Whew!  Changes are afoot (see what I did there?).  Although fall doesn’t really hit Virginia until October – it’s still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts – the leaves are beginning to drop, just a little.  Other than those first few fluttering leaves, not much to report around here.  I have not given the garden much attention this month.

We’re heavy into planning for next year.  This jungle is our front walk; Steve has decided that he wants to rip this all up and start fresh (with something inexpensive, because we all know my position on spending a lot of money improving someone else’s property).  Since I don’t know which of these plants are the weeds and which are planted here intentionally, that seems like a good idea.

As for this, I confess myself stumped.  I suggested to Steve that we plant a pumpkin patch here.  I figured the vines would act as ground cover during the warm months and then we’d have pumpkins.  (My friend Bridget has a pumpkin patch in her suburban Alexandria backyard.  If she can do it, so can I!)  When he stopped laughing and realized I was serious, he was violently against that idea (why?).  Since the backyard is my domain, I might still do that.  Or I might spend the next two summers scratching my head, and then move.  Time will tell!

While we’re in the backyard, there has been another bird feeder reshuffling.  This is very exciting news: we actually saw a hummingbird buzzing around our front yard tube feeder!  After we all stopped jumping up and down and shouting, I darted out to Home Depot to pick up some nectar, and hung up Steve’s hummingbird feeder in the backyard, thinking we’d maybe entice a few more to stop by for fuel as they migrate south.  Since then: no hummingbirds.  Figures.

As for the title of this post: we continue to watch the tomato plant like hawks.  And… it’s mostly a fail.  I did find this:

A ripe tomato, still on the vine (not knocked into the dirt by aggressive squirrels or children).  Since I was alone in the backyard, I got to eat this.  Success.

Sadly, most of the tomatoes look like this: green, green, greeeeeeeen.  Anyone have any recipes that use green cherry tomatoes?  We’re weeks away from our first frost, so I don’t think it’s time to declare defeat.  But I’m also not convinced we are going to have enough hot sun to actually ripen these.  Blah.

Closing out this disjointed update post, I thought I’d show you a few spots in the yard that don’t get photographed.  First up, the woodpile.  This was actually bigger before we got our firepit, so: progress!

Fall bonfires ahoy.

I need to figure out some solution to keep the wood dry during wet weather, if we want to keep this fire thing going into the fall and winter.

Finally, this is the side yard, which the kids have named “the sandlot.”  There’s no sand, but we do play catch here.  Nugget’s red glove is starting to get nice and flexible.

I borrowed Steve’s glove, which used to belong to his dad.  Nice and supple, but no good for me because I’m not a lefty – whoops.  Also, is it me or does this glove look angry that it is being asked to catch a Washington Nationals baseball?  This glove is a Yankees fan.

That’s it for the September garden brain dump… how are your green spaces looking as we transition to fall?