enjoying watching the apples mature on the tree, it’s a good crop this year. Hopefully the squirrels will leave a few for us. In the past I’ve thinned to one apple per cluster, this year I’m trying two per cluster where possible.
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Looks like a beautiful tree! What variety of apple?
I have a raised bed garden so not an endless plot but yesterday I picked my one beautiful head of red cabbage. How do you like to eat red cabbage???
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It’s a Pink Lady apple tree
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Look at all those flowers!!
Hope they produce more eggplants! 
My 4 Japanese eggplant bushes really enjoyed the recent heatwave. The tomatoes - not so much. They don’t like temperatures above 85, apparently.
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One of my tomatoes is not like the others and is definitely not a Black Krim! I grew this plant from a seed; t the others grown from the same package have the typical “black” fruits.
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I wrapped my fig tree this past weekend before the figs get too close to being ripe. In the past birds and squirrels haven’t worked their way thru netting just to see what’s inside, but once they know there’s ripe fruit to be had they are motivated. I hope this continues to hold true!
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It’s not off a dwarf or determinate variety plant, is it?
It is not! The tomato was harvested and was very tasty.
@Bromfield2 - I just got an email from Raintree, the nursery where I buy my edible landscaping plants. Check out this miniature fig. It is supposed to be somewhat cold hardy and is suitable for growing in a pot.
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Gift link
We still maintain a typical lawn. Houses are close, and it would look odd to not do so. (And I think it is required by our neighborhood covenants). But there is a small section on one side of the driveway where clover really likes to grow - I used to pull some of it out, but now I let it go.
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I think there is a time and place for this look. If you live in a typical neighborhood - city or suburbia you can choose not to have grass but not have this degree of “natural” - you can use native flowers with a little more structure. Or mulch or river rock and pots!
We had a neighbor that had very little grass but landscapes with bushes, and Perennials in a near and relatively tidy way.
If you live NOT close to neighbors, have at it! Some our neighbors it’s have this (and us to a degree but not controlled yet- give us time!) but it’s on our back hills that go down to the river.
Also I fear that the high thick “natural” look gives critters lots of room to hide!
That’s my opinion.
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We have quite a bit of traditional mowed lawn, but have also let a few big chunks of the lawn go natural. We have also planted wild flowers in multiple areas.
One issue is that weeds keep trying to push out the wild flowers. I occasionally try to help the wild flowers from time to time. Sometimes this means killing weeds. Sometimes this means planting more wildflowers. Right now I have a large number of Black Eyed Susans that have taken over part of my vegetable garden and that are about to be transplanted into a couple of wild flower areas. However, the weeds don’t like to give up the fight.
Another issue is indeed critters, small ones and smaller ones and very small ones. We have wild rabbits and at least one ground hog. We have lots of chipmunks and mice and voles and possibly other small things. The long grass also provides a home for mosquitos and ticks.
Ticks are the ones that concern me the most due to the risk of diseases that they can spread.
Perhaps my biggest realization over the years is that growing a field of wildflowers and having it look nice is not as easy as I might have hoped.
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It’s not as easy at it looks - so I think some people just chose to not look! - and ignore the mess! If you find the secret let me know because native and wildflowers is a look many hope to achieve but weeds always win!
Are you in a neighborhood or have a good sized property??
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I love late August and early September because that’s when my veggies/herbs and other local produce are abundant. Our dinner for the last two nights was almost entirely local, either from our deck garden or local farms/sources. I made swisschard quiche—chard, onions, herbs from our garden. Eggs were from a friend who has chickens. Cream from a local dairy. Only the whole wheat crust was from the supermarket. We also had a cherry tomato and cucumber salad from the garden. Last night, I made stuffed peppers; ground meat was from a local farm. The yellow and red peppers, onions, and thyme were from my garden. Tonight I’m making a pasta. Using the tomatoes from the deck garden to make passata for the pasta sauce.
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That sounds lovely! Before big grocery stores etc, this must have been an especially wonderful time. I suppose that’s what prompted harvest festivals.
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disappointing news on the grape front. I have a red table grape vine on our fence with a couple of clusters. Just Sunday when I was in the yard they were starting to turn color. Today they are gone. I suspect rodents because if birds ate them I think there’d be some just pecked, but they’re just gone. Anyone ran into a similar problem and have a suggestion for next year?
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Anything edible that is not tied down gets stolen around here (with the exception of basil, which seems fine to grow without any protection where we are).
I have bent 1/2” mesh into little cages which I hang from the same trellis wires that hold the grape branches. I am sorry but I do not currently have a picture (our grape vines did not produce any grapes this year so these have not been used since last year). They are approximately 2 or 3 inch diameter tubes, perhaps 6 or 8 inches long, and closed at one end. I hang them from the wire that holds the grapes using a piece of metal or wood. I need to put something over the up end to keep the critters out. I think that last year I cut out little wire mesh pieces to put over the end of the cage after the cage is hung from the wire.
We have seedless Concord grapes which have relatively small clusters. Of course the same thing could be made a bit bigger for any varieties that have larger clusters.