Dirt Farm Rocks

We were anticipating anything as we drove to the beach farm after being away for two weeks. The water being shut off was my main concern, but weeds, toppled plants, bugs -who knows. I practically jogged to the plot. When I arrived to see it I had only one thought -dirt farming is awesome!

It must be because I was without my camera for awhile, as I can only find pictures of our beach farm vegetables posted on August 4th. That was 30 days ago, but not that long ago by some standards.

This was our broccoli one month ago.

This is our broccoli today. About 5 heads were five or six inches across.

I brought my mesh and nylon to wrap the heads and was disappointed that they were so large already -I never expected such rapid growth. But the kicker was that there were no cabbage worms -not one. Where did they go? Two weeks ago there were hundreds of worms in all sizes. Have they all morphed to moths, flown away from their childhood patch?

Tomatoes are growing and growing. Because I didn't do the work for trellising, they are spreading horizontally. So it's no surprise that they are showing signs of blight on the lower leaves.

The hot peppers have grown stout -nice.

These Hungarian yellows are very productive.

These sweet peppers are doing well too. I think they are cubanelle.

Here are the eggplants on the left, beans and sweet peppers on the right. In the back, the cucumber trellis.

We weren't around to teach these guys where to go (that's up) and, as is typical, a mildew has formed. We planted three varieties, and 'Salad Bush" has evaded the mildew the best.

The slender Japanese eggplants are producing well.

The Italians are beginning to produce.

The "infill" bush beans are also gearing up. I seeded these wherever another plant succumbed during the first three weeks (recall on again off again watering).

The garden in context.

The 5 broccoli heads and 6 eggplants we harvested. The tomatoes are from the side yard pots.

Speaking of those side yard pots... It really is something else, growing in pots or planters, without a watering system, without endless soil, with the entrenched diseases. I know that I have not set up an ideal growing environment for all that I've tried to grow. However, the cool weather greens have always done well, and the tomatoes always produce -although late and lightly. Some years the beans have done extraordinarily despite small planters, but not this year. The broccoli and snow peas have never been a success.

What I really want in this very public space is a good looking garden, and by this time, with so much outdoor opportunity left, the vegetables in their pots look decrepit. There's little one can do to overcome it, too. I suppose local is going to have to be 10 miles away -not just outside. I'm very excited to have the beach farm and to see it produce so well in a very short time is heartening. Plans are swelling for next season. Swelling indeed.