Every now and then I see a google bike parked somewhere around Mountain View. Not sure what it was doing on the walk from my home to the garden. Since it's an unusual homage to the value of a bicycle I took its picture for you.

I've spent most of the summer getting a few more big wood chips a day from the pile by the entrance to the garden. I plop them down on the path where I pace while watering. By the end of August that path was getting quite "crunchy". I find the difference in texture between that and the rest of the garden piquant.

Yup. I still have collard seeds I'd like to share. Let me know if you want some of them to grow in your garden.

This was how it looked before the squash beetle infestation. Better than ever before, and giving me lots of food almost every day.

     

That's my neighbor. She goes by DN. It doesn't show yet in this picture, but she's already slightly pregnant. The next time I saw her after this it was more obvious. Likely she'll have a kid early next year.

Lubab grew corn this year. She gave me a few ears.

This was my collard plant when it was great! Since then it's been plagued by squash bugs.

     

My tomato plants have been wonderful all summer. I've developed a taste for home made tomato soup. I've also been self sufficient in tomatoes since early July. That includes taking dishes to potlucks with A LOT of tomatoes in them.

     

Zucchini goes in that soup when the plant has given me one recently, which is most of the time.

Yummm! Another zucchini.

     

The kale is another victim of the squash bugs. A few weeks after I took these pictures they sucked it dry. I had to pull it out. I was very sad about that. I made many delicious meal sized soups much greener by adding its leaves to them.

That eggplant isn't giving me much, just a few pretty balls the size of a small apple so far. I cook them into my food just so I can say I've grown my own "African eggplant". Not expecting to do that again. Next year I'm trying a different kind of eggplant, if I plant any at all. The difference between these and the eggplants I grew last year is that the bugs and birds don't want to eat these. I guess that's progress.

  

The raspberries are much better this year then they were last year. Just about every time I go to the garden I find another few ripe berries. It's just a tiny snack, but so delicious! I look forward to picking fruit off that plant and eating it right away.

     

The grape harvest this year was my best so far. I got another snack every day for weeks once they came into season. Only a few friends visited during the time they were in season. Maybe next year will be even better. Mid August was the sweet spot of grape season this year. Visit during that time frame and I'd be glad to share some with you.

  

Not only did I get more grapes than ever before, but the birds got more to. I started seeing the damage before I thought the grapes were ready. Next year I'm putting up the bird netting earlier in July.

The pepper plant only gives me a pepper every week or two, but that's better production than I remember getting from one before. That squash and the broccoli plants behind it were victims of the squash bugs a little while after this picture was taken. All those bugs swarming on my broccoli was very infuriating. Nowadays remembering that sight is one of the things that makes it easy to squash them when I catch one.

     

Yeah, the horseradish and four o'clocks are weeds, but they don't use water and they thrive on neglect. That boils down to good enough reason to leave them growing in my plot in spots I don't have something else for.

The diakon radish I planted from the crown of one I got at the farmers market. I bought this two pound thing with a little bit of green at the top. I just planted it near enough to something else I like watering so that the ground would be reasonably moist around it. Next time I have to give it more space. Turned out that's a good way to get starts of that!

     

That Kiwi volunteered by the other end of my grape structure. Since realizing what that strange plant is I've been watching it grow with delight. If it fruits for me next year it can have the spot forever. My fingers are crossed on that!

     

Those salmon colored flowers are loved by the hummingbirds. I know because when I first put the bird cloth over the grapes those were inside the net, except for one that got away from me. I was standing there one day and a hummingbird flew up to the one stalk that was free and deliberately stuck his beak all the way down each of the flowers on the stalk. Then he looked at the rest of the flowers and looked at the net. I could just feel the "no way am I dumb enough to fight with that net" resignation in the air as he flew away. After that I moved the net behind all of those flowers. Now the hummingbirds spend much more time in my garden. I like it like that.

Sometimes it really is a cucumber in your pocket when you garden.

     

I'm getting a lot of chard for my soup to. I cut off a large leaf or two every week or so from each plant. I try to leave each of them with enough leaves to cover a large area. I figure those are my solar collectors, so the more of the area they cover the more efficiently my space is being used to feed me.

This pepper plant has given me one pepper so far, but it was good. One reason is because I accidentally tripped over it and broke off half the plant once. It's recovering fine, but that cut into production. I've since put a tomato cage over it for further protection. I'm hoping I can nurse both pepper plants through the winter. If that happens they will be much more generous next year. Otherwise I'll have to start from scratch again...

        

After I pulled out my broccoli plants Mr. Tien gave me these three rose bushes. He explained that his wife is now allergic to roses, so he has no more use for them.

That's Katie from Maryland. She was wandering through the garden one day and stopped to chat a while. Then she moved on. Haven't seen her since.