The Dog Days of Summer

This has been a wonderfully cool summer.  Most summers it gets too hot outside to be out most afternoons, but this summer we've been able to enjoy the great outdoors almost every day.  There has also been enough rain that I haven't worried as much about if the grass will die or the plants start to show stress.  I have been away from home quite a bit over the past month to help my parents fix up their old house to sell.  This has left my garden in a state of neglect so the weather has been a godsend.  Now that school is starting up soon, the vegetable garden is starting to produce.  Little critters have been eating some of the plants in my raised bed so some of the harvest has been delayed.  I think I must have also chosen tomato varieties that produce later in the year because while last year I started harvesting tomatoes in July, this year I have yet to get a tomato.  There are also some green beans starting to grow.  All in all, I can't wait until I can start doing more canning and making sauces and pickles.

The boys helped me remove the bush by the birch tree and I expanded the bed.  It's all ready for next year's project of turning this into a flower bed. I think it will look great!

The celery is still growing along

I'm not sure how much bigger the green beans are supposed to get before I pick them so I'll have to experiment.

I've been getting a zucchini and squash about every 2-3 days.  Any more than that and we'll go into squash overload.

I think this is the first time I've seen a cicada.  I'm so used to seeing just their shells

The green bean tower

tomatoes

I actually have a blue flower on my hydrangea! 

I'm surprised the spiderwort is still flowering

Blanket flower.  Looking good for only costing a dollar!

Seed pods on the milkweed.  It's huge!

The zinnia looks great

Occasionally I still get some daylily flowers

The catmint is always the first and last flowers in the garden.

Yeah, I know it's not part of the garden, but I had to show off my new school bus door hanger. I plan on putting pictures in it of the first day of school each year.