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The August garden with cardoons aplenty.
Footie apples.
These banana leaves are really colorful this year.

Sugary.
Tomatoberry.
Sun Sugar hybrid.
Mangoes and my favorite limes - the small kind - much juicer than big limes.
The cooked jam is just this lovely color.
Our nice fig crop. We call this plant "Stinky" - if you have a fig tree you will agree.
Vole country.
Our Mystery flower - name this plant - it was on the seed list.

Thank you everyone - as of today we have had 1000 views of our profile so someone is reading our efforts.

The wet weather continues and too much water is just as damaging as too little. The beans, this year between animals and water, are not going to provide us anything. The tomatoes are looking rather bedraggled so I gave them a shot of low dose nitrogen today (dried blood) in hopes of some happier late growth. We are getting tomatoes and not too much cracking as the moisture has been constant rather than spotty. Three salad types are producing nicely. "Sugary" is right up there in the great taste category. " Tomatoberry" is a nice looking tomato with lots of fruit on the cluster but kind of dull tasting. Although, the other morning, cooked as a side for scrambled eggs they were good because they held their shape after cooking. " Sun Sugar" hybrid is a good golden salad type. Great right off the cluster with a nice sweet taste. I did have some green tomatoes ripe but no pictures for this week as, yes, we ate them all.

Apples are sizing nicely and I used some this week to boost the pectin in the mango jam I made . I made two different batches as mango's at the market were 2 for $1. The recipe called for 6 in each batch but I used 8 - I wanted nice think chunky jam. The first batch I followed the recipe with sliced limes and lime and lemon juice and the result was OK. The second batch got a new spin. Lime juice but not cut up limes in the mix and I added a portion of a vanilla bean while cooking and then took that out and scraped another portion of a vanilla bean and added the seeds just before I put the jam into jars. The second batch is much better, no harsh lime
aftertaste but that sweet mellow flavor that vanilla adds to anything. I had a peanut butter and mango jam sandwich today - good. The fig tree has a nice set of fruit and the banana tree in the patio pot gets bigger by the hour. I have had banana trees before but never were they this happy and so big by August 1st.

We are putting in a new fence around the yard -chain link- so I encircled the garden with chicken wire to protect young seedlings from marauding rabbits while the back yard is unfenced. Once the new fencing is in the entire back yard will be protected because we are burying 6 inches of the fence to eliminate critters hopefully. The potatoes are being attacked by voles thus the picture. Peanut butter under the trigger makes for better capture than on the top where the voles freely lick it off. Not so when the bait is under the trigger. Peppers and cucumbers are producing nicely and I took out one of the greenhouse cucumber plants and re planted with a different variety to see what we could get going into fall. The garlic is soon to be harvested so with that, cucumbers, and some Greek yogurt we are ready for Tzatziki.

Now for some local politics. I am attending a city council committee meeting on Monday to speak in favor of an ordinance change. The City of Green Bay prohibits residents from having a hive of honey bees on their property. However, last month my alderman proposed that the ordinance be changed to allow bees. So tomorrow I am going to the meeting to express my interest in that change. Urban bee keeping is on the rise. The University of Minnesota has 250 people already signed up for an October basic bee keeping class and another 140 plus on a waiting list. The city of Minneapolis just lifted their ban on urban bee keeping. Here in GB we are trying to change the ordinance to allow for a hive of two to be kept which would be very beneficial both to the environment and for vegetable gardens. Ironically, the honey bee is the Wisconsin state insect but legally I can't keep them in my yard. Even the south lawn of the White House has a hive! So I sure hope that the committee sees that bees would be a good new city resident and make urban bee keeping legal.

Happy Gardening
PS we have a mystery flower for quiz time this week...