overgrown squash?

If you have ever had a vegetable garden you have probably fallen symptom to "overgrown squash syndrome". It's okay, it won't kill you or your garden... just make sure you pick those zucchinis before they get too big!
Today I had had enough, and decided to cut back some of my squash plants... just enough so that they weren't shading out my other veggies. Looking at the clipped leaves, I realized just how beautiful they are. I decided to stick a couple of them in my bathroom as if they were cut flowers. The greenery adds a freshness that I really like.

Got away

After posting about all my summer jobs last week, I convinced myself to get away for the weekend.
My husband and I jaunted over to Olympic National Park for a quick one night backpacking trip up to flapjack lakes.
We ate salmon berries along the trail, and wistfully walked past unripe huckleberries. Trailing blackberry and thimbleberry were also ripening.
What was that? No foraging allowed in National Parks? Oh yeah...

Setting up camp

Perhaps we'll come back up around labor day,
when these hucks will be ripe and juicy.
Last weekend they were simply pretty flowers.

Our bear-proof pantry... bag of food hanging on a bear wire.

Bambi came for a visit. Apparently she knows that hunting
is not allowed in the park because she really liked our company.

(All photos taken on the iPhone to minimize pack weight)

Summer jobs

Back in the early spring I decided that this would be a summer of fun... sort of a graduation present to myself... I imagined a summer where I worked only as much as I needed to, only worked on cool and fun projects, and travelled a lot. So far I've been able to work on cool and fun projects, but... I have been working 10+ hour days on average, and often on the weekends. Traveling has been sparse and limited to quick jaunts here and there. The reason is that I found an incredible number of cool and fun projects to work on. Some of them pay, some do not, but I am proud to be a part of all of them.

Here are some photos from my summer of fun work*

***Note to family and friends: these are photos from just a few of the jobs I've been doing this summer. There are more jobs yet! So sorry if I haven't called or written... I've been busy working in the dirt. Come late fall some normalcy should return to my life!

Alleycat Acres is growing like crazy up on Beacon Hill. Come help us harvest on Tuesday nights from 6-8 pm.

Apparently kids love to harvest carrots,
and this one was good at it.

We got about 5 cuttings from that Romaine!

Installation of two demonstration beds at the Goat Hill Giving Garden in downtown Seattle

Filling the beds with either a GroCo/sandy loam blend, or sandy loam + organic fertilizer

Watering in the seeds. We planted potatoes, squash, and bush beans in the demo beds

Collecting soil samples from research plots on Vashon Island

Collecting biomass samples

One day that tall meadow will return to
forest if we have anything to do with it

Veggies and ornamentals growing at the South Treatment Plant demo garden

These Hollyhocks are so romantic

Bright Bandolier Sunflowers

Baby eggplant

Wish my tomatoes at home looked like this

Cucumbers starting to develop

Scabiosa is stunning