the garden

Well, it's kind of been pathetic this year.

The basil at least is looking great.

This volunteer plant crawling across the garden sure looks like a cantaloupe to me.

Small yellow flowers under the broad leaves.

Parsley is decent- I've finally used some of it in cooking.

Oregano has nice leaves on the top- its newer growth.

But the lower leaves are pale, mottled with insect damage. You can see it on the cantaloupe leaves too. Probably most of the plants will get trashed later this fall, not composted, to see if I can avoid having so much whitefly next year...

Marigolds have lots of foliage, but very few flowers- and they are all bitten by whitefly or stinkbugs, too. So I don't know how much they helped my garden, as the scent from the blooms would deter the pests.

I am still picking caterpillars off the ratted broccoli, but not very many lately. This big fat one the kids found in another part of the yard. I tried to look it up and it's a plain kind of moth- a brown one- but I forget the species name now.

Not pictured: the cucumber! I have one cucumber. I didn't see it because it was partly buried under the mulch and that part of the fruit blanched white. I've set it up on an upended yogurt cup, to keep it off the ground.

Other plants- I have more peppers. The cherry tomatoes are winding down. Pulled the last few beets and they were small. Tasted good, but the foliage was so insect-damaged I didn't want to eat the leaves. There are still carrots growing, and perhaps I will get another bunch or two of swiss chard before the season is done. I cut down all the large tomato plants on the lower deck, they just weren't doing well there. The two brandywine plants are still producing. Herbs I tried to re-seed in the planter did not really come up- summer savory is gone to seed and the young plants died from the heat. So I don't have any more savory or green onions or dill. Maybe I'll do better with that next year.