My flowers have been amazing this year, and have attracted a lot of butterflies to the front yard as well as two little yellow finches who are nesting in one of the bushes in the front bed. I trimmed the other bush to resemble a bonsai tree after it was attacked by some sort of weird wormy things last year that took out chunks of it. It looks better than it did, but I will be very curious to see how it looks next year after it gets a chance to grow back a bit. Once it cools down this fall and the finches have moved out of the other bush, I will probably trim that one up as well. My herbs have also done remarkably well this year.
It seems that my tomatoes are late in turning red. I will have two I can pick next week, but the rest are still green, and not as many as I would have liked. Same story with my cucumbers. We had a lot of rain this year, and I wonder if it has resulted in my plants being stunted. But, the thyme, sage, and basil have almost made up for my lack of tomatoes! My cabbages seem to be doing well, although the cabbage worms turned two heads into lace while I was on vacation for a week!
I'm planning on planting a couple of rose bushes out front next year, and maybe trying some earlier producing tomatoes in the back next time. I had some success a few years back with the Paul Robeson black tomatoes. I might try those again. And I might plant some daffodils and tulips for next spring, too!!
I swear, gardening is like a form of meditation for me! I come back in after a few hours of working with the soil and my plants and I feel like a huge weight has lifted off of me.