Due to recent baby-having events, this summer's garden is smaller and more focused than I've had in years past. I didn't plant the larger, lower bed at all this year. It's just too much work to prepare the soil and plant that big space. Instead, I'm focusing on the uppermost, medium-sized bed, as well as my usual container crops.

Rather than experimenting with new things, this year's garden is (mostly) focused on crops I've grown successfully in previous years. I have the summer staples of tomatoes, peppers, green beans and squash all growing vigorously from seeds I purchased online from Botanical Interests.

The pole beans have taken off nicely, as beans usually do, and have already reached the top of the tripods I made for them. Dakota brought me some long poles from his shop, so perhaps the beans will climb even higher. The pumpkin plants are spreading into the space between the beans, in classic summer garden style. Although I haven't done well with winter squash in the past, I decided to try pumpkins this year because I think it would be really cool for my son to be able to pick his Halloween pumpkin from his very own backyard patch.



I am also trying okra again, despite past failures. Okra really should grow nicely in my bright, sunny garden, so we'll see. I've started the okra in small pots, and so far I have three seedlings, which I hope to plant in a couple of weeks. I'd love to eat fresh-picked okra in August, so I've got my fingers crossed that this year I'll finally get my wish.



Of the three tomato plants currently growing in containers, I have one pear tomato, one cherry variety and one that I'm not sure of. I noticed a volunteer tomato plant growing in my strawberry pot, and, considering that time is short this year, I decided to scoop it out and see what it might produce. It's just starting to make baby tomatoes, so I should know in a few weeks.



Alongside these new crops, I have three eggplants and four pepper plants from last year that survived the winter and are making fruit for a second year. I have to watch them closely for pests and disease, but so far they seem to be doing well. In my garden, I've found peppers prefer a bit of shade for part of the day, and then they'll make me lots of colorful fruit.

So, that's it for this summer. I have given up on growing corn. I just don't think I have enough space or rich enough soil to be truly successful. I'm also taking a year off from zucchini, after last summer's embarrassing failure. Besides, I can get zucchini for $1.99/pound at the grocery store or farmers' market, so it hardly seems worth it to grow my own.

Last weekend, I discovered these weird insects on one of my pepper plants. I have never come across these guys in my garden before, and there were quite a few of them camped out on various parts of my large Lemon Drop Pepper plant. Does anyone have any idea what they are?

The spiny, black and brown, almost prehistoric-looking insects were located at the crooks of the pepper plant where thinner stems branched off from a main stem. As pictured, there were two larger insects, and then numerous smaller bugs surrounding them. I'm not sure if the smaller insects were babies, worker drones or complimentary insects. I am guessing babies.

The area of stem where the bugs were located had some brown scarring on it, so I made the educated guess that these insects were not friendly to the plant. Happily, my insecticidal soap was very effective in wiping both the big and little spiny insects out.

So... Anyone seen these insects before? I'm really curious about them.They're so weird-looking.

Back in April, Ilsa Setziol of Rambling LA had a really great series on the Los Angeles Times Home blog about nonnative invasive plants. If you're at all interested in gardening or the preservation of natural habitats, I encourage you to check it out. Ilsa runs down a list of the plants commonly found in garden centers that can do serious damage when they get out of the garden and into the wild.

One of the posts discusses fountain grasses, which have spread through Southern California open space and parkland and pushed out the native chaparral. I'm sad to admit that, after reading the article, I realized that I have some in my front yard. I planted two clumps of purple fountain grass several years ago. I think it's probably sterile, because I haven't noticed it spreading, but I am considering removing it after reading Ilsa's article.

I also realized that my front yard had been invaded by another variety of invasive grass: Mexican feathergrass. It showed up among my native plants last year, and grew into two or three smallish clumps. Informed by the invasive plant series, I removed the grass last month and threw it in the garbage, rather than the green bin, so hopefully it won't spread. Since then, I've noticed the feathergrass in other peoples' yards and in public landscaping. Hopefully those gardeners will hear about the danger of nonnative fountain grasses and take their invasive species out as well.

Last Christmas, I was up in the Russian River Valley in Northern California, and I noticed large clumps of pampas grass growing among the redwoods. It looked really weird on the otherwise woody hillsides, and I know this aggressively-spreading grass is a pretty serious problem up and down the California coast. It was kind of a bummer to see the obviously out-of-place pampas grass among the gorgeous redwoods. If we're lucky, the park service will beat it back before it chokes out the native vegetation.

Hopefully, the more people are aware of problems with invasive nonnatives, the more they will turn to the just-as-attractive native plants. The California Native Plant Society has a good list of nurseries here. Many of the plants in my front yard, including native grasses, are from Matilija Nursery in Moorpark.