End of summer scenes from the potiger

Cosmos

Zinnias

For Mary's birthday last March Caleb gave her a little Disney princess pot of flower seeds.
We kept them inside and she faithfully watered and watched.  After they sprouted and the weather warmed a bit, we put them in the garden.
Those are her zinnias.  She was so thrilled that they bloomed.

 One pumpkin.  Only one!  Sadly the plant is suffering from blossom rot.

Red jewels.

This was my surprise of the summer.  A friend gave me four tomato plants.  I really didn't think they would grow well, but oh my goodness.  I have so many tomatoes.  (Probably 30 or more on my kitchen counter!) I'm pretty much the only one who eats them.  My lunches lately are cut up tomatoes with avocado and goat cheese drizzled with a little olive oil/vinegar OR tomato and cucumber salad OR tomato with tuna...  :-)

We still have lots of cucumbers.  I haven't had enough green beans to can, but we (actually, my nephew) steamed up a generous amount and then coated them with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  They were delish. 

  My sea of cucumbers.

 The view from the house.  
A very sloppy end of the season garden.

My garden journal 2015: 

• The soil on the new side definitely needs to be enriched.  
• The salad cucumbers didn't put out near as many as the pickling ones (but I think I planted more pickling plants.) Only plant 1 row of pickling cukes.
• The one squash plant has blossom rot as well as the one pumpkin plant. :-(
• Do not let the tomato plants just grow.  Use cages or stake them sturdily.  Only plant 2!
• Under the tomato plant grew that nasty horsetail weed, but nowhere else in the garden.  I wonder why?
• Basil grew really well.  (a very hot summer - lots of days in the 90s) Plant a lot more!
• Cilantro always grows well.
• Romaine lettuce did much better than mesclun. (probably because of the heat.)
• Beets did well this year.  I did better with thinning.  (next year plant 3x as many!)
• Green beans need taller stakes and string that runs between the stakes or something.  The T-posts alone do not work well.
• Don't plant rows on the diagonals.  Make better use of the space.
• I need a kitchen window herb garden of parsley and chives.

. . . . . 

always friendly and curious 

Did you grow a garden this year?  How did it go for you?  I'd love to hear.