Garden triumphs, garden failures

I can't believe I'm still getting green beans from the garden; not only that, I'm getting enough to share with my friend, Paula, who said the bagful of green beans I gave her this morning was more than her garden gave her all year.  The ones I picked yesterday were better quality than I've had all summer, and we'll be having our share of them for the next couple days.  Green beans have always been one of the easiest thing for me to grow, but we've not had much rain all summer.  That has affected all growing things.  At least the grass and trees stayed green, so it's been a pretty, although very dry, season. 

In the foreground you can see turnips growing, but the next row are the old, tired green bean plants.  We got about 3/10 an inch of rain last night, so maybe we'll get still more green beans.

I threw caution to the winds several weeks ago and planted a new row of green beans.  At least half the plants didn't do well, but the ones that remain are now flowering!  If it doesn't freeze for a couple weeks, I could very easily have beans from those plants.  It's amazing, really.  That's zucchini, on the left.  I think there are only about eight green bean plants, so even if it doesn't frost, I probably won't get enough to use.

That tiny zucchini is around five inches long.  You don't often see zucchini growing in the autumn, but I believe I'll be eating some zucchini before long!  When I plant it in spring and summer, squash bugs kill the plants after I've had one or two.  And people who offer to give me some always let them get huge.  I like them no bigger than eight inches long.  You can buy them at the store, of course, but they've been around so long they aren't even shiny any more.  I hope squash bugs aren't around in autumn.

See how tall my okra is?  I have to lift about my head to pick some of them.  Yes, I have some cabbages too, but unfortunately the cabbage worms outlasted my Sevin dust and there's none in the stores now.  I did bring one huge head of cabbage in and, I think, got all the worms off it, leaving plenty of cabbage to use. 

There are my strawberry plants, still sending out runners... except for three or four slackers that tried to die; they are healthy plants now, but I doubt if they'll put any runners out.  I had to pull the soaker hose away from them to let the runners spread out.  The tiller is back there, covered from the rain, but I'm done with it.  I told Cliff he may as well put it away for winter.

I love that big, six-inches-across Hibiscus blooming near my clothesline pole.

My cousin, Betty, gave me the seed that grew into my favorite flower of all time.

And there are more flowers coming!

Look very closely at the photo below.  It isn't just another picture of my dog; he has little straight sticker things sticking out of his beard everywhere!  They are easy to remove; unfortunately, the sticktights in other places are not.  This is what happens when he gets off the mowed path on which we go for our walk.  He looks like a porcupine infected him.   You may not be able to see them; if not, then it's just another picture of my dog.