The End of August

We got out and did some clean up tonight. The purple pepper plant is really taking off and I wanted to give it a chance so I pruned back the tomato plant quite a bit to let the pepper breathe. The midget is still doing great, although the tomatoes don't quite have the flavor that they had before we started getting all of this rain.

I also had to take the pumpkin vines out. I didn't want to give up on them yet, but they're so fragile and the dogs had completely trampled them. We got two little pumpkins, but one was a little chewed on (by a dog or by bugs, I'm not sure which). When we have more room I would really like to grow some more, but trying to allocate such a small space between dogs and plants that can't take at least a little abuse just wasn't working.

I have a whole nice big box of arugula sprouting up nicely and the radishes and carrots are coming along too. We had a nice baby arugula salad for dinner the other night from the thinnings (heavenly) and I'm wondering if we can eat the greens from the radishes and carrots? Think I'll have to do some research on that one.

One thing the rain we've gotten lately has been amazing for is the roses. The Bicara has really shot up, and the Leo is looking a little less peaky too. Both have lots of pretty burgandy new growth. I'm trying to let them alone, so that they can get ready for winter. I did one last fertilizer just before school started a few weeks ago. I'm trying to let them form rosehips, and then sometime in October I'm planning to cut them way back and find a nice warm place for them in our attic cubby to ride out the winter.