The best garden harvests this week have been flowers. Seed-grown rudbeckia in the front yard garden thrive and regularly provide bouquets to share. They seem unaware the days grow shorter and forge ahead with promise to fall.

The summer vegetable garden would like another month of long, warm days. September may bring warm days but the daylight wanes.

Most crops were planted later than usual and the cool summer means I have yet to harvest a tomato or pepper. The black cherry tomatoes may beat out the dwarf tomatoes. The cranberry and cannalini beans boast fat pods which in a month or so will dry for harvest.

Most promising in the near term is my ‘Sugar Pearl’ corn. Today marks 70 days since planting and expect to have corn for dinner this week. The challenge now becomes protecting the ears from foraging raccoons. About now the 4 x 8 foot bed begins to look like a fortress.

The ‘Raven’ zucchini faithfully produce two or three a day though even they are slowing as I daily remove leaves covered in powdery mildew. Usually I’m overrun with ‘Chelsea Prize’ cucumbers but not so this year. Like the tomatoes and peppers they’d like a long run of warm, sunny days.

Zucchini-corn fritters are a once every summer treat

My husband tracks the production of our solar panels with great enthusiasm. He reports that May through August average yields have been significantly lower than any of the previous three years. On the upside, the fog and overcast keeps us cool when inland temperatures soar.

A few more of the recent flower harvests—alstroemeria and Red Queen Lime Zinnia.

Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I begin soon to sow seeds for the cool season garden. Head today to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.

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