A Neglected Kitchen Garden in August

A little while ago I posted pictures of my neglected flower garden, now it’s the kitchen garden’s turn. I was so focused on my web design classes that I just couldn’t keep up with things in the garden. Now that I have a break in between semesters, I can refocus my attention. However, with the kitchen garden, some irreversible damage has been done...at least to this year’s crop.

Neglect, plus a lot of rain, equals a lot of stuff growing...and some things suffering from TOO much rain.

Rain on the door to the back porch.

As soon as you enter the kitchen garden, you notice things are not as neat and tidy as usual. No, that is not grass growing in my gravel path, it’s garlic chives! My own fault, though, because I did not cut off the seed-heads at the end of last year and they obviously reseeded in the path.

Entrance to the kitchen/vegetable garden.

Vegetable vines and the overgrown Beautyberry bush are taking over one side of the gravel path.

The overgrown kitchen garden.

My Heliopsis Summer Nights, which usually looks so gorgeous all season, is falling over into the path, along with the Beautyberry bush.

Heliopsis and Beautyberry bush taking over a path.

The purple Butterfly Bush is taking over the path on the other side.

Butterfly Bush taking over the other path.

You have to seriously duck to get on the other side of it.

Butterfly Bush taking over.

Hey wait, what’s that on the other side of the Butterfly Bush? It’s the neighbor’s cat enjoying the warmth of the compost bin lid. Instead of a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it’s a Cat on a Hot Compost Bin. Along with some greens that have gone to seed in the bed in front of him...or her.

Cat on a hot compost bin.

Between this cat and Stubby, the one that looks similar but with a short tail, I almost always run into a cat in the garden.

Cat close-up.

This is the view the cat has of the overgrown kitchen garden.

Kitchen Garden.

There’s that Beautyberry Bush again, this time from the other side.

Overgrown kitchen garden.

The green beans are big and full. They are just starting to show some actual beans.

Parsley, hot peppers, green beans, swiss chard, to name a few.

I was so excited that it looked like I would actually have blackberries this year on the blackberry bush that we have had for years...

Blackberry bush.

...but alas, this is as big as the berries ever got...

Pitiful looking blackberries.

My cucumbers were doing really well there for awhile...

Cucumbers

...but then something happened and they took a turn for the worse. I blame all of the rain we have had this year.

Some ugly looking cucumber leaves.

The same thing happened to the squash. It was looking pretty nice there for a bit...

Squash.

...then it got what looked like a powdery mildew. Again, I blame the extraordinarily wet weather.

Mildew on squash leaves.

My one tomato plant has yet to ripen and my other one, this grape-sized one, looks pretty much dead. Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...or at least a few days later instead of tomorrow yet again.

Sorry-looking grape-sized tomatoes.

This is the first time I have ever tried to grow lima beans. Nothing yet other than green leaves, but at least it is one of the healthier looking plants in the garden.

Pole lima beans.

One thing that doesn’t seem to mind all of this rain is the parsley. I have both curly and flat-leafed parsley. This is the first year I have done the curly variety and it seems to do much better than the flat-leaved kind.

Two different kinds of parsley.

The Sweet Basil and Sorrel are doing well, too.

Sorrel and Sweet Basil.

The succulents on this miniature birdhouse seem to be doing ok, as well.

“Green roof” birdhouse.

The Mariachi Hot Peppers are forming fast. Soon I will have a plethora of ready-to-eat hot peppers.

Mariachi Hot Pepper plant.

Not sure how this Morning Glory vine got in the Garlic Chives. Ah right, it was neglect.

Garlic Chives, with a random Morning Glory vine.

Yes neglect, the theme of this post. Neglect is not such a good thing when it comes to a kitchen garden. At least I have still managed to enjoy some fruits of my bounty.

The kitchen garden.

And if you don’t look TOO closely, it still is kinda pretty.

The kitchen garden looking towards the flower garden.

My plan this weekend is to try to get some of this under control. Wish me luck! Hope I don’t get attacked by the overgrown Beautyberry Bush or the Butterfly Bush!