Garden Update

The garden has officially given up on summer (which seemed to last about 2 weeks) and embraced the onset of fall. Starting Monday, the days should be in the mid-60s and the nights in the upper 40s, so that's perfect weather for fall crops.

Some things are still going strong, like the thyme. As you can see, it simply will not be contained to the garden and has burst through the rabbit fencing:


But other plants are happy to stay in their place, and seem invigorated by the death of the obnoxiously-large tomatoes. Case in point, the chard:


I've also planted some fall crops anew. Below, sugar snap peas, which should mature in time to eat in November. On the other side of the bed I planted green beans, which I thought were pole beans but they don't exactly look like I expected. So we'll see. Gardening is an adventure, right? If they turn out as I expect, they'll be the kind of skinny, dark green bean Charles especially likes.

Here's the garden, overall. If you blow it up, you'll see some last bits of dahlia producing smaller but still-lovely flowers, lots of scraggly marigolds (love those!), a huge rosemary shrub, absolutely incredibly flat-leaf parsley, impressive sage, and some very leggy, seedy, flower-y oregano.

The bamboo poles will support the beans and peas, while two of the blueberries are hanging on in the corners. One has a disturbing tinge to its leaves. I'm not sure if that's just fall, or if it's sick. If the latter, I may have to buy some bigger, more mature plants in spring and try again.

Of course, you have to imagine this with a nice coating of leaves, as of today. We had another incredible, unbelievable, insane rainstorm. It blew down a ton of leaves, so the entire yard looks a mess.

Luckily for me, I was driving on the freeway at the time. When it's raining like the end of the world, what you want is to be in 70-mph traffic playing control-your-momentum with big trucks. Good times.