Touring the (Non) Garden

I took a walk out through the gardens early this morning --- something I do just about every single morning during the gardening season of a normal year. I've really missed my early morning wanderings and talks with the vegetables this year since the garden was relegated to next to nothing status because of our huge remodeling project.

I know I post a picture every year of this silly Virginia Creeper that's planted next to our front deck. But I get such a kick out of the fact that it always makes a beeline for our little bathroom window and eventually covers it completely by the end of summer. This doesn't particularly please one member of our household, but I think it's cool.

My bed of salad greens has run amok. Of course, I planted way more than we could use.

I had to put a tee-pee trellis in the middle of the fallow field garden for the volunteer morning glories that popped up this spring. They've grown so tall they are about two feet above the trellis now and heading in an eastward direction. Doesn't the whole thing look like something out of a Dr. Suess book that is about to take off ga-lopping across the field?

The bed of volunteer cherry tomatoes are still green. They've been in this same state of un-ripeness for a month now. I think they will still be that way when the frost comes.

I'm still amazed at the growth of the Jerusalem Artichokes planted this spring. They must have about 500 pounds of artichokes under them. No?

Maybe I'll get a couple more small pickings off the blueberry bushes. This particular bush looks the most promising at this late stage of the season. Other varieties have as few as only 4-6 more berries coming on.

I could possibly get one more decent harvest from the raspberries if I wanted. But to illustrate how dry our conditions have been, can you see the half-formed berries here that have just dried up? In a normal year, we would have watered them, but have chosen not to take the time to do so this year.

The apple trees have a potentially nice crop on them but because of the very, very cold, late spring we had, they are still too small and under-developed to reach maturity this year, I'm sure. The killing frosts will get them before that time.

I'm actually going to take some time this afternoon to play out in the garden, mostly to do some weeding. Maybe the dirt will wear some of the ever-present paint off my fingers.