My first zucchini and lemon cucumber. The lemon cucumbers are amazingly producing but very seedy. I hate seeds so scrape them out.

Erica, how big does that cuke getand how does it taste?

This is good for me as I tried a bunch of new varieties this year and I keep thinking I should load up some pics and share with you all how they performed. Many are hybrids so I won't bother collecting seed (hybrids plus it's so smokey here that yesterday after spending not too long in the garden I came in feeling a bit ill, trying to limit my outdoor time).

Last night's sunset saw a bit of a break, although you can tell it's smokey.

But daytimes, it's been solid white out smoke for the last week here. Can't even see the hills across the way.

This was yesterday's smoke map.

Margo, the Poona Kheera only gets about 6" long, but they are quite thick. Here's the write-up I did on it, for my blog:

This was my first year trying this variety of cucumber. I've had notoriously bad luck with cucumbers in the past, which I think has been due, in part, to our super hot, dry summers. I intentionally selected the Poona Kheera, because it's from India. I figured if they can grow there, I might have success with them here in Cali. And guess what? They are producing for me!

First off, the color is amazing. Most sites describe them as a russet brown, but I find the color to be closer to copper, when mature. They turn from white to greenish yellow to brown and can be eaten at any stage. I waited to harvest my first one until it was fully ripe. It was a nearly spineless, copper beauty. When I sliced into it, it had that snap at the end of the cut, the same way ripe watermelon does, when it's nearly bursting at the seams.

Then it was time for the taste test. I should probably mention that I love pickles and like cucumbers in things like tzatziki, but I almost never eat plain cucumbers. However, I sliced half of it in 3/16” slices on my mandolin. The other half went in the fridge. I figured I'd eat a slice or two and then make pickles or something out of the rest.

I sampled the first slice. There was little to no bitterness. I ate another. The texture was so crisp, like biting into an apple. I ate a third slice. The skin was a little tough at this stage of ripeness, but it was still perfectly edible. I ate another slice and another. The crispness was addictive. How could it be so crisp? Before I knew it, I had eaten all my slices.

So, a big thumbs up for Poona Kheera Cucumber. It can survive the hot, dry heat of Cali. The color is amazing. The flavor is super mild. And the crispness is addicting.

Erica, thanks so much for that review. I will have to try it. Amazing that it is producing in this heat.

Maggie, sorry about the fires and smoke. Stay safe.

These peaches I picked today. The grapefruit were from a few days ago.

My potatoes grew well this year. I am going to plant many more next year. I also had some red and blue ones growing.

Emily, Did you spray your peaches? My first batch was good and then all the rest had worms inside. I am going to spray next year but don't know what to use.

Amy, I did not spray my peaches. It is pretty dry here so I suspect that helped. My big problem is that something (birds, animals?) tries them before they are ripe. They take a bite and leave the rest because it isn't ripe for them either! If they were going to eat it, I wish they would eat the entire peach. I pick before they are fully ripe and let them ripen indoors. I tried bagging a few of them on the tree, but what is eating them rips through the bag.

Amy, those are great looking potatoes. I love fresh dug potatoes and you have some nice sized ones.

Erica, I found your blog. Such beautiful photography and writing. I don't know where you find the time but I am very impressed.

Emily -- Thanks, that's very sweet of you.

Regarding peaches, I've never had worms before, but I have a huge problem with squirrels. They get way more of the peaches than I ever do.

surprise lilies

Story. Our monthly food pantry time came. We were short on helpers so I asked some kids. I've tried for a year to get someone from the family to go. The one perk for Teens helping is they get to choose a dessert and some chose a watermelon this time. The kids had so much fun helping they want to do it again. I made sure they got food from the pantry to take home. Their dad was planning on sending money to mom this weekend for food. Now mom has some money for lights or rent. This month the pantry had lots of produce--watermelon, squash, cukes, tomatoes, potatoes. Also a gallon of milk, canned chicken. Great fun!!!

Grapes growing good this year.

Heidi, I love that you and kids have some much fun at the food panty. I know you are a blessing to many people there.

Heidi -- You're such a wonderful person, doing all you do for the community. And you have beautiful flowers. Your lilies are gorgeous.

Just a little sharing tonight. My daughter called me and her dad tonight to tell us she was offered a promotion to a new office they are putting in Pheonix, AZ. The office is planned to open in January. She works for an insurance agency. The are highly considering it. Her dad and I always encourage our children to follow their dreams and take advantage of what life has to offer. It is still very hard for me to think they will be so far away. The are the parents of our 6 month old grandson who we see at least once a month. Emily and I are very close. This is when motherhood can really be hard. They have two weeks to make their decision. I'll keep you posted. Margo

Amy, the grapes look beautiful. What do you use them for?Ours also look the best this year they ever have. Looks like the drought has agreed with them.

I was experimenting this summer with a wide variety of tomatoes. The sun heat and drought has been very hard on most of them. Lots of sunscald on the larger types. Seems the cherry and plum types have tolerated these conditions better. Not so good for canning or sandwiches but lots for snacking and salads.

Heidi keep up the good work it makes the world a better place.

Beth, This is the first year that the grapes produced this many. I am going to try and make jam with them. I received one of the grape starts in a garden trade on here. You may have sent it to me . It is a concord and doing really well. My tomatoes have not produced much either. I have one big one and the rest have been the little cherry tomatoes. I have only had 2 zucchini but I picked one that is so big I think I will make bread with it.

my Dad always canned grape juice and also made some wine. I'll do juice and jelly. The corn is Jack's project but we work together on cleaning and cutting it for the freezer

Beth, lucky you with that corn. I just love locally grown corn. I just toss them in the fire pit hot coals. So good.

Been so excited to get my ripened sweet 100 tomatoes soon. Darn if the critters didn't get to gnawing on them. Hopefully, they'll leave some for me.

Thanks for jumping in to post pictures and comments. I'm envious of those who are gathering all sorts of goodies from their garden. I have gotten a few tomatoes and cucumbers and frankly need to check the garden tomorrow since we've been away for a few days. My niece got married over the weekend in NC and made such a beautiful bride. After the wedding we visited with other family while we were in the area. Of course I had a wonderful time, but sure am tired today! It's so special to see our granddaughters since we don't see them often. The last time was early March and the little one changes so much in those months that go by.

This is an odd summer for me. We continue to have rain almost everyday. I thought that would really perk up the garden, but it being so wet is producing disease on the leaves so it may not turn out to be a good thing. I'll probably be able to tell in another week or so. I think most of the tomatoes will ripen before the plants die. At least the rain cools things off and that's great!

Margo, I hope things turn out just as they should for your daughter. I know it's a hard decision. Maggie, stay safe and you are right that you don't want to be outdoors in the smoke. Heidi, the delayed package of seeds from you showed up today (this group or OBF). Thank you so much --- and Erica is right that you are such an asset to your community. Hello and thanks to everyone for sharing with the group. I'll see if I can post some pictures in a day or two.

Jeanne

My new flowerbed at new house. Funny thing is I planted most of it for my mom!

i have pine tree windbreaks around my house. The grass has died. Any suggestions what I could plant in shade under them? Heidi

Hostas work well. I started dividing mine and planting atrohnd the base of the trees. Sadly, the deer are giving me some trouble although they don't seem to like my guacamole variety.

Your garden looks very nice.

I snapped a few pictures yesterday before the rain storm came through. I was only able to pick 3 small tomatoes, so I don't think this will be a very productive year.

Cucumber plants draping themselves all over my tomato plants and cages.

Some of my begonias. Unusual how some are so much bigger than the others. The large white one is one I grew from seed last year.

Any one Know what this ground cover is?

OH darn having trouble deleting the top two. Top one is one of my nephews boys and as you can see the other two are the same pictures. Want to know the name of the vine.

creeping charlie??? That is my first guess

I know it has some creeping charlie in it. I'll tale a close up.

I would name it creeping Charlie because of the cute baby on the blanket! Or I'd rename the groundcover "Happy Creeper"! I have a lot of vines, but not much fruit on my cukes and vining plants. Of course Morning Glories are in a class all by themselves whether you invite them to the party or not! Heidi

still what amounts to NO rain here. Cloudy and cool yesterday but only 2/10 of an inch of precip. Zinnias are tolerating it well and there are lots of butterflies visiting

These are the first of the Fantasia sunflowers. Not as pretty as some years but still lots more to comeEarly this AM had the feel of early fall and I'm just not ready to even think of that quite yet. It may just be a very short summer.

A couple things from my garden today:

Amaranth

Black Amber Sorghum

Poona Kheera Cucumber

My first Jerusalem Cherry.

My glads were a success.

Margo -- I'm in love with your gladiola. That is stunning.

love the glads. They remind me of my Grandmother, always happy thoughts. She was one of my "heroes"

Today, after spending a couple hours cleaning out two rows in the veggie garden and transplanting some of the fall seedlings I rewarded myself with some sunny flowers. They are "promising" us rain this week and I sure hope they are right. That will get my babies off to a good start.

Very pretty Beth. My sunflowers did not do well. After planting about 30, I got about 5 that came up. The soil needs some help I think. One just bloomed and so far no deer issues.

Love seeing the pictures of what everyone is growing. That glad is just beautiful. I keep meaning to try them again.

We're finally getting some much needed rain and cooler temps. Maybe I'll start seeing a few more flowers now. I've got a little bit of blooms on a lot of stuff, but not a lot of blooms on any one plant.

Does anyone know what happened to our have and want lists? I can still update mine in a narrow little window, but can't see mine or anyone else entire list.

Ruth -- Everything looks ok on my end. I just checked and I can update my trade list as normal. I can also view your entire trade list. I am checking from my PC though. Not sure if you're on a phone.

I've had people say that my trade list is gone. Anyone know how to get it back? Also I cannot find the list of garden web different types of trades and discussions.

Erica, when I go to your page all I see to click on is ideabooks and Activity, same as I see on mine, hibiscusfan on your page I see Ideabooks, projects and Activity. Clicking on any of those does not bring up our list. This is from my computer, not phone.

Ruth -- If you had it set up as one of your ideabooks, I'm not sure. I can still access the regular trade lists though. To edit yours... Top right corner of this page click on Your Houzz > from the dropdown "Edit Profile and Settings" > on the left "Advanced Settings" > scroll down the page until you see " My GardenWeb Trading List" (you can drag the bottom right corner to make the box bigger).

To see someone elses... Click on their name and then directly above their ideabooks there should be " View My Trade List" in green. I can see mine and yours.

If you've already done that and it's still not showing up, you might have to send an email to Houzz and see if they have a suggestion.

P.S. If you click that green link above, that links you to your trade list (for viewing, not editing).

Erica, what do you do with sorghum? I'm assuming it's more than for it's distinctive look--but I like the look! For us sorghum is to bulk up the cows! Thanks for the info about your cukes. So interesting.

My mom fell a week ago and has compression fractures in her spine. Dr. told her she'd be in the hospital a month and then he sent her home 2 days later. She is up walking which I can hardly believe. I'm so happy, though! I had that moment when I became the parent and they became the kids. I sat down with my mom and told her I wanted her to get a machine that tested her blood sugar--you wear a patch and it beeps if your blood sugar gets too high or too low. This is the fourth time her bs got too low and she fell and hurt herself. She said, "Okay." My dad was hiding in the kitchen!!! He came in once he figured out my mom wasn't going to pitch a fit. Hiding in the kitchen!!!! Like a little kid!

This week we went to the hearing for my husband's business. The state is trying to shut him down for a year. It's all political and I don't do well with politics--and corruption. I just wish we could all follow the rules. We won't know until the middle of September what will happen. For the time being, he can still work.

My daughter started her senior year this week. Her best friend is living with us and it's been going well.

I am going to have a half dozen princess pumpkins. I've got lots of Roma tomatoes. My dad has green pepper plants 4' tall full of peppers--king sized plants. My plants which I started in March in the house think they are Miss America plants. They wave to each other, are skinny but healthy, but have no desire to produce. I'm hoping for 2 cantaloupes to ripen and not get eaten by bugs.

Heidi -- Honestly I haven't done anything with the sorghum yet. I grow it because I think it's pretty cool, but I don't grow enough to actually make syrup with.

So sorry about your mom. It sounds like the best possible outcome though, considering what happened. Out of the hospital after 2 days, rather than a month is great. Sending my prayers.

Prayers for your hubby, as well. I do hope that things get sorted and they dont close him down.

It looks like Houzz has been redoing the system or something. I can not find the "message me"button for folks that I have been messaging in the past. Anyone else have this happening????

Heidi sending prayers and positive thoughts for you and family

Beth, I checked on s couple of members pages, after you click on their name on the posts, I then click on activity. I can reach message through there.

Why they keep keep messing around with the pages here on Houzz, I'll never know.

Thanks MArgo, when they change things I'm never sure what to do first. hate to do something that will make it worse

They sure do grow them if in this part of Ohio. My sweet husband took him for a broom ride to the other side of the road

Sorry I haven't logged in for awhile. Shirley said to say hello to everyone. She is having trouble logging in. She hopes to be back soon.

Not a lot going on here. The hornworms have been munching away on my tomato plants so between them and the hot dry weather, the garden is not doing so well. Even the cucumbers got attacked by some pests this year and last year they were worry free. Maybe I should try a fall winter garden?

Heidi, I hope you mother continues to do well and that you can get your husband's business squared away. You've had so much to deal with lately.

Jeanne

City flower bed. So much rain everything is growing gangbusters. Too bad you can't see all the colors and textures very well.

These are blooming onions of some kind that bloom in the fall. I love the bouquets of white blooms in the fall against the green foliage and the autumn bloom colors.

Mom is doing great. She wants to be healed up immediately, but it's going to take some time. I have 2 Princess Pumpkins from my garden and had 2 cantaloupe. My dad beat me this year in peppers. One of his plants right now has 8 California Wonder peppers growing on it. I've had 1 pepper all summer on 10 plants. LOL Heidi

I will be posting the September swap in the next day or 2. Stay tuned

Heidi good news about your Mom. Garden photos look great

Lisa ( paper finch) posted about possible Sept swap. i'm up to my eyeballs in things I need to do but I'll stay tuned