Although some things in the garden are a total loss--alas for the basil--some of the plants are staging a comeback. And in plants, that looks like flowers.
A single hollyhock.
Calendula buds. Unfortunately, the grasshoppers REALLY like calendula blooms, so it's hard to get to enjoy them as flowers before they get devoured.
Volunteer lettuce. Oddly, the grasshoppers don't eat lettuce at all.
Green beans. I have exactly seven green bean plants left, and I have eaten exactly two green beans from them so far.
And tomatoes. There are even wee tomatoes on the remaining eleven plants. Thankfully, the grasshoppers don't seem to eat the foliage off the plants, although they do eat the fruits when they start to ripen, so I'll have to be vigilant.
We have about two months before our first frost, give or take a couple of weeks, and my fingers are crossed that some of those flowers will turn into food in my kitchen.
So tell me, my fellow gardeners: How does your garden grow?
Try planting some lettuce now, if you have seed.
ReplyDeleteJust a sampling of next year’s bounty (we hope!). Not a big fan of grasshoppers, especially when they get in the house. Loud and really hard to find, although that hard to find thing totally doesn’t apply to your garden. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing piles of huge grasshoppers at a gas station in Amarillo about 50 yrs ago. Do you have the huge ones? They are pretty horrifying. My cucumbers have been pretty amazing (thanks, sheep) and the tomatoes are coming on strong. Great basil this year, too. No beans. But the farmstand up the road is reliable. Mil
ReplyDeleteMiL: Yes, we have huge ones, tiny ones, colorful ones, flying ones . . . I've never seen such variety. It would be interesting if it wasn't so gross. And destructive.
ReplyDeleteAbout to start the fall planting next month. Trying to figure out what exactly it is I'm going to plant.
ReplyDeleteI'm harvesting my plot of Japanese indigo this Saturday and will be dyeing wool yarn with the fresh leaves. First time I'm doing it. Good or bad, it'll be fun (gosh darn it!). The stems can be re-rooted, so I'm clearing a spot in a raised bed to line them up like little soldiers. If we have a mild fall, maybe they'll flower and reseed (doubtful).
ReplyDeleteI discovered that one of the pumpkins decided to put on a fruit (fruit? or? I should know that) at a place where the fence overlaps at a splice, and it is slowly warping both sections of fence to make space for itself. So that's interesting.
ReplyDelete