State of the Garden or What a Mess!

Once the hot humid mid-summer weather hits I get pretty lax about keeping the weedy pathways clean. The growing beds get just enough care to allow the vegetables to grow as well as possible and I concentrate on bug control and harvesting. It's not a pretty sight down there!

 This is my row of brussels sprouts. The plants look relatively healthy but the sprouts are teensy. Big question mark as to whether we get any. Next to them in the forefront of the photo is green bean patch #3. This picture was a week ago, so the green beans are bigger now and should provide beans in September sometime. We are already swimming in green beans, but it'll be nice to share some with family and friends. To the far right of the photo, where the bucket is standing is my last undug patch of land within the garden fence. It will be a raised bed when I finally tackle double digging it in the Fall. My will to dig died with the coming of warm weather and planting season. I've been digging new beds for the past three years, so there will be some real celebration here when that final bed is finished! To be able to start spring with all beds ready for planting and no new ones to dig is a dream!
 The second planting of zukes is above and they are looking pretty healthy, although the squash bugs have found them so they are beginning to suffer. Behind them are the old pea and early cabbage beds with nothing growing in them. Well, not strictly true, because in the cabbage bed I have some Fall spinach coming up. I'm thinking of getting some kind of cover crop over the other long beds.

 Bean patch #2 is just now producing very well. Next year I'd like to diversify and put in a patch of beans to dry, like Jacob's cattle beans or some such. This bed was the garlic and onion bed and is now mostly empty. I really wanted to put in a lot of autumn crops, but lost the will to plant with the hot weather.

My red cabbages, most of which are cut now. The heads never got solid or big as you can see by the one in the foreground right. Note all the crab grass in the walkways between beds! Ugh, it is unsightly and just grows with reckless abandon. Now I have a good source of straw so I'm hoping to put that down next year to keep the paths neater.

The tomato plant above is deceiving in its greenness. Most of mine are very diseased and bare, with a few pathetic tomatoes on them. These are Juliets, small, but at least producing!
All around the garden fence are these monstrous weeds pushing up against it like they want to get in and take over. My vegetables should be so healthy! But for all my complaints about the state of things, the production has been great for many of the things I grow and the challenge is there to keep improving things. The gardener's mantra: there's always next year!

In the winter squash bed I have a number of small squashes that I hope will ripen before the vines completely die off. Here are three of the four kabocha squash I have. These plants all got attacked by the squash bugs too and they do not look too healthy either. But that bright orange color does lend a bit of cheer to the landscape! I'm hoping next week will be cool enough to get out there and do a bit of clean up in the garden and maybe plant a few things that still have time to grow this fall, like radishes and quick growing Asian greens. We still have a month of warm weather ahead so I'd best make the most of it!