Too late!

Because I have not been in NC for very long, I'm not sure how 'normal' this summer has been.  It seemed awfully cool and wet, but not as cool as last year.   Because I'm not sure what I'm doing, yet, all of my gardening fun has been rather experimental.

And now I'm not sure what the garden is doing!   I have TONS of tomatoes ripening, which is really odd this late (and because it's relatively cool).   And a bunch of other warmer-weather fruits and veggies are going bonkers.

So I harvested this:  (and I have more coming, and no, I didn't harvest my drink, but I was too lazy to crop)

Those string beans?  SURPRISE!   The yellow peppers are fun, and those long cayenne looking peppers are actually "Sweet Things" which are smoky, not spicy. 

I would have had a lot more cherry tomatoes, but I eat them as I harvest, so those were just left overs.   And the teeny tiny peppers are McMahon's bird peppers... Luckily that plant can be brought indoors, so I'm going to try to over winter it, though I'm not sure if Mona will try to eat it.

And for fun - for the past two years, I've tried to grow Luffas.  Last year, they grew crazy, but did not fruit (mostly male flowers), and I only got one small luffa.

This year, I planted seedlings, but they didn't make it... or so I thought... and suddenly a vine took off.   And now they're flowering like crazy.

But here's the thing - they take about 90 days to grow/ripen.    And they have to be done before first frost, which is usually in about 3 weeks.

Oops.

In news of the awesome - my lavender plants have been getting AWESOME.  I don't know if lavender overwinters, but I'd like to try it.   I have French, English, and Spanish plants.

So I'm watching the garden, and hopefully when everything finally goes down I'll be able to clear it out and winter prep it.  I might try to stick some cool crops in there (like kale or spinach), but I'm definitely going to work on yet another plan for next year.

I loved growing the flowers (zinnias and sunflowers), but I'm still super bummed I never saw hydrangeas on awesome sale!