Every time I look out the bay window, I have to decide whether I should step outside to harvest something. The tomatoes – all bite-sized – are ripening faster than I can keep track of them, and I keep redirecting the sprawling sweet potato vines to keep them out of the lawn. The okra, alas, seems to be smothered by both the sweet potatoes and tomatoes; I’m not sure we’ll get any at all at this rate, as I haven’t seen a single flower yet.
One particular tomato plant – in the green bed – may need to come out; the leaves and fruit are developing brown spots. The other beds, and the yellow pear tomatoes in that bed, seem alright so far. Our squash plants (in the bed frame, so not really pictured) are spreading slowly, we’ve only picked a couple yellow squash, and there’s no sign of acorn squash forming so far.
Towering behind the keyhole bed are our mammoth sunflowers. And I do mean towering; the tallest one is almost twice my height. (Yes, I know that I’m short, but we’re still talking a ten-foot sunflower.) Over the past two days, it has evolved from a single flower peeking out to several open flowers.
As I was outside taking garden photos this afternoon, I heard something whoosh past me and land on the stalk of a sunflower… a cicada. I tried to get a good photo of it, but it insisted on moving any time I got too close. I definitely prefer it to last year’s (unphotographed) yellow jacket nest.