Slogging through August

First of all, I've gotten a request for a full view of the garden. The following two photos show the left and right sides.




I don't know how clear that makes things.

In the meantime, things are still growing, somehow. The eggplant has really come into its own since the cucumbers went away. To date, we've only had two eggplants. But in this shot you can see three baby eggplants growing, and at least four flowers! Very exciting.



And a couple of the tomato plants are really putting on a lot of fruit:



Finally, here's what a ground cherry looks like! Months of waiting for this tiny thing. I just realized we only know it's a ground cherry because one random guy in the garden said so. Perhaps I should do a little more internet research before eating one:




Some closing shots of flowers. I love taking home bouquets like this.

The Greater Good

Well, it's pouring rain here in Cape Cod, so I thought I'd wrap up this post I started.

The sad news is that the cucumbers are gone. The plants were getting wiltier and wiltier and kind of sick-looking, and the few remaining cucumbers were all twisted:





Worse, it looked like it was spreading to the adjacent eggplant, and possibly across the path to the cantaloupes. Since those are in the same family, they share a lot of diseases. So the cucumbers had to go. I pulled them all out - I had to! - but I felt really bad.

So I took some pictures of soybeans, Mexican sunflowers, and harvested stuff to remind myself of the utilitarian principles underlying my decision.





Thank you, Mr. Bentham.

Check out my melons!

So I haven't actually been in the garden in almost two weeks, which is crazy, and will be remedied soon. In the meantime, I wanted to write about my muskmelons! Have eaten two and they are delicious. It's crazy to me that when I cut them open, they're just these perfect beautiful cantaloupes (or whatever) - I can't believe they grew from seeds.

But all is not well. Remember the muskmelon from my last post, the one with a deep indentation and an evil bug guarding it?

Well this is what it looked like on the inside:



Eek! Oh well. At least I have one nice pair!