garden of late-summer delights

First the bad news:

That chipmunk has struck again! He found the newly potted pots and did a little potting of his own (or had a dance party?). This young Cilantro will soon be infested with bird-seed-weed in at least three locations. The Slyvetta and Basil face the same future.

But it's not all bad news...

Here is what happened with the only tomato plant I managed to grow from seed and then left in a dreadfully small pot all summer (plant abuser, I know). It has given us four tomatoes! Not bad for a l'il fella with the odds stacked against it!

Now on to the truly fantastic stuff:

The Sun-Flowers-That-Lived-in-the-Shadows-All-Summer have managed to bloom! Hooray for them! Troopers indeed!

(Side note: I wonder if BP got their logo from the center of a sun flower?)

(Second side note: After a long absence through the hot days of summer, THE HUMMINGBIRDS ARE BACK!!! They make me so bizarrely excited!)

The Green-Onion-Contraption seems to be doing the trick and the Spinach and Lettuce are well on their way!

And lastly, one of the culinary delights we made with stuff from "the farm", Stuffed Peppers! I know it mostly looks like melted cheese (that's why I always carry a good 10 extra pounds around people!) but underneath there are peppers (we grew) stuffed with rice (that we didn't grow - the balcony can hold a lot but probably not a rice paddy...) and tomatoes and chilies and herbs (all grown here).

YUM!

The garden/farm is winding down. It's kind of sad...

I think in the fall I'll have to put up some twinkly lights, set out the reclining chairs with piles of blankets, maybe find a fake plug-in fire, and make a cozy little retreat out there.

from head to toes

The sunflowers have finally formed flower-heads... and that is me in behind there... they are so tall I had to click blindly from below:

It's been awhile since I actually got soil on my hands out there. Felt good:

What was I up to? Planting some Sylvetta, Basil, Spinach, and Cilantro. The Sylvetta seeds came in the mail from a person I only met once and were a total surprise. Best mail day in years!

The Rainbow Swiss Chard was a retarded crop. I don't mean that in the un-politically-correct way. I mean, the soil was too shallow and it never grew very big. I dug a little plant up and was surprised by the long tap root.

It was still pleasant to have around because the colours were beautiful but today was time to harvest and make room for something else:

I'm not positive this will work but I decided to plant some of my green "Multiplier Onions" where the Swiss Chard had been. They grew so vigorously last time that I don't believe they will fail. However, to preempt the shallow soil problem, I planted the onions in containers (with the bottoms cut off) in order to get a couple more inches of soil below them. We'll see what happens. I also threw a bunch of spinach and lettuce on the soil around the containers:

The Chilies are plentiful and pretty. We've already eaten a few. They are HOT!


I loved starting a Pineapple a few years ago and had a really great plant for awhile... until my cat knocked it over from a high height and broke most of the leaves off. It rebounded well but then it froze when we moved across Canada in the middle of winter. Hard times for a Pineapple but it's still around, not thriving. I decided to start a new one but I couldn't quite let go of the old one. I re-potted it and will wait to see if it can make a come back.


When I was working on my onions, I knocked over this dish of Semps - again. I've knocked them over so many times. Poor guys. I re-potted with marbles just for something different.

(And there are my toes.)

technically it's not a pickle until you pickle it...

the one and only pickle (cucumber) is the most fascinating thing happening at the farm right now... is it trying to be a watermelon or something? what a weird plant. i think it's an alien.

also, i made yogurt! and it was really easy!

and then i also made labneh... which was even easier and even tastier!! ...but i did not take a picture of it.

pictures, for lack of much to say...

Still here, still growing...

Besides some minor "editing" of the garden (removing the old and rearranging the others, beating back the wilds and regaining some living space), there's not a lot to tell of these in-between days.

Just waiting for things to ripen and already planning how I will do things differently next year...

In the meantime...

A pickle is worth a thousand words:

Various green tomatoes:

The Sunrise Rose plant has bloomed again! Huzzah!

The earliest and ultra-est of the UltraGirl variety stands out in a profusion of green:

I remember having something like this around the house when I was small. I loved the fine mist it made and carried it around as a personal-cooling-device in the summer. I had to buy one when I saw them reduced by 50% at Chapters of all places (do they even sell books anymore?).

I'm not sure what plants need misting but once that's demystified, you can call me Ms. Misty:

The first yella-bellied Yellow Plum:

And the first of the Cherry Tomatoes:

These Dalias were $2 on the side of the road in Mennonite country:

The Spearmint has finally started to get somewhere. I think because I put a guard dog on patrol:

These tomatoes look OK from up top but turn them over and they're a sloppy mess. So sad.

But these ones are ready for eating (and in fact were eaten shortly after this was taken... our first tomatoes):

Trying to show what the garden looks like from inside looking out. Hard to tell from this but it's a lovely little retreat out there (now that it has been "edited"):