My "Mother Nature" garden- so far

It's mid August here on our little suburban homestead in Utah.  What you see in the picture above is what I am currently harvesting from our gardens.  Dragon Tongue beans (they're only doing so so, pole beans are just now starting to come on, sage is ready to be plucked and dried for cold weather cooking, and our kale is going gangbusters.

I'm really hoping things pick up in the rest of the garden, and it is actually looking a bit more promising today than just yesterday, which is weird.  Suddenly I am finding blossoms where there weren't any, and I'm starting to see signs that maybe, just maybe, the tomatoes are going to really kick into gear.  Perhaps it's because the searing heat has finally started to let up and rain has been moving in and out for a few days.  

These are our pole beans, and as you can see they are bursting with flowers. I actually found about ten beans hiding in the foliage.  

Our two tomato patches are starting to get some clusters of fruit, and I'm really praying over these pathetic looking plants that they will really come through for me.  It's on them to fulfill my dream of jar after jar of tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes, and maybe even pizza sauce. 

The carrot patch was covered by the pea plants for most of the heat wave, and they look pretty good.  The pea plants kept them shaded and retained moisture so the little carrot seedlings could survive, so I forgive them for not giving me as many peas as I was hoping for. 

The Kale patch is fantastic, no complaints at all there.  

These tiny little pepper plants were all I got from a 4x4 patch that had about 80 seeds put in.  I'm not even sure what kind they are yet, or if they will ever produce anything.  They didn't even come up until about a month ago, but, here they are so I guess we'll see what they do. 

The squash patch has plenty of blossoms, but, so far, no squash.  Everyone else in the neighborhood is giving away their zucchini and I don't have a one.  

I know this looks like corn, but, it is Sorghum, which is a new plant for me.  I planted about 8 seeds, and it looks like nearly all of them came up, so, that's promising for next year.  
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The Arugula has bolted and is now producing flowers and seed, so, it's time to get those plucked and dried.  I'm still eating the leaves, I like how peppery they are and the tanginess is fine with me. 

The three rows of sunflowers I planted have resulted in about 20 sunflowers, total.  To their credit, they were one of the last seeds I put in and they are really trying to make something of themselves. 

And these are my very brave volunteers.  The first one is a random squash looking plant that came up in my old turkey pen, now the wood shed. Guess we'll see what that ends up being, but, it's the only squash so far that actually has any fruit showing.  The next one grew through the fence from the compost pile on the other side, and the last patch is all volunteer potatoes.  They don't typically give me all that many, maybe 10 pounds or so, but, we'll keep cheering them on and see what we get. 

I planted spearmint and peppermint alongside the chicken run knowing it would take over and spread out, helping to keep the flies under control and make the whole area smell nice, and that is exactly what it did.  Just love it. 

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The marigolds I planted in various parts of the garden beds are finally in full bloom and really bringing in those pollinators, but, next year, whatever doesn't come back on it's own is going to be supplemented by some flowers that bloom earlier.  I feel like my garden may have done better had I had more pollinators attracted sooner.  

Hopefully the next post about the garden will have lots and lots of nice plump red tomatoes, zucchini galore, and so many beans I can barely keep up with them.  And cucumbers, too.