So The Exorcist III was a horrible movie, but I liked it anyway. Especially for Brad Dourif's portrayal of a madman inhabiting the priest's body; they morphed his voice and it was tres creepy. My favorite line is when he gets going in his glorious evil, and finishes with "and it will.not.end!!1! That's sort of how I feel about having all this blooming color so late in the season. You can feel fall in the air here, but my flowers are denying it. And I'm glad. Food and blooms to follow, with the usual warning for dial-up peeples.

Glory! I've got a bunch. I totally grok why people grow them; when almost everything else is finished blooming, they are coming on, and just go and go and go.And yes, I know that's mold on them. I just haven't had time this month to do proper maintainence, and I'm sorry about that but glad they are still fighting.

Asters/mums. I forget which. It's odd; I had a bunch last year and they didn't come back except that which was from seed. I guess it's the same either way so long as one gets bloom in the late summer and fall.

More Morning Glories. I went to the Botanical Gardens here at the area university last year, and realized that it looks great to let MGs grow on the ground, as well as on a trellis. These are covering up a little 'problem area' that is always too dry and in which nothing else does well.

Cleome. Mine are so short! I'm jealous of the neighbor's, which are as tall as I am. I guess I started mine too late to get full height.

Asters. Again, we'll see if they come back from plant or seed next year.

Zinnias. Cheap big box store seeds that took...forever to bloom, but are worth the wait. I've got at least four different colors, which is nice this time of year as it adds variety to the garden beds.

Another movie ref: "Buuuuuurn my fingers, man." Seriously, I popped one of these into some stir-fry the other day, and dayum! The back of my mouth is still hot.

Hi there, busy bee! I like the deep color of these sunflowers, as well as the contrast they provide growing up among some shorter herbs.

Is it garish to grow purple and orange right next to each other? I guess I don't care.

Yellow Maters. Which really do have a 'buttery' taste. Mmmmmm.

When I'm feeling blue, I just go out and look at these blues, which are the giant size. They make me so happy, and the bees just love them.

Not quite ready eggplant. Damn did they take a long time to get going! But it seems they finally are; we'll see how many are done before frost and can be harvested.

Beefstakes, almost ready and I have to brag on how many fruit the plants are making this year. There will be Much Sauce come harvest time.

Phlox in shade. Yes, I still love them more than almost anything, and I'm very grateful they are coming on now.

Abyssinian gladiola, I think. It's so odd, they didn't do well last year at all. I put them, mistakenly, in a shade bed this year and voila! They bloom. Go figure. In this zone (5b), one must dig them up and store them indoors over the winter.

I have to whine a little here. Okra has a lovely bloom, but I can't seem to catch one on film. Seriously, it's like the flowers are open for all of three seconds and then they make fruit. Anyone got a good okra recipe? I don't like them prepared such that they are 'slimy.'

Some of the Volunteer Brigade tomatoes. If you recall, a literal Legion of these came up in unexpected places, wherever I used some compost. I'm not complaining, although I do wonder about the genetic engineering of these plants; nothing else can explain their profundity. Fuck it, they taste good and that's all that matters.

I'm finally getting the hang of growing broccoli. I think the trick is to not expect grocery store sizes; so long as I harvest them when they are less than fist-sized, I catch them before they go to flower. Which is pretty, and I'm letting one plant flower to seed so I can have them for next season.

It's almost September and I'm still getting "spring-performing" Lamia blooms! This is in the very deepest of shade, less than two hours of light a day. If you're a color junkie like me, this is one of the most useful plants one can own.

My first Hibiscus, year one. This little sucker really needs light, but when it gets it, watch out! This plant has 7 blooms already; I can't wait for next year. Is there a medicinal use for this plant? I'll have to look it up. I love how it is towering, and competing with the corn next to it.

Nasturtium is really fucking hardy, I'm just sayin. I lost the cukes next to them to mold (my bad, but I was really busy and just couldn't get to them with the copper treatment) but the Nastrutiums didn't mind at all. They have flowered all spring and summer for me, and added a wonderful bit of color to all my veggie beds. And they do taste fabulous; I think of them as the green version of tortilla chips.

One of the Survivors in my War with Bunnies and Deer. Sigh, this year all I'm going to harvest is some overgrown bean pods to use as seed for next year's crop. The furry fuckers ate the rest, dammit.

Aronia berries, ready for harvest. They aren't as sweet off the tree as I'd like, but I'm going to make a jelly out of them, perhaps mixing them with strawberries.

Wormwood getting ready to flower. Warning: these plants will get much bigger than you think, take care to space them well. They overtook and drowned out some other stuff I put next to them too closely.

One of seven different Coleus I've got. Let's hope I can collect some seeds. Despite their reputation, I've found that the brighter colors really do need a lot of light. This one struggled until I moved it out of semi-shade.

Sedum coming on. I think this one is "Autumn Joy," but I could be wrong. Very few plants are as useful as cut/dried display flowers after they are done. The ones last year lasted all winter in a dried outdoor display.

These sunflowers are so much smaller than I expected, but it makes them even more cute next to the aramanth and corn. I hope you can see that they are a pleasing greenish-yellow, a less common color than the standard kind. I hope to harvest a lot of seed to dry and eat. And no, that's not my foot again.

This was a very Tuff Year for sweet peppers. I'm very disappointed that I'll likely only harvest a few, including this "Black Beauty."

Ending with a little humpday sunshine. This is a second bloom from the three year old Coreopsis. Cutting back after first bloom is done really works, don't be afraid to try it on your blooming plants. That bit of purple down at the bottom is one of those sadly sterile "Wave" petunias that are in all the big box stores. They are real fighters and refuse to be crowded out, which is good if you close plant like I do.

Feel free to share your harvest time photos in the comments.