While the larger blooms of my flowers have died off, I still have some smaller flowers to enjoy while I water.

My bronze fennel is now over six feet tall, with sprigs of Queen Anne’s Lace-like blossoms. I don’t especially have any call for six feet of the mildly anise-flavored herb, so mostly I’m using it to prop up the tomato plant next to it, which is equally tall.

My purple sage, a new plant in the garden this year, is doing well, tucked into the back corner of the garden with the other herbs. The mint threatens to take over, but I like to think it just provides the other plants in that area with some much needed shade.

My Hungarian pepper is finally starting to turn red and my fish pepper turned red last week. While the hot fish pepper hasn’t gained any other flowers, the “love apple” pepper has two new flowers this month. My yellow bell pepper gave me one fruit and doesn’t seem inclined to do much more, which is disappointing. I’m hoping it will take some inspiration from its neighbor.

The Cubanelle and banana peppers have been a huge success and we’ve been picking one or two a week since last month. We could probably stuff them, but so far they’ve ended up in curries and stir fries.

The tomatoes have varied, in part because you have to battle the wildlife for them. One of my neighbor gardeners has given up on them entirely this summer in favor of peppers. I pick everything slightly underripe in order to avoid the heartbreak of finding a perfect summer tomato on the ground with a single squirrel bite out of it. Too many of my tomatoes are gangly teenagers with limbs akimbo, so one of this week’s goals is to acquire more bamboo poles, since every one of significant height I have is already in use. I also need to look into taller tomato cages in the off-season, since many of mine are better suited to caging off the peppers instead.

This year we did not have an abundant spring strawberry crop, but have had a few berries every month all summer long. Mostly I just let Rudi eat them, since he doesn’t mind the seedy alpine berries that do well in the heat.

Other gardeners take a more orderly, curated approach to their plots, but mine grows tall and wild. I’ve planted beans and squash along the fence as late-season crops and have hope they’ll help combat the vines encroaching from the woods. This week, I should harvest the last of last fall’s planting of onions and see if I have any potatoes ready to pull and then put in some more of both for the end of the year.

It is always an adventure, my garden.