Early August Gardening Update

My gladiolus suddenly developed spikes last Thursday, and the first few just began to bloom. So far I only have two colors, but there will be more later. The one that looks blue in the photo actually looks more purple in person. I've been growing glads since I was in my early teens, so they are definitely a tradition for me by now.

I gave all of the tomato plants a good pruning yesterday morning, and tied them up where they had escaped out of the tomato cages, and staked up the cages that were leaning precariously. So far the only red tomatoes are these cherry tomatoes, which should be ready to eat in a day or two.

My most exciting discovery in the garden today was this one little cluster of blueberries! I just planted the bushes last fall, so wasn't expecting any berries yet. I ate one ripe berry, and it was tasty.

The raspberries are nearly done for the year. Now it's zucchini season, and cucumbers. "Zukes and cukes," as my friend, Peggy, puts it. I don't know what I was thinking, but I bought two pickling cucumber plants instead of slicing cucumbers. Two plants probably won't ever produce enough cukes at one time to make pickles, and they don't always taste as good as slicing cukes. I'm not sure how that is going to work out! But I have at least six zucchini muffin recipes, and at least three zucchini bread recipes, plus all the other ways to prepare zucchini, so I am looking forward to using as many of those as my plants will produce.