At this point the vegetable beds look pretty much the same as earlier posts except a little taller, so this photo is of the big border at the back of my yard that used to be shaded by the pine tree and now soaks up the sun.
Note to self: Next year, don’t plant so damned many beans! I love green beans, but I’m beginning to lose my enthusiasm for them. We’ve had them at least once a day for a few weeks now, I have about a dozen packages in the freezer, and I know there’s another big batch out there waiting for me to pick this morning.
I’ve discovered that my long-handled OXO Good Grips tongs, my favorite kitchen tool, are also best for picking beans I can’t reach otherwise.
We’re eating lots of sungold cherry tomatoes now, and the lovely mid-size carmellos. I’ve picked one Big Beef, but none of the “orange strawberry” variety are ripening yet. I’m intrigued by them, because they’re huge, strawberry-shaped, and the catalog described them as orange with red shoulders when they’re ripe.
We’ve got all the lemon cukes we can use, and plenty of baby leeks. I’m waiting for the bell peppers to ripen, since I don’t like them green.
The weather has helped make this a really successful year. We’ve only had a couple of really hot days, with most of our days in the low to mid 80s. I’m already starting to think about what I’ll plant for a fall/winter garden. Sugar snap and snow peas on that bean fence for sure!
A detail of the paving shown in the photo at the top.
The sungolds are worth waiting for, Amy! I’ve been snacking on them all day, every time I walk past the bowl in the kitchen.
Oh, and I have a clemitis that I’ve moved twice. It’s finally happy in its home, but is visiting the neighbors over the fence.
I love the grasses with all those great soft textures. Lovely!
(and I am quite jealous of your long tomato season. My sungolds are just rounding up, we won’t see ripening for another two weeks)
Thanks, Marta! I’m really intrigued by what’s happened in that bed myself. For the past few years, it has been a sad-looking collection of plants that were surviving, but not thriving, in the extremely dry shade of the pine tree punctuated by the blast of late afternoon sun. This year I added the sea lavender and the salvia greggi peeking through the Mexican feather grass. The rest just happened with sun and moisture and those poor downtrodden survivors.
I don’t know what the vine on the obelisk is. You can see it here and up close here. It’s been there a few years and isn’t doing very well, but I haven’t replaced it because I want a vine that will just accent the obelisk, not bury it and I haven’t found the right thing yet. Most vines are so exuberant that they completely obscure the structure they’re growing on. I’ve got another obelisk just like this one on a different side of the yard and all you can see is the little point sticking out of a mandevilla vine.
I would LOVE to have a clematis, but I’ve spent enough money on clematis to teach myself that they just don’t do well here.
Yes, I did the patio rocks (except the tile which I bought at a shop in Newport, Oregon). We started with just a flagstone patio with large gaps where I was going to grow thyme and corsican mint and lots of low-growing flowers and herbs. Hah. I grew bazillions of weeds, even though there was weed cloth underneath everything. After a few years of spending too much time on my knees on the rocks weeding, we started to fill in the gaps with pebbles and stuff. It’s taken a couple of years to do it all. In fact, Frank was out there this morning, digging out the dirt in the last section to make room for the mortar and rocks. I still get a few weeds, but they’re easily zapped with Roundup.
Lovely garden bed. I like the mix of textures – grass, Mediterranean, spiky blossoms and round. What do you have on your garden obelisk? I want to get a clematis again. They do beautiful up here but it is cooler. They are just starting to bloom in the gardens.
I also love the detail in your patio. Did you do that yourself? It is beautiful.