This week has been something of a whirlwind, and with the garden at something of a standstill, thanks to the crazy weather this summer, I feel like not much has changed in the last week to show you. I did find a few things to share, though.

Isn’t this an interesting sight? The heat has definitely NOT been kind to our strawberry patch this summer. Between the leaf spot diseases (you can see some in this picture too), and the heat and drought (the berries don’t have irrigation, ugh!), the plants have thinned out quite a bit. You can imagine my surprise when I saw these berries yesterday! Apparently the marketing was somewhat accurate for these, because this fruit did set during late July when it was so hot. Of course, I had to eat it, and it was surprisingly good, considering the circumstances.

Can any of you smart gardeners out there tell me what this is, growing in the shade of our okra plants?

If you guessed potato, you would be right! Apparently, we didn’t quite find every potato when we dug them earlier this summer. There are a couple of sprouts coming up. I guess we’ll just leave them and see what happens. The shade from the okra is probably making this spot a little more hospitable than it might otherwise be.

The okra are starting to develop buds…slowly but surely. I was hoping these plants would hurry up and start flowering/producing, partly for the pictures, but also so I could do a post about harvesting okra. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait until the time is right.

This is a bitter melon that was growing in one of the plots at the Juniper Gardens Training Farm. I love the color! Unfortunately, at this stage, it is a little bit past the “tasty eating” point.

Do you see what I see? Let’s take a closer look!

Now do you see it? This little Praying Mantis was hanging out on one of the bell pepper plants. He eats other insects, so I wonder what he was finding to eat?

Have a great weekend!