Tired of hearing about my garden yet?

Oh, I hope not, since it's become my favorite activity lately. Here's what it looks like today, mid-July 2012. I took this picture this morning on my way to the bus. You can see my garden neighbor Clint's half-circles of radishes (on the left side of my garden), and my recently planted kale (front row) and two rows of collards behind are all doing very well. Clint put the walkway of wood chips between our plots and it's been working very well for both of us. It looks like I should be getting out there and weeding the grass and buttercup plants out of the garden pretty soon. Here's a closeup.

You are actually looking at three rows of veggies here. In front is a cabbage (lower right) that is suffering a bit from my vigorous application of soapy water to kill the aphids, with a marigold plant and some zinnias in the row in front of it. Then in the middle row are two very vigorous squash plants, my very favorite kind too, delicata squash. In front of them are my carrots, which I planted from seed. The squash plants don't seem to be bothered by any of the critters I'm dealing with (slugs, aphids and little green caterpillars). In the row behind, from left to right, are two brussels sprouts plants that have been attacked by all three pests, and the two black kale plants that have been harvested twice now. On Sunday I went out and gathered enough leaves to bring in and make into kale chips, which were so delicious I almost didn't leave any for Smart Guy. They are easy to prepare: wash and break into small pieces, toss with a bit of olive oil and salt, then bake for 12 minutes at 350. I was amazed at how tasty they are.

In the final row, which you can't see very well in the middle picture, is my zucchini squash plant, which is covered with blossoms. That pretty yellow flower will soon be a squash! I am thrilled with the adventure of growing my own food, even though I didn't think I would need to become such an expert on garden pests. Now that summer has come to the Pacific Northwest, perhaps my Asian eggplant will recover enough to survive. They need full sun, and each blossom that has come out has died so far.

And I am definitely talking to all my plants, telling them how proud I am of them, how much I appreciate their addition to my life. I don't think I want to consider how much each of these plants has cost me (it's not a small amount), but the payoff in delicious food and blog fodder makes it all worth it!
:-)