On a stormy day, I visit the garden, ramble on about the garden year, and show you a few of my favorite plants in the garden. There is a lot of me talking to the camera in this one.

I’ve got this one tomato with the teeniest, tiniest little fruit. And it’s so prolific for having been cut down almost to the ground. And I thought they were all dead, but look at them. There are tomatoes everywhere down here, and it’s growing up the trellis so nicely. I really, really like it. There’s a second branch on the other side, and yeah…

All of the tomatoes are doing really well, really, really well for all the blight issues we’ve had. I’ve rescued them. The weather was dry just in time. The tomatoes are doing well. There are still a few fruit here and there that have blight in them, but I just pull those off, and the rest grows perfectly fine. I’m so happy I saved that. I was so sure we were not going to get any tomatoes. I still don’t know how many we’re going to get because we lost a lot of, well, early harvest to the blight, But I think, for the rest of summer, into the early fall, we’re going to have tomatoes. And hopefully, at some point we’re going to have enough at the same time so I can preserve some as well. Yeah, that’s making me so happy.

Some of my sunflowers are looking a little worse for wear, so they’re forming seeds up here. Pardon the noise. There’s someone doing tractor things over there, and the road’s particularly bad today. I’ll do my best. We’re going to get it out of here very soon, but I wanted to show you this.

Look at this beauty. She’s making a second smaller flower. Because I’ve never actually grown sunflowers, I didn’t know how they grow. I didn’t know that they make secondary little flowers and I think it’s so cool. And also there’s a butterfly on this one. Hold on.

And once you are in here, there’s insects everywhere. There’s a bee above my head up there. There’s the butterfly I just showed you, but there’s more butterflies. There’s more bees. Everything is buzzing and flying in here. I would grow sunflowers just for the bees again. Oh, there’s two of them right here. Oh, I love them so much. Look there. I’m sorry. I think I disturbed her.

There’s also flies, and I’ve learned this year how important non-bees are for pollination as well. Especially now that we’re doing such a shitty job at keeping the bees happy… Because on our balcony, most of the pollination is actually done by flies. We’ve got hoverflies. But we’ve also got regular just black flies, and they are doing most of the pollination on the cucumber. So just because flies are annoying to us, they are very important for the garden. So yeah, I try to make them all happy.

And next year we’re going to have lots of flowers. I’m probably going to put some sunflowers in as well just because they are so pretty. But yeah, pollination is going to be really, really important. And I want to leave this garden a better place. So whatever I plant here might self seed after I’m gone. So whatever beneficials I can put in, whatever I can teach my garden neighbors, might stick around once I leave.

Speaking of things, I’m teaching the neighbors. I’m slowly teaching them to appreciate some of the weeds just as pollination, like clover. Because I keep telling them I want the clover and they shouldn’t take the clover. So they’re learning that there can be a benefit to clover. But one of the most important things I think is that I’m teaching them that you can do things differently. Like, for example, the leopard slug, it’s beneficial, but it just gets thrown away. I’ve taught all of the garden neighbors around here about that slug, and how they should just keep it, and how it’s good for their garden. And they excitedly told me later about finding some. And I think–I know, they are all old people, but I think I’m changing some minds at the last minute here. And if they spread that knowledge to other people, maybe I can make a tiny bit of a difference, at least on the local scale. Yeah, I’ll keep trying.

It’s just yeah, they all give me their grass clippings and their leaves. But the neighbor who gave me the leaves for the onion-and-garlic bed last year, he is actually keeping his leaves for his own garlic this year. I have enough mulch. I’m not worried. It’s all good. But it’s so cool to see him not only watch me do that, but to pick up an idea from it. And he’s not coming around on no-till yet, but we’re slowly making progress. And the more my things work out, the more they see that they might not need to do all the things that they are currently doing to have success. And yeah, it’s so cool to leave an impression.

Remember that pepper I thought was dead. Well, it is coming back. It has this tiny little fruit, but more importantly, it has new growth everywhere. I think it’s doing very well. And so is the rest of the peppers. So are the rest of the peppers.

Let’s have a look at the other ones real quick. There’s our Lila Lucy. It’s so cool. It’s purple. Well, it’s called Purple Lucy in German. So, um, it has these purple little fruits that then turn white and then go through the stages to red, but I really, really like it.

And the elephant chili, at least this one here… Look at that. It’s just laden with fruit down here. And there are still new ones forming up here at the top. And yeah, it’s loving life. The other ones also growing new fruit. Pepper, can I get there. Pepper, move please? This one, too. Get your butt out of the picture… Okay. This one here, it has this damage one at the bottom that a little vole got at. Or the slugs ate it, I don’t know. It was there from the beginning, but it’s still forming, and I’m just leaving it to see what happens. But it, too, has new ones up here, and even tiny ones here. Let’s take the weed away because you get the nutrients, huh?

Okay. Yeah, everything’s doing great. I mean, I know this garden isn’t what it could be. If the weather hadn’t been this wet and this bad, we would have had a lot more success. But for the year we’ve had, and for this being my first real garden year, this is a really, really big success. And I’m so happy with the garden.

And I can’t wait with the rest of the season brings me because we’ve started winter greens, We’ve started–I’m going to start new lettuces soon, just for some green in the fall, and I’m not done with the garden. I have plenty of planting to do. I have plenty of cleaning up and weeding and mulching to do. This is nowhere near done for the year–and also harvesting–but it’s just so exciting to see it all come to fruit and to all just grow here.

It looks so different than it did just a few weeks ago. And I’m going to get the drone up in the air real soon, one of these days, either me or my husband, but we’re going to get you another picture from above because the difference to the last picture is stunning.

Wow, the bean is looking amazing too. Just look at all the fruit down here, all the beautiful, beautiful beans that it made. And some of them are getting pretty big, and I’ll come in here tomorrow and pick a few. But, uh, in general, they aren’t there yet. Those are supposed to be beans that you can dry and eat as beans, not the green-bean kind. Down there right in front of me are the green-bean kind but they are a lot smaller, and I’m not taking any of those at the moment. But I’m waiting for them to make more at the same time, so we can actually eat beans or maybe even preserve some beans. If they all go into fruit and make beans at the same time, that would be excellent.

I’ll take whatever I can get. It hasn’t been a good garden year, but there are the small successes making me happy.

I think the cucumber might be done for the year. I am giving her a final chance. There’s one tiny little cucumber on there and a few flowers, but I have a feeling those are going to just be baby cucumbers and then die off again. That’s what happened to the last few. She has all the nutrients she needs. I think she’s just done producing. I mean, it was an early-planted once. So yeah, I think it’s just the end of the season. And I think at this point I’d be better served taking out the cucumber and letting the melon spread, because some of the melons have fresh little baby fruit. And if they want any chance of growing to even a small melon size, I need to give them room. And yeah, just think I need to take out the cucumber, but not today. Final chance for you. I hope she gives me a final cucumber.

It’s a stormy day. It’s a gray day. So we’re going to head out of here. But it was so worth coming. I mean, we have to go check the greenhouse and air it out and all that. So we had to come, but it’s always worth taking the time to walk around for a few minutes and have a look at everything. I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I did. So long, and thanks for being here.

If you want to help me make these videos, because YouTube isn’t doing anything for me at the moment, please consider donating so I can keep affording to make these videos and dedicate three days a week to making them. Go to rootsandcalluses.com/support. Prefer reading? You could also buy my novels. I’ve published three novels so far with a fourth one on the way. And I’m also working on more. But yeah, those are published or nearly published. And you can find those wherever you find books. I’m going to put it at the end of the videos. You can see it on the screen. They’re published under my maiden name, Kate Breuer. So you might have some trouble finding it. It’s all on the screen.

Anyway, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you so much.