late may in our backyard

I was late planting this year (as always) so while the farmer's markets have squash and tomatoes already, our little garden is a tad behind schedule. BUT the berries, oh yum. They are incredible when they are almost over-ripe and warm from the sun. This is my first time growing boysenberries, and quite frankly I wasn't convinced they would survive. See, I have a decidedly haphazard way of approaching my gardening hobby so when I planted grapes and berries along the fence last summer, (totally wrong time of year to plant which I kind of knew but didn't care), I didn't actually think they'd make it through the winter. BUT THEY DID! And they grew and flowered right on schedule. I'm pretty sure I have our temperate climate to thank for most of my food producing success, but I'll take whatever help I can get.

And that purple flower with the friendly honey bee? A big, beautiful, over-ripe artichoke. Aren't the flowers sort of sea-plant-ish? We've eaten all the artichoke one could possibly stand for the season, which is hilarious because when they first started fruiting I horded them away, saving them for a special dinner or a new recipe. I didn't know that each plant (and we had 5) produced like 100 artichokes. I'm now perfectly content appreciating them in bloom, as opposed to in pasta.