late to the garden party

once again, just when it seems like every other gardener in blogland is resignedly hinting about wrapping up their summer crops, mine are finally hitting their stride.

september is the most productive time of year in my garden. i can count on at least another month (or, if this year follows last year’s weather pattern like it has so far, two and a half more months) of good growing weather.

today i pulled in three zucchinis, two cayennes, first two tomatillos, ground cherries, countless tomatoes and a full pound of colorful bush beans. seven pounds of tasty treats in total.

these tomatillos were supposed to be purple. i have three plants and they all look completely different--the bush these came from is low and huge and sprawling, with no purple coloration anywhere:

another is tall and lanky with some purple in the veins of the husks (so i think that means the fruit will be purple), and the third one has a growth habit that’s somewhere between the other two but the husks are about three times the size of the others, differently shaped and darker green. is it possible i got three different cultivars out of three plants, from seeds that were all supposed to be a single type?

side note about tomatillos: i’ve never seen bees go so crazy over vegetable flowers. these plants are constantly humming--i’ve even watched bees fly right past blooming borage to get to tomatillo flowers. anyone who wants to attract bees should grow some of these.

basilica bonanza

last year i didn’t grow enough basil. this year i overcompensated. i’ve had at least one container growing indoors since february, but i waited until much later in the season to start any outdoors--late june, maybe even july--then instead of planting in the hottest, sunniest areas like i did last year, i chose cooler, shadier areas. it worked.

now i have five containers, two areas in the main garden bed and almost an entire side of a raised bed devoted to basil. one of my favorite things to do in the garden is go up to the raised bed and give the plants a big, gentle hug, then bury my nose in their leaves.

ten varieties: sweet, lettuce leaf, thai, red rubin, lemon, lime, opal, dwarf greek, spicy globe, and holy (a.k.a. tulsi).

goth sunflower

they’re not the only sunflowers blooming in my garden right now, but these “chianti” variety sunflowers are so striking they take all the attention. the petal color changes depending on the light—sometimes almost purplish, sometimes deep red, sometimes lighter reddish-orange. the veins and stems are dark purple. the flowers are on the small side but with many multiple buds. thank you so much to angela for sharing the seeds. i know these flowers are special to her, and now they’re special to me too.