My Darrow blueberry that I found at Lowes a few months ago for $3!!! It's been sitting in it's pot for months, so I planted it today. I'm not too worried about transplant shock since the rootball was still completely intact when I removed it from its container. I have 3 other varieties planted a few feet away for it to cross-pollinate with.Carmine Jewel bush cherry. Arrived in spring as a very small specimen. It was thinner than a pencil. Only about 7" tall and you could see the wrapping of the small plug that they placed in a 2" container. Not nearly worth what I paid for it. Lesson learned about ordering from that company again. Today I planted it in its permanent spot. Again, I'm not too concerned about transplant shock since the rootball stayed intact.Sunshine Blue caryopteris is now in bloom. The bees love it!
Autumn Joy sedum is starting to blush and the bees are really taking notice.
Fireworks goldenrod starting to bloom.
Mystery plant. Just popped up in the newly added section of garden. I'm not sure what it is, but it is getting prettier and prettier each day. Amaranthus?
My back bed. Walker's Low catmint, Autumn Joy sedum, and an aster that is nothing but ugly all season....until just a few days ago when it shot out healthy green foliage. I was going to toss it at the end of the season, but now I think I'll relocate it behind other plants.
Two Caroline raspberry plants are beginning to fill in my 3'x3' raised bed. Oklahoma red zinnia are blooming their hearts out in the bed behind them.
My three Fat N' Sassy bell pepper plants. They made a delicious stuffed pepper supper yesterday.
Oregon Sugar Pod peas. Even though you can eat the whole pod, my daughter insists on still shelling them. Guess I'll go back to just planting shelling peas from now on. I have to admit, I do enjoy popping open the pods and eating those tasty nuggets.
My new raspberry patch. First homegrown raspberries ever. Fall Gold and Carolines.
One of several containers of potatoes that never died. After weeks and weeks of drought, then flooding rains, these potatoes don't know what to do. They were planted back in April or May. They should have died back, but I think the potatoes resprouted after all the confusion. I figure I'll wait and see what happens.
The "shell" garden due to its shape. In the back are my tomatoes. Spirit pumpkin in the middle. Sweet basil that overwintered is front and center. Tango celery, that is passed it prime, to the left of that.
My homegrown jack-o-lantern still remains a possibility. The vine produced three nice pumpkins in early August then quickly declined. Luckily, after the drought was finally over, the vine put down new roots and took off for the second time.

So my Spring-planted raspberries were starting to be taken over by a monster tomato vine. Not sure which variety. Either a Cherokee Green or Lucky Cross that was left over from earlier in the season. I decided to plant it in a large empty spot by the raspberries. All of a sudden, it took off. Foliage so lush and healthy. It kept growing and growing, but I never saw any tomatoes or flowers. I was sure it was because it gets a lot of shade from the overhanging holly. My poor raspberries were getting buried and were trying so hard to get to the light. I didn't want to have to do it, but I got out the loppers. I would have just grabbed the vine and pulled, but it was so dense I decided to chop away huge chunks first. There were no tomatoes on it anyway, and it had to be done for the sake of the raspberries. First chunk. Gone. Second large chop. Done. Third large cut....WAIT! What is that? Two of the most perfect large tomatoes I have ever seen (with the exception of catalog pictures). Not a blemish on them. No cracks. Just tomato perfection. Chopping stopped! Although the vine is about half the size, these two perfect nuggets of summer perfection are still going strong and the raspberries can see the light of day once again.
I was harvesting pumpkins really early this season. I was worried that I wouldn't have any pumpkins for Halloween. Almost all the vines had completely died. Then, after what seemed like overnight, wa-la! The vines re-rooted themselves and shot up all this new foliage. Next season I will have to make more of an effort to bury the vines in the beginning of the season.We've achieved pollination! All hope is not lost. A Halloween pumpkin!
First berry of the season...a Caroline. These are some big, yummy berries.

Photos of Today's Garden

Cherokee Green, Stupice, and Lucky Cross tomatoes. It rained very hard the night before I picked these, so the big ones cracked. Still tasted good though!My new birdbath! It looks solid, but it's very light-weight. Love it! It's a Pedestal Bird Bath for Wild Birds by Gardman. It says it's frost and weather resistant. At $30 bucks, it felt like a steal.
A portion of my backyard bed. In the front is one Walker's Low nepeta with Autumn Joy sedum behind it. To the left are two "leftover" tomato plants that needed a home. I believe the front one is Stupice. No clue about the other until it matures. The ugly plant on the right is some sort of aster that I purchased from Jung. It's always been ugly. It puts out flowers though, so I think I'll move it in the Spring back behind other plants to hide the hideous foliage.
A few weeks ago the kids started some cabbage, lettuce, and radishes in the empty spots next to the Caroline raspberries that I added in the Spring. A few of the raspberries didn't survive, so now I'm just making the best of the space until the replacements arrive next Spring.
Fiesta del Sol tithonia. I am absolutely in love with this plant. It hasn't even reached two feet high and is so lush and healthy....Love it!!!! It handled the drought and 100+ days without skipping a beat.
Fat 'n Sassy hybrid bell peppers. Now sold under the name King Arthur.
Two more Spirit pumpkins. Some of the Oregon Sugar Pod II peas I started several weeks ago are planted along the front edge of the bed.
Winona Strawberries that were planted this Spring. They are sending out runners and filling in nicely.
Common milkweed that I started from seed in late winter.
Carmine Jewel bush cherry that I just purchased this Spring. The tips appeared to have some sort of blight in the beginning of the season, so they were cut back a bit to remove the funny looking foliage and stems. Now it's putting on some new, healthy growth. I will be transplanting it in the fall to its permanent position in the garden.
Yukon Gold and Red Norland potatoes that are just starting to show signs of dying back.

I made good use of my Sunday morning. I finally processed my first pumpkin of the season. First I cut it in half from stem to bottom. Pulled out all the seeds and slimy guts. :) I rinsed the meaty seeds in my colander to prepare them for roasting. The rest of the guts are now food for the worms in my worm bin.I covered the bottom of my roasting pan and tops of both halves of pumpkin with foil. Then tossed them into an oven at 325. I had to roast this 7.33 pounder for about two hours. Some parts were still a little firm in places, so I microwaved those chunks before running everything through my food mill with a pumpkin attachment. This was a juicy pumpkin, so I drained off the excess liquid after I ran everything through the mill. I took a fork to press out a bit more of the liquid before I placed it in a freezer bag for holiday pies. It made exactly two cups of pumpkin. (Oh, and yes. My oven really is that dirty).I haven't had pumpkin seeds since I was a kid. Why waste 'em? So while the oven was already at 325, I tossed them in with the pumpkin. They were roasted for 10 minutes on both sides while on a sprayed and salted baking sheet.
Seems like a lot of work. Especially since I can buy a couple cans of Libby's pumpkin for only a few dollars. But I will be really proud when I make my first pumpkin pie from my very own pumpkin that was grown with love.

Our 5th heatwave of the season may be ending today. I believe there were 9 days in a row over 90. Some over 100. It really took a toll on the shallow-rooted blueberries. Despite supplemental watering during this time of no rain, the leaves still took a good jolt. They held up fine until I went out yesterday morning. Even the night temperatures and humidity didn't let up, and the plants couldn't fight it one more day. We still need a serious rain around here. The weathermen say there is a chance today. One thing that the heat has done is to ripen my pumpkins really fast.Okay. I know this is ready ridiculously early. They were supposed to be my Halloween jack-o-lanterns in the fall. My fault. I planted early to beat out the SVBs which get me every year. So proud of my first, almost-perfect, large pumpkin!
It does have one imperfection on the side that was on the ground. A burrowing nuisance found its way into this spot. No big deal. I'll cut it out when I go to turn this beauty into some pumpkin puree to freeze for holiday pies and muffins. Yeah. I'm so excited about my first big pumpkin ever!

I've never had success with sunflowers before.....UNTIL NOW!!!! They are loving this heat.
I planted just a small area, approximately 2 square feet of space, because I didn't expect much. Squirrels, birds, or underwatering usually due them in before they get a chance to sprout. This year, with a bit of wet Spring weather at just the right time, they found their time to shine. I wish I knew the variety. I know it's a dwarf. My computer got a virus, and everything was deleted. I lost all my old photos and gardening logs for the last two years. This is why I need to start relying on paper records again....just in case. I'm glad I at least have this journal.
A Golden Acre head of cabbage that I harvested last week. It made a delicious sweet and sour slaw.Three Spirit pumpkins at different maturities. A hybrid, bush pumpkin that is doing well despite the extreme, unrelenting heatwave.There's no way that this one is lasting until Halloween, so I'll be freezing some pumpkin puree sometime soon. I don't regret planting early. I had poor results in past season due to SVBs. This season I have at least 4 pumpkins on this plant. No SVBs. I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Maybe I'll get lucky enough to have one still around for Halloween.Mucho Nacho jalapeno peppers. Mexican, anyone?

Veggies in the Garden

Red Zeppelin and Copra onions. About 75% of the plants were harvested yesterday. They were a lot smaller than last season, but that's mostly my fault. Lack of fertilization and regular watering stunted them. Who knew?
Salad Bush cucumbers, or as my three-year old calls them, pickles.
The Cherokee Green blossoms that I bagged are looking picture perfect so far. I forgot to remove the bags before my vacation last week, so they grew enough where the clothespin released the bag for them. This was my absolute favorite tomato in 2009! Delicious!
Stupice tomatoes are coming along nicely. I've never grown or tasted this variety before, so I'm anxiously awaiting their ripening.My daughters little hands make our first two Sun Gold tomatoes look huge! They barely survived long enough for me to snap a picture. That girl loves tomatoes. Turns out she also loves blackberries. The first few that were ripe didn't make it two steps before she gulped them as well.
Tomatoes in the back from left to right: Four Sun Golds, Lucky Cross, Cherokee Green, and Stupice. My Spirit pumpkin taking up most of the other space. Salad Bush cucumbers weaving around in the front left. Sweet basil blooming in the front. There are still some onions planted on the front right.
These hot days are rough on the Spirit pumpkin. Looks pretty pathetic, huh? Once the sun goes down, it springs back to life. A good shower with the hose perks it up as well.As with every season, I'm having my ups and downs. Overall, I am pleased. I hope you are pleased with your gardens as well. There is one thing that I have learned over the years that make each year more and more enjoyable. It is more rewarding to grow things that I will enjoy eating. Why did I want to grow broccoli? I wouldn't eat enough to justify the space. I need to be in a really strange mood to WANT to eat broccoli. It would end up being nothing more than a large blooming flower here. Yet I have a hard time resisting the urge to grow something after reading about how great they are in seed catalogs. Self-control Kim. Self-control. Now this doesn't mean that I will no longer experiment with different things and different varieties. I just know that about 90% of my annual flower and veggie plantings need to be something that has been successful in the past. The other 10% keeps me learning and satiates my need to experiment with new things. It's what makes gardening fun for me. What makes it fun for you?
I hope your gardens are full of successes this season! Happy gardening!

Spirit pumpkin. I've never had one so healthy, so long. SVBs have always been a huge problem. This is a more compact cultivar.Golden Acre cabbage starting to form a head.Florence fennel. A volunteer. Note the black swallowtail caterpillar in the upper portion. He's already about an inch and a half long!
One of my three Sungold tomatoes started blossoming a few days ago. I can't wait for these tasty nuggets!
Sweet Basil planted last season. It overwintered and is now starting to flower. It came in a gift herb kit. I never harvested any of it, so I'm hoping the beneficials will like it. That's why it's still hanging around. Peas are planted on both sides of it. You can see my Spirit Pumpkin in the back left.
Below are my tomatoes, a Spirit pumpkin in the near-middle, Golden Acre cabbage in front of that, onions in the back right, peas lining the lower of the picture.
The birdhouse I built a few weeks ago has found its first resident. A lovely pair of wrens! You can see one on the tomato cage holding nesting material.
Ellagance Purple lavender that I started from seed last season. Smells lovely.
Jacob Kline monarda. Five feet tall already!!! My Endless Summer hydrangea is blooming as well.
Rosy Returns daylily.
Flamenco Torch Lily. More of a light apricot than the orange I expected. Perhaps because it is so shaded by the monarda.