Scott's Decepticon (from the Transformers):
Jeremy's creepy mummy:
Here are our pumpkins from 2008. Scott's pumpkin-headed horseman:
My evil kitty:
And from 2007... My ghost:
Jeremy's spooky tree:
My friend Katherine's cute bat:
And Scott's scary skull:
Lemon Cucumber (1): Vine was large and fairly productive. Cucumbers were delicious, especially when harvested before they turned bright yellow. I only ate these raw. Vine eventually succumbed to bacterial wilt, but appeared to be somewhat resistant. A keeper.
Yellow Pear Tomato (6): Huge plants, very early and very prolific. Tomatoes were good, but not nearly as good as the tart Clementines I grew last year. Better cooked (roasted in oven with other veggies or heated through in cream-based pasta sauce) than raw.
California Wonder Bell Peppers (8): Slow to start producing, but going strong from late summer into fall. Typical green bell pepper flavor (I haven’t let any turn red). Plants were visibly boosted by a side-dressing of compost after fruit set. Plants are tall, requiring staking, and have had no problems with insects or disease.
Early Long Purple Eggplant (6): It took ages (and bottom heat) to get the eggplant seeds to germinate and grow into decent-sized plants, but it was worth it. The plants are problem-free (though they seem happier staked), and the eggplants are tender and tasty, especially when harvested young. They have produced steadily from mid- to late summer through fall.
Contender Bush Beans (1 pkt.): My first time growing beans, and I definitely picked the right variety. These plants were care-free and the beans were plentiful and delicious. They produced for a couple of months with regular picking.
Shallots: I planted my shallot sets too deep. They multiplied, but not much. I’m going to be replanting the best sets soon.
Yellow Squash/Zucchini: Borers killed every single squash plant before a single squash came to fruition. I’m done with summer squash.
Serrano Pepper (1): The one plant has been completely problem-free, and has produced what seems like hundreds of peppers! It produced consistently through the summer heat and is still going strong in the cool fall.
Hope this is helpful to someone. Have a great week!
-Ginger
Black Krim Tomatoes
The Gallo Peach Blanketflower continues to bloom:
Butterfly-weed isn't very impressive from afar, but amazingly brilliant in color up close:
I didn't notice the ants until uploading the picture:
I have a few of these flowering shrubs (camellias, perhaps?):
This one is decades old; the others are younger and not so full:
Pineapple sage is just starting to bloom:
These hardy mums, which I got from my mom, are very common in our neighborhood:
They bloom twice a year. Here is a close-up:
Aster and Mexican Bush Sage help conceal an ugly downspout:
She also gave me a collapsible salad spinner, which will come in handy with the lettuce I'm growing this fall, and a birthday card (below) with about 20 kinds of annual and perennial flower seeds embedded in it!
(Excuse kitty legs in background, please!)
My dear friend Katherine, who I've written about here many times before, gave me this AMAZING (and HUGE -- see picture with me for scale!) bat house:
I am sooooo excited about this, especially since we have a terrible mosquito problem! I've seen bats flying around the neighborhood at night when I take the dog on walks, so it shouldn't be too hard to attract them to our backyard. 
I'm really excited about using this water to refill the pond when needed and water plants!
Here is the graveyard in our front yard:
The vampire bat is hanging from a huge branch that recently fell from a tree. We just stuck it in the ground.
It's extra creepy now, isn't it?
I have tombstones and rats in some of my large flowerpots.
I made these monster-themed cocktail napkins for Katherine for her birthday yesterday (patterns from Sublime Stitching). She loves Halloween, too!
Happy Tuesday! 
The beautyberry in the back has been stripped by the birds, but they haven't discovered the one in the front yet:
The beer bottle garden features purple with its elephant ears and coral bells:
My endless summer hydrangea has morphed from Wedgwood blue flowers to lavenderish-pinkish flowers over the course of the last few months (interestingly, without any soil amendments):
Mexican bush sage is blooming for the second time this year:
I had no idea this was a re-blooming iris!
Eggplants give us a double shot of purple. First the flowers:
Then the pretty vegetables:
