Only the Cabbages have survived....

 "Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will" improvise. ~Michael P. Garofalo

                     
 I have been scrounging for sweet peas this year. Eking out a few here and there.Tugging them off stalks that look promising, but go nowhere.  Vines should be up over the fence, as per usual, This year they look like gremlins cut them down.
 Over all, the garden is lush and green and pretty nice. Long, wet icy winter, cold wet spring, slow start.......some things just couldn't take it. Others, absolutely did fabulous.

 But the carrots....oh those darn carrots.....look like they need haircuts. They're all tops, no carrots.

  the sunflowers are  just fine. So far.  I'm  waiting to see if they keep growing. They do look a bit spindly. They teeter-totter in the wind. They tower, somewhat, over the remaining cabbages. 

  Dahlias are coming along. Lots of buds ready to pop. They have done so well. And I thought they would just rot.They are,  so far, rocketing skyward and blooming.

 Patience the gold, furry house mate of Cordelia, makes an appearance,here and there,  something he doesn't always do.  Spencer and Smokey  keep their distance from him. Most days.The garden cats. The neighbourhood cats. They seem to thrive.

 "A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust."   - Gertrude Jekyll

  Poor veggie garden. Only three ( count them) THREE CABBAGES left. I leave them because I feel sorry for them. They seem to be holding their own.....sort of. Wobbling about on little stalks.

 Sunflowers are a little thin looking. I'm hoping they will fatten up. I stole geraniums from other pots to  bank around the lonely cabbages. Hoping they will  perk up. It's a weird year for growing things. Geraniums seem to be thriving.

 "We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?" Wendell Berry


 All the POTS are huge this year. The sweet peas dwindle. Cabbages survive. Carrots look like parsley ( maybe I had the wrong seeds). Sunflowers look like they could use steroids. Or a good workout  at the gym.

 The beets disintegrated into the soil. The lettuce bolted before it even grew into lettuce.The cabbages  look like leftovers.Missing leaves. Holes in their wings.  Maybe I will make cabbage soup out of them at some point.

 Maybe the sweet peas will do better next year.BUT at least the CABBAGES have survived.

"INHALE and HOLD EVENING IN......"
                                                                         ― Sebastian Faulks, Engleby

Photographs 2017