Rain, rain, stay all day!

After a night of thunder storms it's still raining here.  I love nights and days like these.  They are few and far between here in the Southwest.  It's cool and wet and such a nice change from the scorching hot & dry days we've been having.  In the desert we sing this song...

Rain, rain, stay all day!
Never, never go away!

(& thank you, Morgan, for introducing us to this song)

Our garden is still a tangled mess.  I love zucchini but I'm kind of excited to see the neat little rows and squares in my garden again.  Zucchini's have no concept of personal space. This giant thing is one zucchini!  There's another as well but it's against the wall and hasn't grown nearly has large.  Probably because this one has crowded him in. They are still producing well but I find I have to pollinate them myself otherwise we get small yellow & shriveled fruit.

The tomatoes are still going strong as well. And a local gardening friend here told me how to plant my Fall veggies!  She said to plant around the summer veggies and as they die out the Fall veggies will be growing strong,  This is probably obvious to others but to me it was quite an epiphany!  With the square foot garden everything is so neat, lined up & organized. My black and white thinking said a square must be empty before something else can be planted, right?  So glad others aren't as black & white as I.  So in the back around the cucumbers & marigold, I planted peas & beans. 



My greens aren't coming up in the palette.  There are only a couple of sprouts. Perhaps the palette just doesn't retain enough moisture for the seedlings? It seems to do well when I plant well established plants.  I planted turnips, carrots and spinach in the wine barrel.  I covered them over with burlap for a few days while they sprouted and they seemed to like that.  Maybe I should try the same in the palette. 





The tomatoes over here are fairly happy but seem to have slowed production in the front and are migrating to the back. They must appreciate the shade.  Even the tomatoes are seeking shelter from our hot sun!  In the middle of this bed between the zucchini and tomatoes is a patch of ground that I planted carrot seeds in.  They don't seem to be coming up, maybe this rain will change their minds. 



And here's our garden bounty!  We were even able to share some tomatoes & zucchini.  The apples are from my friend's Mother in law,  thank you Peggy!  We've already made apple muffins, which didn't go over well with my littles.  But I added some shredded apple to their pancakes this morning and they didn't even notice, shhh, don't tell.  The rest of these are fated to be pie I think!

Mmmmm, Autumn it's my favorite time of year! It also contains all my favorite flavors. Maybe this rain is heralding in some cooler weather for us.  I sure hope so.  How is your garden growing?

Until next time...