I may have been absent these past few months, but I sure haven't been idle. My life is positively chock-a-block with a slew of hobbies and a brand new vocation. My garden is the chief among those hobbies.
In the summer, I feel like a slave to the tiny space I call my yard. It's a worthy slavery, one that gives back every single day of the year in food that I grew and processed myself.
As usual, there have been triumphs and failures. The biggest failure has been in the okra department. For seven years running, I have tried to grow okra. I happen to love the stuff. It makes a fabulous thickening agent in soups with very few pods, the sliced fruit is purty in any kind of stew, and I adore both its not-at-all-slimy texture and its subtle flavor.
Alas, I once again produced fewer than a dozen pods all summer.
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Each spring, while planning the layout, I underestimate how much room everything will need. By August, the place is an absolute mess. Below are one shot from March 2025 and another, taken from the same angle, in late August.
The peach tree turned into a monster by mid-July. As the peaches appeared, huge branches bent and then cracked down and had to be chopped off. I despaired for all the peaches I lost that day. Then the remaining peaches began swelling. I could see that I would lose more branches if I did nothing, so I started chopping away, trying to relieve the stress as much as I thought I could. More peaches landed in my compost pile. Then I started picking off peaches, both to thin them out and to lighten each branch's load some more. The tree became a straggly mess, loaded with peaches. I needn't have worried about all the fruits I lost - I will still have more than enough to eat, dehydrate, can, freeze and give away. Next year, I will prune that thing back hard in early spring.
With my characteristic last minute resourcefulness, I had to find some way to prop the branches up so that I could walk, stooping instead of crawling, down the walk to the rest of the garden. If you look closely at the rightmost photo below, you can see the contraption I used to effect that.
"My biggest success was in lettuce. I started it indoors in February, and had all I could eat from mid-April until now. I was also very happy with the seating area I put together on my driveway. Asphalt becomes a private oasis for me during the summer months. All of this comes down by November so that I can use the garage during the winter.
"You might remember my saying that I like weeds. I do! One thing my garden is not, is tidy. Discerning gardeners will notice the zucchini in the photo on the left below. As messy as that all looks, I got more zucchini than I have ever had before. The thing is still producing. 
The Lemon Jalapeno set a bunch of fruits early in the season, then nothing more. The earlier fruits are starting to ripen.
"There is all the cooking to be done! All those ingredients! I almost never use recipes for my daily cooking. Whatever is ripe and ready from the garden determines what will be on my plate. The soup has all the tiny butterball potatoes, my first few sweet potatoes, red lentils and zucchini. It was really delicious! The summer stew, which I freeze quite a lot of, is composed of onions, peppers, parsley, okra, and, zucchini.
Then there is my pasta salad. "What ever is ripe," remember? This batch had tiny dice red onion, garlic, lemon jalapeno, carrot, and, of course, raw zucchini. The trick for this one is simple - the dressing is mostly a really good white balsamic vinegar, and just a tiny bit of really good olive oil. Salt, pepper. So easy, and a crowd pleaser.
"There is so much more to show, but this post is long enough. My fridge, shelves, and freezer are getting quite full of food set aside for the winter months. I am well-fed, healthy, and happy. If the apocalypse doesn't come this year, I am all set. If it does, I'll still be able to feed myself for some time. At this moment, it's all good.
This is my entry to The Hive Garden community's monthly September challenge to show off your garden. Come join us! And thank you for reading this rather long post.
