The Garden Speaks: "Stop Your Damn Whining"

For a little while here, I've been writing posts about starting my fall garden. The more discerning among you may have noticed just a hint of whining. (OK, more than a hint.) Although the main message has been about how I want to be proactive about getting the fall garden started, the undercurrent has been "I'm soooooo done with summer."

I think the garden got tired of my damn complaining, because it's started talking back to me. (OK, that's an overstatement. I can't hear the plants actually speaking. No need to call a shrink.) Let's rephrase that. It's demonstrating to me that summer in Arizona actually has something to offer.

When I went to water the sweet potatoes this morning, I was greeted by this beauty. It was quite a surprise. The sweet potatoes have been going gangbusters now for quite a while, but there's never been any hint of flowers. I'm hoping that this is the first of many:

And my plant-it-and-leave-it sunflower is like a postcard. I planted a few seeds in a pot a while back and put it where it would get water from the lawn sprinklers. That's it. I've literally done nothing for it since, and I got this in return:

And that's just the new flowers. The okra flowers have been coming fast and furious for weeks and weeks now. Check out these exotic beauties:

And the heat loving melons have a way of showing off too:

OK, garden. I get it. I get it. Summer in Arizona ain't all bad. I'm still looking forward to fall, but I'll try to be less whiny about it. Just don't actually start talking to me, OK?