I spent a whole day tending to my garden beds, which are scattered around — I have eggplant, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and herbs in the west end, a small personal plot in the community garden at the Humphrey Calder Community Center, and a couple of much bigger beds on southside, where I garden with Patricia Stansbury of Epic Gardens.

I thought I’d be picking some green beans on southside today, and some beets, but was surprised to find that my first bed of beans hadn’t produced much since the last time I was there.  They are slowing down, and I need to decide when to pull them up and put in something else. I already have the next bed of beans planted and it has just come up, replacing the peas and lettuce I grew in the spring. (I also have a small bed at the HCCC that produced enough for a couple of servings).

But much to my surprise, there were quite a few new potatoes in a small bed I had given up on. They’ll be popular with the family. And I wandered out into the tall weeds under the power lines and found a couple quarts of blackberries. Shared some with Patricia and brought the others home to make a cobbler and eat raw. I’m a big, big fan of wild blackberries.

I also came home with a modest amount of arugula, picked from the now-stalky plants that are well into the task of making seed pods. There were a half-dozen small plum tomatoes, as well. I decided to give the beets and carrots one last thinning, and brought home several big handfuls. The golden beets and the danvers carrots, roasted together and dressed with a vinaigrette, are good with raw arugula and a little feta cheese.

For the first time this season, I used a little liquid fish-and-seafood fertilizer (2-3-1) to give the beets, chard, and eggplant a boost, and also gave a good shot to the volunteer potato leaf tomato that I picked out of the compost. It might be a Brandywine. We’ll see.

I’m holding off on picking the eggplant, so as to have some for the Byrd House Market on Tuesday.