Harvest: tomatoes & beans

Not too bad for tomatoes.

Enough to eat fresh without going bad.

Becca and I like the little ones, Jacob doesn't.

That oddly shaped green thing is a cucumber, with one more beneath it.

Not much harvesting going on for cukes this year, for some reason.

A nice mess o' beans.

The kiddos love eating these fresh, and I love letting them!

So the fact that this many actually made it into the house means there were probably twice as many on the plants themselves. The purple beans are their favorites, since they turn green when you cook them (magic!)

Front Flowerbed: Yay's and Nay's

What's working, what's not, out front.

YAY:

I really like this dianthus, transplanted from the back slope.

Look at it: one big bunch of flowers, then smaller ones around the base.

A little strange, but I love it!

Lobelia: definite winner

Those little pops of blue color look so great contrasting with the purples and pinks surrounding them.

I like the sky blue (on either side, above) much beter than the darker blue with the white eye in the middle.  Also like the blue better than the few purple I planted on one side. I've sheared them back a few times, and they just keep blooming like crazy.

This rose pink salvia, transplanted from the back slope, has really taken off.

I'm surprised at how ground cover-ish it is. My other varieties have spread a little, but basically are in the same space as when I planted them. This one is going all over the place!

Which so far is fine--it's filling in the bare spots nicely.

I may have to reign it in at some point, but for now I'm just letting it do its thing.

Yay for my big salvia blooming again!

I cut it back hard about 2 months ago, and it's put out all those fresh spikes.

Love that!

more salvia and lobelia goodness

This rose salvia has also been quite lovely and is currently reblooming.

Shasta daisies, purple coneflower, daylillies, phlox

I'm  happy to say that my main perennials have almost all worked out how I had hoped! (With a few exceptions, see below.) These stars of the show have provided beautiful blooms for almost 2 months now and are still going strong!

I'm excited to see them grow and fill in the bed more next year.

petunias

They look so lovely and just keep on blooming no matter how hot it gets.

My vote: more of these next year to fill in spaces!

purple verbena

Yes! Love the color, the small blooms packed together, and the fact that this is at least the 3rd or 4th time it has been covered in blooms since I planted it last spring.

NAY:

sweet alyssum

It was a good idea and looks okay up close, but this bed's biggest impact is from the street.

These teeny tiny blooms get lost from any distance away.

Perhaps a good candidate for flowerpot next year.

English daisies

This is the second time I've been taken in by these. The little pink and white blooms with bright yellow centers are so cheerful. Unfortunately, they are so small you can't even see them most of the time (see comment about alyssum, above). Not sure if they need more fertilizer or what, but after the main blooming was over--just after I planted them--they have just had a few blooms popping up here and there. Not the impact I was hoping for front and center. If they make it through the winter I think I'm going to pull them out and transplant them elsewhere.

[not pictured]

forget-me-nots

These are lovely, but again, so small.

I plan to transplant them this fall to the shade bed, where their delicate blooms can be more appreciated.

[not pictured]

violas

Looked pretty in spring, but this bed is too hot for the likes of these beauties.Their color washed out and even with regular watering, they just couldn't make it through the heat.

Another good candidate to fill in spots in the shade bed next year.

On the fence:

Bacopa

This looked great when I planted it, and now it's got those cute little white flowers again, but for about 2 months in between it was a whole lotta nothing. Seems the cooler weather brought the flowers back.

Probably won't plant this one in this bed again. I may try it elsewhere to see if it does better.

peonies

If they live, I think they'll be beautiful and look great. That seems kind of iffy right now, particularly for what was the biggest one in the middle.

daisy by the steps

One short bloom time, then it has been dormant and green the whole rest of the summer, even with deadheading and regular watering. We'll see how it does next year.

mystery Asiatic daylillies

I transplanted these from the East side of the house.

The big tall one bloomed white this year--I don't know if the others didn't bloom at all, or if I just didn't notice them. In any case, I have no idea what color they will turn out to be. If it's orange or red I'll need to move them next year.

Harvest

In addition to all those carrots, we also picked and dug up a few other things:

Red potatoes, Yukon Golds, 1 purple potato

(the tops had all died off of these ones we dug up)

green beans and purple beans

a couple scrawny cucumbers

plus several tomatoes and cherry tomatoes

I went ahead and snipped the tops of the tomato vines, to speed ripening.

Carrots! Lots and lots of carrots

We've had an awesome carrot crop this year!

These short, fat ones are the 'Scarlet Nantes' variety.

Good tasting.

August 15 harvest--"thinning the crop"

The longer, skinnier ones you can see are the 'Tendersweet' variety.

Also good flavor.

Round 1 with carrot processing: 4 quarts to freeze

These were from just a week ago (Aug 29) 

We harvested what was left.

Some of the Scarlets were so big they had cracked and were unusable.

We pulled up some of the fattest and longest carrots I've ever seen.

It was fun!

carrot processing, round 2

6 quart bags to freeze

WOW!

Flower arranging

Brought home this from the flower farm. 

Arrangement 1

Front view 

back view 

 wild top view

I'm actually quite pleased with how this one turned out. I didn't get too large a vase this time, purposely selecting one shorter and smaller than most of the stems.

Liked the color combinations.

Used the green straw-tubes to hold up some of the bendier stems.

Arrangement 2 

 Liked this one better than I thought I would, actually.

These were mostly the very short stems courtesy of my little helpers at the flower farm.

I decided to add a few spiky taller ones to give it a little more interest, and I think it worked!

I think these may be my best efforts yet!