It's been a long year...

at least it seems that way. It was good in many ways, we learned a couple of very hard lessons, and next year will be better.
One of the best things? My sunflower fence experiment. I planted a row of sunflowers at the outside edge of that strip between the sidewalk and the street, with two rows of beans on the inside and ran a soaker hose between the bean rows.
There was enough shade from the sunflowers that toads moved in and puttered around the beans....
Next year I will plant sunflowers the whole length of the yard on the east side. It also keeps people from noticing when I haven't mowed...
Eventually, the whole east yard will be garden, as I don't forsee grocery bills going down soon.