Late summer garden

zinnias, originally uploaded by pwilnyc.

What is with the tomatos this year? I must have two dozen big beautiful GREEN tomatoes on the vines, and very few have turned red all summer long. Either we're going to have fantastic tomato sandwiches in October, or we're going to have hella lot green tomato salsa frozen for the winter.

Zinnias didn't go crazy like they did last summer, and of course the three best plants are in the vegetable garden, where nobody can see them. And I guess I'll never see a marigold like this crazy plant that grew from seed in 2004.

Last year was the Year of the Gourd, with giant vines of snakenecks and angelwing gourds taking over the entire yard faster than I could beat them back. I didn't plant them, and I didn't plant the few gourds that are growing this year either. And this year's gourds aren't the same as the ones from last year... gourds are an enduring mystery.

I was all excited about the tomatillo I planted this year - it sprawled, it self-rooted, it has many little flowers... but until now there have been no tomatillos, and the ones that are there now are the size of acorns.

Luckily I always have chili peppers, and plum tomatos, sweet peas, nasturtiums, rosemary, and for some reason I have good luck with these plain ol' zinnias.