparently creates a big white root that gets sweeter as the weather gets colder. I’m going to try that just for kicks.
The thyme is looking good, with some new growth.
In the meantime, I’m enjoying the continued profusion of zinnias in bouquets.
arlingwords 
The heat/drought has been hard on your garden plot, poor things. It is tough not to look forward to the cooler temps of fall, not that we want to wish the summer away, but hot is hot, and naturally we want relief. Love all those summery zinnias!
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They would have taken less of a toll if I were a better and more regular waterer! It seems odd that with another month and a half of summer, I’m thinking of pulling a few things, but such is gardening…and August is always hard on it here.
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Your garden is very impressive this year Lisa. And your soil must be very good to keep everything going in the heat you have endured. Also such a boon to have neighbours who water for you – that’s a good community! Rooted parsley sounds intriguing – I hope you’ll let us know how that tastes if you get that far with it. It’s freezing here – I’m not really looking forward to another month and a half of this!!
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I sympathize with wanting to rush out of winter! I hope it warms up there soon. I don’t even know how to cook that parsley root. Will look it up.
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It looks like a very productive garden to me, and the flowers are beautiful. It seems like the work of a gardener never ends.
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It only ends for part of the early winter. By February, I’m looking at seed catalogs!
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I love your garden! I used to grow many of these, until I moved to The Holler.
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I bet you had to learn a whole new group of plants for color and growing. It looks dry in the Holler.
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Mulberries used to live on the perimetters of the orchards to distract birds from the fruit within the orchards. There were cultivars that ripened just before certain types of fruits. For example, the earliest mulberries were grown near cherries, since cherries were the first to ripen. Late mulberries were grown to protect peaches. Anyway, there were mulberries that I would not recognize nowadays. I believe that almost all were cultivars of black mulberries, but some might have been North American red mulberries. It is sad that they are all gone now.
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That sounds like a very clever idea. There’s a term for that in the garden that I’m not thinking of now. We have lots of them out here. I have gone out picking them before and got odd glances from people and even the “Can you really eat those?” question. Unfortunately now I don’t have a go-to tree, so haven’t done it for a while.
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You would not believe what people ask “Can you really eat those?” about! This is the Santa Clara Valley! This region used to be famous for orchard production! What is worse is that, for some reason, most seem to know that nasturtium is edible, and have no problem striping mine from my downtown planter box! Everyone I have confronted doing so says the same the, ‘Did you now they’re edible?’. Seriously??!! Like that makes it all okay.
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The worst is the wet year that I had loads of purslane and every time I weeded it someone would stop and say “you know you can eat that, right?” I got to the point I’d hold up a big handful and ask if they wanted some. Never had a taker. It works both ways with the stuff you can throw in salads.
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So nice to see a glimpse of home! Gorgeous flowers and bounty.
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Hey, there. I hope the trip continues to fascinate. And that I didn’t miss any blogs yet!
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I really need to try planting zinnias from seed next year. I don’t know if they’ll have enough time, in our short growing season, but it doesn’t hurt to try! Yours inspire me, every time I see them!
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There are all kinds of seeds for different varieties. You really should plant them You could also plan and plant them in the fall, so they could come up when they were ready in the spring, but they grow fast and get big. If you plant in May, you should have blossoms by July…
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Thank goodness for your neighbours’ watering. Those profusion photographs look packed with loveliness.
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Thanks, Derrick. I’m glad you think so.
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Your zinnias are gorgeous. I bought seeds and never planted them. I’m simply too busy this year and need to remedy that. I’m staying on top of the weeds, and much of the garden is on drip but I long for more time out there. It’s also been way too hot by day. Sigh. It looks like you are getting a lot of pleasure from your garden, Lisa. I’m sorry to read about the recent bus incident, and hope it won’t be long before your fence is back up and all things are working as they should.
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It sounds as though you’ve had a great summer with some nice trips. I wonder if I could get you and Kelly to meet me in Vancouver some time. Or some place out west you haven’t visited a bunch! It would be a nice trip. The garden is very dry now and I’m hoping we get our predicted rains, but somehow all the disruption is spurring other changes and planting that’s good.
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Hi Lisa, I will be sending a proper thank you via post, but I wanted you to know your package arrived safely. You are the best! As for Vancouver, I was supposed to go this summer with Mike but now we’re attending a wedding instead in Toronto. Kelly isn’t a fan of Vancouver but I would love to go back. I’ve not been since 1980!
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Oh, glad you got it! I had a look for more things after I emailed. I’d love to meet up in Vancouver sometime that’s a good time to go. I’ve never been and it was the first stop in my friend Jane’s blog of travels and made me want to go more! Glad you got the package.
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It’s been 40 years since I went, but I remember a rich night life, a gorgeous park, fun little shops, great restaurants, and unlike other big cities, I felt safe.
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Interesting. I think there’s bicycling and kayaking now–and what, Victoria is across the way. I’ve always wanted to go there, but just haven’t made it!
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Oh I love kayaking. That would be fun. Stanley Park is beautiful. I stayed in a youth hostel when I visited many years ago with a girlfriend. It was a steal! It made seeing that city affordable to a struggling student.
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Wow. Let’s figure it out for next summer.
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On that last image I can see the garden is amidst an urban area. It looks stunning and brings so much beauty!
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