New Driveway and Walk

The new driveway and walk are finished, and they look very nice.  There is still some planting and filling in to do, but the sedums are all back in the ground and the rocks along the west edge of the driveway are back in place.

More Salad Greens

I've planted another bed of salad fixings for over the winter.  From the right side there's Red Sails and Garnet Oakleaf lettuce and arugula; Red Kitten and Bloomsdale spinach; Evergreen bunching onions; purslane; and a double row of mache.  I'm not sure if all those things will do well, but it's worth a try.

Potatoes

We've been digging potatoes for a while, but now it seems that the ones left in the ground are starting to sprout.  So I dug all of them.  I bought them at Life Source market, and the produce guy said they were Yukon Golds.  But I don't think they are.  They're yellow, but much larger than any Yukon Golds I've ever bought or grown.  I weighed one of the larger ones.  It was 1 lb. 3.5 oz.

A Stench of Stinkbugs

We've decided that an appropriate collective noun for stinkbugs is 'stench.' So we have a stench.  Having gone all summer without seeing any, it seems that they have returned, like salmon, to spawn in the place they were born. We've been killing many, mostly on the back wall of the house.  I'm not sure what triggers the hibernation instinct.  We've had several days of upper 80s temperatures, and that was when it started.  But we still have had none on any vegetables, so we're trying not to stress about them.  They're just an really disgusting annoyance.

Thunderstorm!

Last night we had a very exciting thunderstorm, completely unexpected.  We had .6" of rain and lots of hail.  Unfortunately, my tiny vegetables didn't appreciate it.  The lettuce and carrots in particular took a beating.

I didn't think the zucchini plants couldn't get any uglier than they already were, but I was wrong.

The yard waste can is full now, but next week the squash and tomatoes are coming out. 

Some Fall Vegetables

We just plain got tired of all the melons.  After having it every day on our cruise, we just couldn't face any more.  So out they came.  The winter squash is still there, doing amazingly well.

I sowed some chard and kale in an empty bed, but only the chard came up really well.  There are a few curly kale plants, but the Tuscan kale never came up at all.  So I found a six pack of starts at 13th Street Nursery and stuck them in. 

I also found a six pack of Brussels sprouts, which I tucked in a couple of other beds.

Changes Afoot

We've decided it's time for a new driveway.  The present driveway is really a mess.  We'll replace the walk as well. But in order to have that done, we have to clear back a lot of plants. 

Here's what it looks like now.

In the process of cutting things back and moving a few succulents, we discovered that we could remove the large rock at the corner of the walk, the one I tripped on when I fractured my wrist.  Once we did that, it was a slippery slope to moving some other rocks in the center island and removing the nasty groundcover that I can't remember of the name of that's taking over the whole area and looking ratty.

We're Back!

We've returned from our cruise, and boy, have things changed in six weeks. There must be dozens of melons ripe or almost ripe.  And there are about thirty butternut squash.

The tomatoes and peppers are doing well, although I'm not impressed with the Berkeley Tie-Dye tomato.  It tastes pretty good, although no better than Cherokee Purple.  It has some blossom end rot and is nowhere near as prolific as the CP.

I sowed some kale and chard in the bed that had greens previously.  And I pulled the strawberries (because they looked terrible) and sowed carrots and Romaine lettuce.  I'll put garlic in there as well.