The lower temperatures and rain here have actually not been very good for my garden. The heat seems to slow down some of the pests and it sure makes the tomatoes ripen in a hurry. We've had rain every day for the last week or more. I cut back a bunch of vines and have pulled a few entire plants and put in several new ones for fall. The powdery mildew is trying to get started, so I'll take a sprayer full of hydrogen peroxide out in the morning.

I have had tomatoes coming out of my ears this summer. They've slowed to a trickle of a half-dozen big ones a day, so I can still reach into the fridge and pull out a ripe beauty for my evening salad or lunchtime BLT. A friend brought his steam juicer over a couple of weeks ago, and in addition to juicing mustang grapes, we did a big pot of tomatoes for juice and sauce. As we worked he'd say "I need to inspect this tomato" and out would come the salt shaker after a couple of quick cuts with the paring knife. I think he probably ate the equivalent of a half-dozen tomatoes as we worked. Think about it--would you be tempted to eat a half-dozen tennis-ball sized grocery store tomatoes? One would be plenty. But garden ripe tomatoes are just simply something the commercial growers can't match.

Eggplants are now in, and with all of the rain, the plants with the most fruit are beginning to topple over. I'll be propping them with tomato cages and fence posts to keep them off the ground. I picked two big ones today, two yesterday, and I have enough out there to be picking about a dozen a week. Time to start cooking and giving them away (I made a fabulous lasagne over the weekend, with a layer of eggplant. Mmmmm!)

I played with a garden toad this evening, trying to photograph him eating Junebugs. He was too fast. Maybe one shot worked--I have to check.

SRS