Summer garden

In July, I do not urge people to come admire the vegetable garden. It is not as beautiful as it was in the Spring, all green with promise. The plants are worn out now, after producing and fighting drought and other enemies. There are tomatoes with yellowing or brown arms, some broken with the weight of the fruits. The sweet potatoes crowd luxiariantly into the path--summer is their time to shine. The chard are so hardy and hearty, they keep producing no matter how much we eat, growing in each other's spaces, the outer leaves falling over with their own weight, with holes where the sun has burned them. The squash droop and turn yellow and die after only a few fruits, succumbing to borers and squash bugs in spite of my father's repeated efforts with organic insecticides.