Saturday night's dinner harvest

One of Joe's Rosa Eggplants. With just a little olive oil and rosemary on the grill. It's a long wait from seed to dinner plate, but worth it.

But it feels like fall

and it looked like it tonight at Floyd Bennett. Grass is going to seed (not sure of species, but it turns red this time of year..probably a weed) and my asters are in full bloom. It's the last full night of summer though and already the days feel so short. It was pretty dark before I left for my bike ride home around 7pm. It was a rushed trip to check on the garden. Fall crops are in and growing. Carrots, beets and broccoli are growing nicely and lettuce has already been harvested. Seeds sown for a green manure crop (peas and beans) have sprouted and so has the spinach. Tomatoes and eggplant and peppers continue to ripen, so all is good for now. We have been getting some rain so gardening feels a little easier than it did for most of the season.

Verbena bonariensis, pollinator magnet

The Verbena bonariensis in my bee bed at Floyd Bennett keeps going and going and going. There's no end to the bees and butterflies that visit. My nephew, the insect lover, is going to go wild for this photo which captures the probiscus dipping into the flower for food. He'll also be happy to know that we checked on the monarch caterpillars eating the milkweed near Plumb Beach. There are four still feeding on the plant as of yesterday.

What's blooming bouquet from my garden

Some dahlias and small-leaf basil.

Waiting on a Dahlia

I purchased this Dahlia at the Grand Army farmer's market this spring, and much like the lily I purchased there which dropped its buds almost immediately after transplanting, this little plant took a turn for the worse as soon as I brought it home. The flowers faded and it looked like death. Maybe it was hopped up on the juice and greenhouse light and blooming too early? In any event, I was sure it was a goner, but Joe didn't want to give up on it. Last year, these miniature or dwarf Dahlia's (a gift from a fellow gardener Lois, not sure of the species) were his favorite flowers to bring home for vases. So against my better judgement, we stuck it in my garlic bed and it did nothing for a while but make me shake my head. The garlic scapes came and went and the garlic was harvested, and then recently that little Dahlia starting bushing out with leaves. The foliage looked nice enough and I certainly wasn't expecting flowers. But last week, all these buds appeared and now we're just waiting on a beautiful Dahlia that wouldn't give up.

It's not about looks

Admittedly, potatoes aren't the prettiest of vegetables, nor pictures of pototoes the prettiest of photos. But potatoes are the most fun crop to harvest. Digging them up is akin to a dirty easter egg hunt. So these potatoes harvested Thursday night in the dark amidst biting mosquitoes deserve to be celebrated, no matter how plain they may look. Likewise the gnarliest of tomatoes, like the cracked ones ripening now on the windowsill, are usually the best eating.

Potatoes up

Hopefully they will be ready to harvest when my nephew visits.