View of the Garden

Another overcast morning. More rain on the way. As you can see, most of the garden is simply existing, rather than thriving.

Corn - should be "knee high by the fourth of July." Well, here it is, just to the left of this five foot pole. It's still not quite knee high, and it's well past the 4th.

Pole beans - last year at this time they were pushing six feet tall. Most are barely three feet this year, if that. This variety is blue coco, and it is the only one in my garden that is actually becoming tall.

The onions are actually looking very good this year. These are walla-wallas, and they are almost the size of baseballs already!

Peas are starting to come right along now. These are the prized Blue Podded Peas, which date back to the 16th century! A lot of blue (or purple) veg are popular now (peas, beans, potatoes, carrots), and you'd think they were all new varieties, but in truth many of these blue veg are very old varieties.

Sunflowers and borage. This is supposed to be a bed of cucumbers. Guess what didn't grow. The borage is doing great, but these giant sunflowers are supposed to be 6-12' tall, like last year. But no, this year they are maybe 5' tall.

Here's a close-up of the borage flower. Borage is edible and makes a colorful addition to your salads.

Sweet Annie, a member of the artemisia family, is a good companion plant for many garden veg. It will reseed vigorously, so be warned.

The black hollyhocks have flowers this year (they were planted last year). No flower is truly black, but these are close!

Verbascum...lovely...and up close so very colorful! This year, however, it has popped up all over the garden! Hm...another "vigorous grower."