weekends in the garden

 i've been spending the past couple weekends camping out back with the garden patch, and giving it some much needed attention. it hasn't been quite the same since the storm hit, but most of the plants are still doing pretty well. the herbs, funny enough, were the things that suffered the most, we lost more than half of them under the blown over tomatoes and kale. next year's redesign will address the wind we haven't been used to preparing for in previous years. after another weekend of trimming and staking, i ws pleased to find a few good sized black beauty eggplants!

 the fig tree seems to be happy as well, the fruits are starting to show a bit more growth, but i'm still skeptical that they will become full sized fruits this year. i wasn't expecting the tree to fruit at all in it's first year, and yet here she is, decked out in little figs.

talk about a jungle.. what survived also thrived, especially along the west facing side of the patch. the purple kale looks as majestic as ever, as well as behind it the rainbow swiss chard. both plants looking almost prehistoric. the sunflowers are the biggest thing i've ever [successfully] grown from seed, and they are my trophies this year. i plan to plant them again next season, maybe right in the ground this time instead of starting them in jiffy pots. the squirrels and birds can't possibly find every seed, could they?! ha..

 up front some of our surviving herbs, and the heirlooms coming in enormous. this was one of the plants that broke right over and re-rooted itself right away. there's got to be over a dozen huge tomatoes on this plant alone!

 the garden looking a little less jungle like after a trim, you can get into the path once again. i was pleased to discover there is still life lurking beneath the tangled mess left by the storm, more than i had expected. our eggplants are survivors, even after being smothered once given space they bounced right back and are starting to flower like crazy.