Onward to autumn!

lemon cucumber

We haven't even hit our hottest month yet, and already it's time to start thinking about fall crops. Many of them need to be planted three months before average first frost, and in my area, that's today (on the nose!)

But I'm not ready for fall! I'm still dealing with summer crops! There's a pile of pattypan squash on my counter waiting to be cubed and frozen. The beans and lemon cucumbers are coming into their prime. The tomatoes are starting to take on an orange tinge. In short, there's still so much to look forward to from the existing plants that I let myself slide into denial and neglected to come up with a fall-crop plan ahead of schedule.

So I reserved a few hours today to set myself straight, and used part of that time to stop by a local community garden in hopes of gathering inspiration. Happily, it looks like I'm not too far behind the local curve... there was hardly a fall crop to be found among the squash, sunflower, and dahlia-filled plots. Heartened, I came home, dove into the garden, pulled out the yellowing snow peas and scraggly nasturtiums, and planted a row each of radishes, beets, swiss chard, arugula, mache, and lettuce.

Woohoo! Crisis averted! I still have a few seeds to buy and plant (savoy cabbage, leeks, radicchio), but for now, I'm just proud of myself for getting started on time for once. Maybe all that flaxseed bread we've been eating lately is actually doing some good :-o

Can these tomatoes be saved?

they're scrawny and rootbound, but they're mine

Boss: The tomato plants out front are free. We got reimbursed for them.

Us: But it's practically August. It's too late to plant tomatoes.

Boss: That's why they're free.

Us: (pulling out cell phones) Hey, it's me... you want any tomatoes?

I told myself I wouldn't be growing any more tomatoes this year. I even gave homegrown seedlings away back in April. But the lure of free plants was just too strong, so a Beefsteak and Early Girl ended up taking up residence in a patch of dust in the backyard this evening. We'll see what a little compost and more root space can do for these undernourished underdogs... probably not much, but at least they have a fighting chance.

Elsewhere on the tomato front, the San Marzanos have hit five feet:



Last year's plants overwhelmed their tiny girly wire cages and flopped over mid-July, so this year, I adopted a more disciplined approach to staking. The Florida Weave system is all the rage on the tomato forums, and so far, it's working really well with very little time invested in maintenance. Every few days, I tuck a few branches into the pre-tied twine... and that's it! The vines are well-supported, and the tomatoes are easy to find and reach.

What's most important: it beats trying to wrestle a six-foot tomato vine off the ground every day, hands down!

"Easy to grow"

Every packet of green bean seeds I've seen has been labeled "easy to grow," but let me tell you... I fought darn hard for the scant number of plants that are out there. I've never planted beans before, so maybe it was my experience level that was to blame. Maybe I planted too early. Maybe I should have planted on the sunny side or the berm. Maybe they just didn't get enough water. But... long story short, I had to replant these beans FIVE TIMES, and I still have a bald spot in the row.

On the bright side, the plants look productive-- I can hardly believe such a tiny little plant is capable of bearing so many pods! The variety I planted was 'Delinel,' a French bush bean. It has delicate little pink flowers and only grows 24 inches high. Every day, I pass a neighbor's garden, where he is growing seven-foot high pole beans covered with large yellow-and-white flowers. It's hard to believe that both plants are working toward a similar end product.

In other news, over at Flickr, you can see photos of the latest dahlia to bloom in the flowerbed and a couple of my cutest co-workers.

Sequim Lavender Festival, 2006

Yesterday, we visited the Lavender Festival in Sequim, WA. Sequim calls itself the "Lavender Capital of North America"; situated in a valley at the foot of the Olympic mountains, it is sheltered from our Northwest rains and boasts a climate comparable to that of Provence. The festival features a giant street fair, quilt show, and tours of some of the local lavender farms.

I'm a sucker for festivals, but a flower festival? I had to go! Last year, I mentioned Lavender Hills Farm, which holds a wonderful annual festival virtually in our backyard. While Lavender Hills is well on-par with the farms on tour in Sequim, the Sequim festival is about twenty times larger and a hundred times more populous, and all of that extra space is cram-packed with activity and variety-- even the husband admitted he had a good time. Besides the usual lavender-product suspects, we were introduced to lavender dog bandanas, lavender salad dressing, and lavender margaritas. Even those die-hard grumps who weren't having a good time to begin with lightened up a couple of margaritas down the road!

For more information, see the Lavender Festival website, or check out my brand-spankin'-new Flickr photo gallery for more of my own photos of the event.

Four Flowers and a Tomato

Zinnia 'Whirligig' has some freaky coloration going on... this one's the weirdest.


Calendula (pot marigold) smells wonderful, and the petals are soft and luminous. Due to my own neglect, this is the first time they've lived to flower out of three seasons of planting seed. (They're super-easy to grow... but I am super-forgetful about watering).


I love nasturtiums. They tend to get blackfly (black aphids), but vigorous spraying with water seems to keep the bugs under control. The flowers are spicy and pretty in salads.


A borage plant I put in last year reseeded like crazy... there must be forty plants coming up now. But the flowers are beautiful and have a mild cucumber flavor (although some people are allergic), so I'm letting them do as they will.


One San Marzano tomato, coming up!