tempus fugit: garden style

It's amazing to think that over two months have passed since the last post!  I'm afraid the summer just slipped right through my fingers - you'll have that from time to time. 

I am quite pleased with the way the garden turned out.  We harvested literally hundreds of peppers. We picked quite a few, still have several quarts in the cupboard.  There's also several bags of frozen slices in the freezer - and we can't forget the stuffed peppers we've had for dinner and the mounds we've given to friends. Believe it or not, there's more growing out there now! Should be harvesting some this weekend. 

Pepperoncini grow like crazy!

Ahh, if only you could smell these pictures.

Bit of everything in this harvest:
Sweet banana, multi-colored bell, and of course
PEPPERONCINI.

The green/yellow/purple beans did very well, the second crop much better than the first.  Lower yield of beans but beefier.  We had many large radishes, the carrots are still growing, rabbits ate all the cabbage (oh well they have to eat, too) and we ate a fair amount of cucumbers.  The last radish I pulled was the largest - it would have looked at home being used in a baseball game!

Tomatoes were, eh not too impressive.  I'm afraid we screwed them up the way we watered them....  Got weird spots and whatnot.  Also the squirrels carted off a great deal of the salsa tomatoes.  They were kind enough to leave the remnants scattered through the yard.  I did get a large Supersteak Hybrid that I made a tasty BLT out of  - Shawn topped his bacon cheeseburger off with a slice.

Mmm, bacon cheeseburger.

Now that's a tomato!

BLT = Bacon-Licious & Tasty

I do have to blame some of the tomato casualties to hurricane Irene.  It seems a little silly that I live in central PA and blame a hurricane for my gardening woes, but it is what it is.  We had some pretty mean rain & wind thanks to Irene.  My garden troubles are certainly nothing compared to what thousands of others have had to deal with that's for sure.

Tomato cages ripped out of the ground.Thanks, Irene.

Peppers have been growing at an angle ever since Irene.

The flowers sort of fizzled out as they will once it cools off.  The daisies that I grew in the tub earlier this year really flourished.  They're quite large and a few of them did bloom so they should be really fantastic next year. My ornamental grass took off as well - most of it is taller than me - and Shawn got me a nice pot of chrysanthemums to spruce up the yard a bit for the fall.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, in the course of the last week we've seen the rise and fall of Weinergate, Sarah Palin rewrote history, and Lulzsec had fun with numerous sites including good old Sony...  Meanwhile, I'm still trying to grow vegetables.  Not nearly as thrilling as a meat tweet BUT it certainly has its rewards.  When looking back at the last post I am stunned to see how much the garden has grown - see for yourself:

Did I happen to mention that the pumpkins also went nuts?  They have all officially spilled over the edge of the mini patch.  What's interesting to me is the plants on either side of Audrey III are seeds from the same pumpkin but they are growing very differently.  As you can see one is super long but the other one is rather bushy - only time will tell I suppose.

More exciting news: LILIES HAVE BLOOMED!  There's 8 or so currently open and more look ready to burst.  They're mostly a surprise to me since we bought them on the cheap last year ($1.65 each I think) - after they had bloomed.  Wasn't sure what colors I'd be seeing this year, but so far it's mostly white with one yellow.  I won't recognize the yard when we come back from vacation!