If you've been following along this summer, you may have been surprised that I haven't talked more about my garden. I do have a garden--of sorts. I was given permission to plant "as long as it doesn't interfere with the guys coming to do landscaping". I was going to make a snide remark about the frequency and quality of the "landscapers'" visits, but figured it wouldn't help matters.

First, I defined and expanded the flower beds next to the side porch. I planted dahlia tubers and dwarf sunflowers, calendula, and nasturtium from seed. Later on I added some gerbera daisies I bought at Lowes, but even though they're now beginning a post-transplant bloom, I don't really feel like I've "grown" them, since they came to me fairly mature.

Most of the dahlias have grown up quite nicely, and one of the "neon splendor" plants is opening its first bloom. The nasturtium have thrown a couple of blooms, and the sunflowers and calendula are bushy and green, even though they're short and bloomless.

I've also carved out a nice flower bed in the corner of the yard.The centerpiece is another dahlia, "nick's pick". The bushy plants in front are escholzia--california poppy. Behind that are more calendula. The coneflowers are another pick-up from Lowe's, but these I feel a little more attached to because I bought them from the "reduced for quick sale" bin, and though they were cheap, they weren't particularly healthy. On the left there are some lavender plants, also purchased. The purple stuff on the right is russian sage. I was at Lowe's and they had this display where they had different rows of plants and it was really clear which plants the bees liked. I'm not a huge fan of the plants (though I think they'd look cool blooming en masse) but the bees are, so I picked up a few. We want to do everything we can to encourage the reproduction of bees. (In case you haven't heard, the bee population in the US--and increasingly in the rest of the world--is collapsing.) The rug over the fence is the neighbor lady's. For some reason she leaves it there all summer and then brings it in for the winter. I talked to her about it, and she doesn't mind if it gets wet when I water (which makes sense since she leaves it out in all kinds of rain).

Since we have the chain-link fence along the sunny sides of the property, I decided to plant some climbers. I planted peas and pole beans, cucumbers and squash. The peas are doing great. They've reached the top of the fence and we've been eating them for about a week. I was actually a little surprised about how well they were doing, as I started them kind of late, and everybody knows they're a cool-weather crop. But they seem to not mind that they're on the sunny north slope. Which is why it was (is) all the more perplexing that the pole beans, planted right next to the peas, did so poorly. Beans love sun, don't they? The beans started out gangbusters, green and vigorous, but by the time they got their second set of leaves, they were showing signs of sun stress, and many died. A second planting exhibited the same progression. When the cucumbers and squash started to exhibit the same symptoms, I panicked. Not knowing what to do, I began intensive watering--even though the clay-laden soil seemed quite moist--and things seemed to stabilize. I still lost my entire first planting of squash, and about 40% of the cucumbers, but I'm hoping that vigilant watering will be the answer. I'm optimistic; enough so that I've completed a third planting of beans.

In addition to the climbers, I've planted tomatoes and peppers. The Seed Savers' Exchange out of Iowa has such a variety of heirloom tomatoes and peppers that I like to start them from seed. Since my husband doesn't like tomatoes, I decided to stick to two varieties, one for eating and one for canning. I also ordered some pepper seeds. I started them all indoors, with very poor results. I think a 20% success rate might be an over-estimate. So I supplemented my planting with some immature plants from the nursery. As the picture shows, I haven't had much success keeping them alive either. This roma plant is about a quarter the size it was when I bought it!

Overall, I've had mixed results. Most of the flowers (that is, the ones that grew--the celosia, amaranth, strawflower, and false sunflower were total busts, either never emerging or dying off before setting true leaves) seem to be doing well, and most of the vegetables are struggling. Maybe the flowers can feel my love. Whatever it is, I'm more than a little worried about leaving everything to itself for a week. So, I'm going to leave the soaker hose on at a trickle and hope for the best.