An off year

 Walking around the yard this year is a little bit challenging, and a real reminder of how much time we're needing to invest on the human side of the Motley Garden this year! The plant side is really taking a hit.

But this single plant, coming around the corner from the garage to the vegetable garden, is a bright smile - this is a cosmos that seeded itself from the annuals that Sam gave us last year. What a fun little bright gift.

 Because this is what we mostly grew in the vegetable garden this year. Weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Weeds of all kinds, and many taller than I am. And all going to seed. Underneath those weeds are some poor pathetic pumpkin and squash plants that the girls and I quickly stuck in the ground this spring, but I doubt the poor light-starved plants have produced anything. There are also potatoes hiding in there, too, sprouted from the ones that we didn't find last fall. It will be interesting to see if they amount to anything if we (hopefully!) can get out there to dig them up.

 But, ah, tomatoes. It's hard to go wrong with tomatoes. They, too, are feeling the effects of neglect - no water when it's hot, no weekly tying up and pruning, no regular picking, but still - look at those beauties that grace our table!!

And there was one plant that did survive, and is finally flourishing: the pie pumpkins! We have at least a dozen 8" pumpkins trying to turn orange before the growing season is over.

 And then there's THIS ... thing. It came up by itself. It's growing the most incredible, large (14-18") warty pumpkins! Won't these be fun to put on the steps in a few weeks?? There's one beautiful orange one, and two or three more giving it their best effort.

 And, up in the front, the eggplants are thriving. We're giving them away to friends (and strangers! That was a fun story. Matt was at the kitchen window and saw a woman walking on the path stop to look at our plants. He ran out and told her to help herself! So she came back the next day and did...and came back a few hours later with a two-serving helping of what she had made complete with recipe. It was good. We made it again! Still don't know where she lives or what her name is! We'd love to plant more edibles by the path garden next summer with a sign saying, "Enjoy!") and we're trying to eat some of them ourselves.