above view

of my little garden plots. A while back I moved all the green bean pots onto the garden soil- they used to be in a row edging the garden. Figured their roots that reach down out of the confines of the pot could still add nitrogen to the soil. The other end of that bed (top left here) is all nice blue-green color of the broccoli plants, but they're in sad shape. Attacked by three kinds of caterpillars (I picked loads of them off the other day and fed some to the cherry barbs) and whitefly. I squish as many stinkbugs I can find. I am also ruthless towards japanese beetles, white cabbage butterflies and their larvae.

The plot on the right looks really empty. Because we ate all the swiss chard that was in there, and I had cosmos flowers that got dug up by the chipmunks/squirrels so many times they finally collapsed. Central there is one little cucumber plant. It has flowered, but I'm not sure if we'll get any cukes. I'm not expecting much of it.

The main bed that's been established longer did much better this year (I think just because it had better nutrients for the plants). It looks all empty because we ate what grew! Among the few beets and carrots I haven't pulled yet is this volunteer something from the melon family.

I think a cantaloupe or honeydew from errant seed in the compost?

There is also a little funny ring of seedlings- again I think seeds that sprouted from compost or a squirrel's activities. They grew up around a beet plant and I didn't pull them with weeds them because the beet sheltered them from view. Now they're in empty space I'm letting them grow to see what they are. At first I thought sunflowers or something else from the curcurbit family, but now that the true leaves are emerging they look more like echinacea or nicotiana.

Easy to see these are suffering from bug attacks, too (sigh).