Second Spring (alt. title- Enough Already!)

This garden is going to be the death of me. Don't get me wrong, the produce has been great, but it just keeps coming. Sometimes I feel like the guy in that proverb-
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

I mean, it was fun planning and planting it all, but harvesting is hard work. I have canned and frozen and canned some more, and am getting weary. I suppose if we lived back in the day where whatever you grew was what you ate for the whole winter, then I wouldn't be complaining. But just knowing I can buy all this down the street makes me less and less willing to make the effort to store it all away. This was just this morning's harvest- chard, peppers, tomatoes and of course zinnias.



What's funny is that we thought the garden was done at the end of August. We had a long, dry spell that seemed to be bringing the harvest to an end. Everything was limp and going brown, and we were contemplating where to start pulling things up. I kept thinking "this will be my last bouquet of flowers," or "this will be the last bowl of fresh tomatoes", and I must admit I was a bit relieved. Then the weather changed- cooler air, more rain and a lot of sun. The garden decided it was time to start up again in earnest.

This, my friends, is the plot of tomatoes I was ready to pull up a few weeks back. You can't see it, but they are covered with buds and small green fruit.



And this is round two of the green beans, which we planted in August just to see if we could get some more. We are almost there.



My strawberries are being reborn for a third time.



Oh, and up come the dahlias again.



I mean, it's October for crying out loud! We are wondering if this will all indeed come to a second full harvest before the frost decides to kill it all. I guess we shall see.

And then there is this little weed that is growing way too fast.



Slow down, why don't ya?