How Does My Garden Grow?

 Tomatoes, green beans squash, a bit of corn. One pot of petunias gave up the ghost while we were gone for two weeks, but the geraniums are still doing well.  I think the back porch agrees with them.  Perhaps one of the dear daughters took some compassion on them and watered them once or twice?   I think the corn was not well pollinated, and plants that were producing somewhat good ears didn't get enough water.  Sadness for the corn.   The Nasturtiums are looking pretty good now and the summer squash is still producing.  I need to remember to try more nasturtiums next year!

The garlic harvest for the year  1.6 lbs after curing and trimming.  I think we harvested too late for some of the plants since the bulbs are falling apart.  (the first week of August?) We only had a handful of green beans this week, a few more squash and more tomatoes.    

  Flowers to take to Kamas for Grandma Wagstaff's birthday and fresh produce.  I didn't get a photo of the largest picking of green beans this weekend. The Zinnias are finally starting to look good in Grandma's Garden

A lot of grapes!  We need to get them out of the tree branches that are hanging over the fence that needs to come down at the end of the month.  We bottled 10 quarts, and still had another bowl left over.  We can't eat that many grapes. More tomatoes, green beans and squash.  Some chocolate zucchini bread and zucchini corn bread, and some  tomatoes and green beans for the freezer.  

  The pansies gave up the ghost, so we found a poor petunia on clearance to put in the blue pot Cherrie or grape tomatoes going on Grandma''s garden with the petunias and zinnias.  The Dhalia's didn't like the 100 degree weather the past few weeks.  The one lone green bean plant has survived the attack of the snails. One beautiful Zinnia possibly two more survived from the entire packet of seeds. And a few rogue sunflowers of course. I never did get around to planting the fun ones. Lots of grape tomatoes, a few roma tomatoes behind the sunflower, some cucumbers and squash A few potatoes and green beans Also harvested 30 some odd garlic bulbs that are setting out curing.  I forgot to get a photo of those. And that's it for today folks!

As is usual almost every year, the heat and the snails are taking their toll on Grandma's Garden.  We had a nice fairly cool spring during May and June, but about three weeks ago Summer arrived with a vengance, and we've had highs in the 90's almost every day, and no rain.  That first week of hot dry weather happened while the family was enjoying the cool, misty weather of the northern California Redwoods, so poor Grandma's garden was a bit neglected.  Gratefully the tomoatoes and most of the petunias survived, but things are still looking a bit scraggly, so we added a few festive pin wheels for the fourth of July.   I tried planting a few beans, carrots, and beets underneath the two cherry tomato plants, but the snails always seem to find the vegetables even more delicious than the flowers, so they haven't done well at all.  I planted a few more beans a week ago, and a couple of them are starting to poke their noses out now.  Hopefully these ones will survive! DH e