What was I thinking?

We were out of town last weekend (here), and what a difference a few days make. For one thing, our chicken sitter gave the girls their first night not locked in their coop; happily they didn’t have any visitors.

Also, the garden grew. A lot.

One of my planting challenges has always been leaving too much space between seeds/seedlings, making for a sparse-feeling garden. I was determined not to do that this year, and boy howdy, I didn’t.

The back plot, planted with corn, squash, beans, and cucumbers, is in a tangle. I can’t tell where one squash ends and another begins; some intrepid plants are climbing right up the apricot tree and the corn, elbowing the pole beans out of the way.

That squash is about 4 feet off the ground, climbing the corn and anything else it can get its tendrils around.

The lemon cucs are making a valiant stand against the zucchini.

I planted three zucchini plants (I know, I know---stop laughing), two butternut, and a few Lakota and Delicata. Now, amusingly enough, I can’t tell which of the latter I'm seeing everywhere. I have a bunch of these, and I’m thinking Lakota:

Meanwhile, the walkway is now a vine-tangled “walkway,” with the vines reaching for the chicken coop. I just hope the chickens don’t sit still too long, otherwise the squash constrictors might get them.

We’re toying with the idea of training the vines onto the roof of the coop, where they can reach the neighbors’ bamboo. From there I guess the sky's the limit.

The squash isn’t the only thing overgrowing its bounds. Here’s a shot of the pathway between the garden beds.

The tomato plants are so tall and so dense, I can crawl in among them and disappear. The scent of tomato foliage is one of my all-time favorites, though, so I could be pretty happy in there.

And behind them, the sunflowers are having to reach pretty high.


The fruit on one of the potted bush Early Girls has this wrinkled patch that’s beginning to brown:


The vines are so heavy with fruit, though, that if even half of it ripens healthily, we’ll have a bumper crop. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

We harvested most of the True Siberian kale, much of which had bolted while we were away, and finally had to admit that the edamame were done. They came to this:

And lastly, another gift from the ground:

The last flush was inadvertently trampled by little feet harvesting plums---who could resist?---

so we’re pretty tickled to see these.

As to what's going to become of the tangle that is the garden, we'll just have to practice patience. And maybe get a machete.