early august garden

We have honeybees in the poppies, hummingbirds in the tithonia, and neighbors exalting our bounty and bringing their friends over to see. Even I am amazed at the vigorous growth of every one of our plants. Despite the significant shade cast by our 40' mimosa tree, everything in the garden is thriving. The pole bean teepee is taller than all of us:

This single butternut squash plant is my favorite this year; the vines are still snaking their way onto paths and adjacent garden beds, producing lots of enlarging fruits along their way:

We have harvested only 2 slicing tomatoes so far, but have had many handfuls of sungold cherry tomatoes, most have which have been gobbled up by one eager eater:

Soon we will make our first batch of pickles, using the beautiful dill flowers pictured above in my new blog header. For weeks we've all been eating a high proportion of green beans and cucumbers in our diet (we pick this much every few days):

The last of the beets and carrots will make room for a winter garden bed to be planted next month:

I must mention that all this lush growth is definitely not the result of high water use. We are very aware of water shortages this year and are extremely frugal with our water use. Each garden bed is heavily mulched in straw, and plant spacings are closer than normal (biointensive style), providing a canopy over the soil to minimize moisture loss. We often wait until plants are droopy before watering. On our ornamental plantings, we are almost exclusively using reclaimed water from Sam's bath and our showers, and we do not have a water-thirsty lawn at all. I am proud to say that we are using relatively little additional water this summer, and our garden still kicks ass.