Yikes, September! The days are definitely shortening and cooling down, but that doesn’t seem to bother the plants yet. This past week was very damp, which was great for the garden but meant that I wasn’t out there cleaning up as much as usual. This coming week is supposed to be mild and sunny, so hopefully that will all be made up.

1. Politely-sized accidental herb bed sunflowers are a cheerful sight to see from the kitchen window. I’m going to have to plant them on purpose next year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to collect seeds from these two before the birds do it for me.

2. ‘Victoria’ plums are going to be ready to pick in another week, some are ready now. It’s nice to graze as you’re wandering around the garden. Guess I’d better get the steam juicer ready.

3. Unnamed packet of bedding dahlias produces yet another keeper. Has anyone had any luck saving the tubers from these seed-started plants? I’d like to see a couple of these next year. The light purple streaking on this is prettier than some of my big named plants.

4. ‘Golden Currant’ tomatoes have produced many trusses (unlike most of my other varieties this year), but now it’s that anxious period of waiting for them to ripen. I was able to pick a couple this morning (quite tasty) so have high hopes that the rest will soon follow. Some have cracked from the rains but most of them seem to be doing pretty well since it’s been so consistently damp.

5. This is an accidental apple tree. It was a seedling when we moved onto the property and we never bothered to remove it so… now it’s a two-story tree that makes sour apples which I usually use for juice and jelly. It also drops a large load of apples all over one corner of my cutting garden. The mess isn’t pretty to look at, but the wildlife enjoy them and it keeps them distracted from the smaller trees I planted just across the swale.

6. A peek at my latest project, a new row in my veg garden! Because the more varieties I try, the more we want to keep and grow more of. Which is great for the dinner table, but really annoying when I’m trying to figure out where to put all those seedlings. Extra bonus for the husband, since there’s less lawn for him to mow.

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First week back at work, so I’ve not been able to get out into the garden as much as I would like. As a result, I’ve prioritized harvesting ahead of weeding and am just going to have to let whatever is in pots languish a little longer until I can get them into the ground when the chance arises. The good news is that homegrown vegetables are finally starting to appear on the table in respectable amounts, which is always very satisfying.

1. Some smallish but very tasty carrots, ready to be roasted. Mostly Nantaise 2, with a scattering of some leftovers from a packet of rainbow hybrids. Two full beds of carrots seem a bit excessive, but I’m hoping to make them last in the ground into January this year with mulching and bed covers. Then they can be pulled and stowed away in the root cellar until spring!

2. This is my first year growing any beetroot, let alone golden beets. These are looking a bit small, but they were also more crowded than they should have been. I used some of the greens as kale replacement in a soup a while back, and that worked out nicely. We’re already fans of red beets, so I can’t see how golden ones wouldn’t go over well in a mixed vegetable roast.

3. Purple kohlrabi! It is also my first year growing these. Really, it’s my first year growing any brassicas, and I’m pretty pleased with the results so far. These are purported to taste like broccoli stems, which I like very much. Though it’s nice to grow things we’ll like eating, I admit that just having these around has been great fun. They are just so wacky-looking that everybody stops to do a double-take.

4. Some pretty burgundy Asiatic lilies. They’re this amazing dark chocolate cherry color that really stands out in the garden, and it’s been fascinating to watch the buds turn from green to purple as they mature.

5. Unnamed bedding dahlia from a mixed packet of bronze-leaved plants. The stripe down the center of the petals is so cute!

6. Panicle hydrangea Angel’s Blush is very tiny but doing its best. I hadn’t expected this thing to bloom at all, since it was just a small twig last autumn. Hoping it fills out a bit more next year.

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Just when I thought that I’d missed Finnish summer due to our July trip, it’s reappeared after last week’s storms. It’s been mild and sunny this week, which has been great for catching up on weeding, harvesting, and all the other stuff that I’ve fallen behind on. I’ve even started sowing for an autumn/winter garden, which is something I’ve never attempted before. You guys will be the first to know how that goes.

1. Godetia (Clarkia amoena) mix is starting to bloom, and the colors are so pretty! First time growing them, so I direct seeded these into the cutting garden rather late — like the first week of June, which is right at the end of the suggested sowing period. It seemed a gamble at the time, with the dry conditions and all, but the majority of them germinated and now there’s a big healthy patch of them blooming away. These are definitely on the buy-again list for next year, though I hope they will self-seed.

2. Tree lilies and oriental lilies are blooming, making a walk through the cutting garden very fragrant indeed. This is when I love having set aside an entire field for flowers — I can go out and cut bouquets for every room in the house and there are still so many left to enjoy outside.

3. The dark columbine (Aquilegia atrata) seed pods were finally dry enough to harvest yesterday. I put little organza bags on the seed heads two months ago since I didn’t get to them fast enough the last couple of years. They’re a legacy plant from the house’s original gardens and pop up rather unreliably, so I wanted to have some seed stashed should they not appear one of these years.

4. I found this peacock butterfly perched on my root parsley, probably guarding his territory. We’ve had a good population of peacocks this year, which all of my crops have appreciated. I keep a large stand of nettles next to the raised beds, separated by mesh panels from the vegetables. Besides being convenient for making nettle tea, they do a great job of luring pests away from my veggies, and provide plenty of food for peacock caterpillars.

5. My first batch of onions! This is how many were harvested after my pulling up a dozen or so over the summer for kitchen use. They are now on a mesh rack in the barn for the next two weeks, after which I will hopefully be making one of those pretty onion strings for storage.

6. I’ve also started digging up Annabelle potatoes (there are a couple of red-skinned Mozarts in there too) for kitchen use, now that the greens are starting to fade. It’s still early enough that I can keep them in the ground and grab potatoes as needed, so I’m enjoying that while it lasts.

Thanks for visiting and please do check out what the other SoSers are doing over at Jim’s page!

It’s been a wet and windy week, but I slept through most of it so that worked out well. The predicted big storm did indeed knock over some of my taller flowers, but everything else remained unscathed. Considering we are surrounded by an entire forest of very tall, violently swaying trees, I’m not one to underplay good fortune. Growing up with the Santa Anas gives you some idea of what high winds can do. Then, the sun returned this morning, just in time for me to take some pretty late summer pictures!

1. I cut down the original occupants of the spinach bed this morning: 2 varieties of spinach (‘Vroeg Reuzenblad’ and ‘Matador’) and 2 varieties of peas. All greenery was chopped and dropped. The spinach was allowed to set seed, so I just left all the dried pods on the bed and covered them in a layer of bagged garden soil. The aim is for them to germinate immediately and provide a decent autumn/winter crop if the weather is kind. All remaining pea pods were gathered to provide seed for next year. The majority were a vigorous sugar snap called ‘Frühe Heinrich’, which I will gladly grow again next year. I also managed to save a few pods of pretty purple ‘Shiraz’ snow peas, which I would like to multiply next year with better harvest planning. Current occupants of the bed are… currants! Pink and white currant cuttings, that is. They will spend the winter there developing their roots, whether the spinach plan ends up working or not.

2. Monkshood (Aconitum x cammarum ‘Bicolor’) flowered this week! We inherited a small patch with the house and it’s taken a while to grow, but we now have two decent clumps that produce several flower-laden stems every year. The bees love them and everyone else knows to not touch them, so everybody is happy.

3. ‘Cool Breeze’ calla lily blend, just like the bag indicated. This year, I sunk all my frost-tender bulbs into the cutting garden in pots rather than planting them directly, and they seem to be doing better this way. I admittedly didn’t expect much out of these but will try giving each bulb its own pot next year to see if they get bigger.

4. My notes say that I planted an Oriental lily mix here, but this one looks more Asiatic. Not that I mind — they are small, perky, and lemon yellow, which is a rather pleasant contrast to all the giant pink and white ones surrounding it.

5. Monarda fistulosa ‘Bergamot’ (bee balm) living up to its name. It’s been great seeing so many pollinators everywhere this year, and most of my perennials aren’t even close to being mature specimens yet. These were winter-sown last year and this is their first bloom. I wonder if I should be letting them get this tall or if they should be cut back for a bushier form?

6. The first fruits from my new family apple tree! I picked four smallish ‘Vuokko’ apples this week and they were all eaten the same day. It’s interesting to compare how different varieties taste — this one is sweeter and firmer than our other summer apple, ‘White Transparent’, which is also very near harvest stage.

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We just returned from a two-week trip and are dealing with some intense jet lag, so I won’t try very hard to make words work today. Here are some pictures instead!

1. Pinkcurrant (Ribes rubrum ‘Aili’) got picked yesterday. They probably should’ve been picked earlier, since it looks like the birds got about half the berries already. Can’t blame them, these are probably the tastiest currants I’m growing. I managed to get around 300g, which is decent considering this is one of my youngest fruit bushes. I also took semi-ripe cuttings after harvest, so am looking forward to increasing my stock of these plants next year.

2. Several years ago, some wild raspberries (Rubus idaeus) invaded the front flower border. Since I hadn’t gotten around to planting any garden varieties yet, I let them stay and started tidying them up every year. Absolutely no regrets, since they are super productive and give us several weeks of fruit for minimal maintenance.

3. This cute little pansy is the second generation of a flower that my son brought home from school last mother’s day. I planted it in a toy dump truck last year and it self seeded, though the plants just started flowering recently. I’m saving seeds this year to make sure they return, both for sentimental value and because I love the two shades of purple together.

4. Alcea ficifolia ‘Happy Lights’, winter-sown last year, is now in flower! Two colors so far, both lovely. The peachy flowers are much bigger with thin, almost hibiscus-like petals. I love the rich burgundy color on the smaller one, though, because I didn’t end up with many dark-colored flowers this year. Mental note to work on that.

5. Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’, winter-sown last year, also in flower. These are much taller than I expected! Going to grab a few for the vase tomorrow morning, since the long stems look perfect for cutting.

6. Eschscholzia californica ‘Rosa Romantica’, winter-sown this year. I planted California poppies mostly because they remind me of the house I grew up in, where they grew prolifically as native plants do. I planted this specific variety because it never occurred to me that they might come in any other color than the standard bright orange, and the idea intrigued me. These plants are smaller than the ones I remember, but then again, they are in a very different environment. The flowers are just as prolific as I remember, and no two flowers look alike, so that’s pretty cool.

Thanks for visiting and please do check out what the other SoSers are doing over at Jim’s page!