I made this salad entirely with ingredients from my garden. Besides lettuce, tomatoes, onionn and basil I added a Freak of Nature Garden newbie, a white carrot.

I bought the seeds from Territorial Seed Co. but didn't have much luck with them thanks to Miss Kitty and her feline friends.

White satin is the name of this variety. It certainly is striking: completely white with a green top. However, it was less sweet than a typical orange carrot. I prefer the purple carrots I grew last year.

This is an Italian Red Torpedo onion I grew from Ed Hume seeds. It's another newbie in the Freak of Nature Garden.

The onion is very strong and white inside. I really like it. It slices very thin, great for a salad. Despite its red exterior I'd liken it more to a strong white onion than a red/purple salad onion.

I'm in the middle of harvesting my beans and peas. This year I grew something new and something new-to-me.

In the new category are Yin Yang beans (above) from Territorial Seed Company. These beans bear a striking resemblance to the ancient Chinese symbol of harmony. Territorial says they are "serenely textured with a mild flavor" but so far I've just been admiring them.

In the new-to-me category I grew peas for the first time. Am I sorry I waited so long. I sowed Ed Hume's little marvel bush peas. While they could have used a fence or something else to climb on I have no complaints.

The peas sprouted and grew quickly and are producing fat pods faster than I can eat them (which is usually raw.)

I'll try a different bean next year but I'm definitely coming back for more little marvels (below).

I'm getting just a little annoyed with this weather we've been having. I keep having to remind myself it's August.

So, I was happy when my sunflowers started blooming. This variety is called Ring of Fire from Territorial Seed Company. It's only about four feet high. The flowers are small and you can see for yourself the interesting color pattern.

What's missing from this picture? The green sunflowers and giant sunflowers I planted behind Ring of Fire. They have long since been destroyed by digging cats.

This is my second year of growing sunflowers and I'm totally in love with then. Next year I'll try again.

With a guard dog.

I harvested my first corn last night. This is the first time I've grown edible corn (last year was Indian corn) and I cradled it like a proud parent.

And then I ate it.

I can report that Territorial Seed Company's Bon Appetit Hybrid is excellent. The white and yellow ear (I only plucked one from a stalk that had fallen over in our recent storms) was fully developed.

I grew my very small patch close together in my alley. Some of the stalks got overshadowed by bigger ones but I think that helped the pollination.

A stolen flax plant. A snatched hanging planter from a front porch on Mothers Day. Mysteriously disappearing artichokes. A handful of Japanese maples ripped out of the ground. A birdbath made off with. Garden thievery is a thriving economy here, it seems.

South Sound gardeners who have been the victims of plant theft contacted me in larger than expected numbers after I wrote last week about the Japanese maple stolen from Deborah Jordan's South Tacoma front yard.

Clearly there are gardeners who need to lament the thefts. I received a dozen e-mails and as many phone calls about various plants, trees, and even a bird bath, that have been stolen from our readers.

So how do you keep plants from thieves? Well, as Connie Skager of Watson's Nursery told me last week, you really need to plant valuable plants out of sight in your back yard. But staking works too. Anchor the plants to the ground and thieves will have a more difficult time pulling them out (but that does sound sort of unattractive). Short of that, good luck. I'm afraid our yards, and our plants, are vulnerable to anyone with bad intentions wandering by.

But I wonder, readers, have you done anything to keep your valuable plants from being stolen? Cement them in? Stage boulders around them? What have you done? E-mail me at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com or call me at 253-597-8270.

Now, then, a moment of plant therapy. So many readers told me this week they were glad to talk or write about the thefts. Here's what they had to say:

Peggy Duncan: "Yes, while my daughter and son-in-law were away at work, someone stole a special plant right from their front yard. They came armed with a shovel and just dug it out. It was a special flax plant that we took the time to hunt for them at their new home. It was not a very big plant, but it was the only plant someone took. Why would someone go to the end of a road where the houses are secluded and steal plants?"

Cheryl Livingston: "You asked if anyone else had a plant stolen. The answer is YES. I received a beautiful variegated geranium the day before Mothers Day of 2007. It was in a cedar basket and was purple and white. We hung it on our front porch the eve of Mothers Day. I awoke on Sunday morning, headed out to get the News Tribune, and noticed my beautiful basket was gone. I hope some mother or wife had a great Mothers Day since it started my day off on the wrong foot. Thanks for letting me vent and I learned a lesson. Now we hang the baskets out on the day of Mothers Day and not the night before!"

Bonnie Schwab: "I went to McDonald's for my morning coffee and newspaper around 8 a.m. (Saturday Aug. 16). In reading the paper I scanned the article on the stolen Hapanese maple. It caught my interest because I have/had one in my front yard. The reason I say (have/had), you guessed it, one hour I was gone and when I got home "no Japanese laceleaf maple". I live in a gated community so that puts NO BOUNDRIES as to where they will go."

Marilyn Boyle: "Your article in Saturday's News Tribune brought up a very painful subject. I had a very mature Japanese maple planted in a large, expensive Asian pot at the top of our driveway in Gig Harbor. I adored this maple and thought it added so much to ambiance of the entry to our home. One day I came home from work and the entire pot with maple was gone. I could see the drag marks on the driveway. It must have taken at least three people and a truck to remove the pot. I contacted the sheriff's dept and they said it is a very common theft. Needless to say we now place nothing of value at the top of the driveway."

Debbie Regala: I haven't had a plant stolen but did have a birdbath stolen about 2 years ago. It was a large concrete one (3-4 feet tall and about 2 feet in diameter). It had taken three strong guys to place it in the garden on the side of my house in the late 1980's so I was quite surprised when I saw it missing one morning. There was a clear 'path' marking where it had been dragged through the garden, across the sidewalk and across the parking strip. I'm sure this was a planned theft not a random act. It would have taken someone with at least two strong accomplices and a big truck to haul it away. I keep looking but haven't seen it in another yard yet."

Nina Rook: "The first couple of years that I planted my parking strips, whole artichoke plants went missing. ... Late season, full grown. I planted more, and let them go to seed for the visual effect -- but would discover headless stems. I came up with a solution -- eat them myself!"

This just in from the city of Tacoma, a community garden tour. Check it:

2nd annual Tacoma Community Garden Tour slated for Aug. 23
Discover some of Tacoma’s hidden treasures from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, during the 2nd annual Tacoma Community Garden Tour.

Passport maps for self-guided tours will be available at Tacoma’s Proctor Farmers Market the day of the event. You can also e-mail growingconversation@gmail.com, or pick up maps at TAGRO headquarters, 2201 Portland Ave., Gate 5, Tacoma.

A bike tour guided by the Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club will depart from the Proctor Street entry of the Proctor Farmers Market at 11 a.m. Please come at least 15 minutes early to fill out a waiver. Riders will have the opportunity to ride back to the Proctor Farmers Market. The route is approximately 10 miles over mostly flat terrain, though there are some moderate hills. Helmets are required; bring your own snacks and water.

Tour stop locations include:
Proctor Farmers Market, South 27th & Proctor
(bike tour meet-up and/or pick up your map)
North Proctor & 21st
Franklin Park, South 12th & Puget Sound Avenue (far south corner of park)
Guadalupe Land Trust’s La Grande garden, South 18th & G
Neighbors Park community garden, South 8th & I
The Hub, 203 Tacoma Ave. S. (discounts for tourgoers on local food specials)

Get your passport map stamped at all four gardens and receive a free plant, courtesy of the Pierce Conservation District, at the tour’s final garden stop at South 8th & I streets. There will also be several community booths at this stop.

In celebration of community gardens and local food, tourgoers who show their passport map on Saturday will get a 50 percent discount on special local food dishes at The Hub, 203 Tacoma Ave. S.

I still haven't seen Heath Ledger's final performance in "Batman" but I thought of him and my niece, Heather, when I shot this photo.

This is my heath and heather garden. A single heath or heather by itself isn't impressive and even a patch of the same variety doesn't have much impact. But, if you have the space, a group of them with contrasting foliage color makes a painter's palette.

In this collection I have a blue star juniper growing in the middle to add even more color.

In order to really be effective you need a hillside or an elevated spot to view it though I shot this photo from ground level.

Over the winter I used one of my raised beds as an organic dump. I wasn't intending to make a compost heap - a skill I've never been able to master. It was just a handy place to dump unused squash, old corn cobs, rotten tomatoes and withered potatoes.

I figured it was an earth-friendly way to enrich the soil and keep material out of the landfill.

Come late spring I tilled the soil and carefully planted rows of onions, carrots and beets.

They never had a chance.

As soon as the warm weather started all those corn, tomatoes, squash and potatoes came to life.

I resisted the invasion at first, pulling the seedlings up left and right. But then I noticed a curious thing. The seeds I planted weren't going anywhere.

And so, I gave up. Last night, I harvested my first batch of red potatoes. They were actually causing the ground to rise by several inches. I kept digging and they kept coming.

Now, I'm waiting to see what my mystery tomatoes and squash will turn out to be.

I've learned a few things from this event: seeds can survive a wet Northwest winter and those exact seed sowing depths we're given don't mean much.

But mostly, I've learned sometimes it's better to just let nature take its course.

Here's a picture of the my potatoes with a hose for scale:

It's been awhile since I checked with the happenings at the Freak of Nature vegetable garden.

In short, one raised bed was rendered nearly useless by cats, cold weather and deer and the other, which I loaded up with garden debris from last year, went nuts with beets, lettuce, beans and anything else that wasn't overwhelmed by rogue potatoes.

A good gardener would have removed the potatoes but for awhile it looked liked they were the only thing going to make it. Now, there is a several inch high hump in the middle of the bed as if something huge is trying to escape. That's going to be quite a potato crop.

Here's a section of my lettuce crop:

As for my tomatoes, they all seem to be doing well, not just many ripe ones so far. One plant that has been prolific is called glacier. Here's a photo:

They are about two inches long, sweet and grow in clusters. I'm still waiting for my brandywine, momotaro, and sweet 100's to ripen. I've had a couple of sungolds and a striped roman ripen. One start I got from L'Arche was labled white current but it isn't. Still waiting to see what that becomes.

In the pumpkin category I have several little cinderellas growing. I've never grown an orange pumpkin before so I'm not sure if this what they are supposed to look like at this stage.

I'll be back this week with more updates.

The hills are on fire this time of year and I couldn't be happier. Not really on fire, just blooming with Epilobium angustifolium, aka fireweed.

My earliest memories of Washington state are of hillsides covered with the magenta colored plants. And the bubbleator at the Seattle Center.

My mom has the same fascination for the plant. Here's her greenhouse, surrounded by the tall spiky plant.

I have a couple growing in my garden this summer. I guess it's just a matter of time before I too have a fireweed plantation.

Deborah Jordan contacted the newsroom with a sad story of plant thievery. Someone stole a Japanese laceleaf maple from her South Tacoma yard last week. The tree burglar sauntered up and yanked it right out of a prominent garden bed. The real sting? It was a Mother's Day gift from her children.

"I have 9 million plants in my yard and they had to take that one," said Jordan when I talked to her about the theft.

She took matters into her own hands and posted an open letter, or a tree manifesto of sorts, for the thieves telling them what kind of care the Japanese maple requires (vitamin B and rich, organic soil) and she also included a snarky little message that the universe will most certainly give a fun little payback for thievery (so take that!).

"If they drive by, yelling at them is going to do nothing, maybe guilting them will do something," she said, laughing about the note she posted. Well, at least she has a good sense of humor about it.

I called Watson's Nursery to see if they had heard of any other Japanese maple thefts. Guess what? It's not unusual.

"It's a continuing problem," said Connie Skager who works at the nursery. "Japanese maples are stolen all the time. They’re kind of expensive. People like to put them in their front yard because they’re attractive and unusual. That just makes them susceptible to being stolen," she said.

She added, "Tacoma's had a real problem this year. Between the Japanese maples and fountains and bird baths that are stolen out of front yards, someone is doing a heck of a business out there."

Advice for how to protect an expensive tree? Plant it in the backyard, said Skager with a half laugh. Short of that, stake it or make it impossible to rip out. "If it's not established or staked down, it's easy to steal. If it's been growing there for a few years, it's harder to take out."

So has anyone else had plant thievery? Let us know.

Former TNT photographer Bruce Kellman, who retired earlier this year, tipped us off to a tour of private railway gardens, an event hosted by the Puget Sound Garden Railway Society.

The tour is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 16 and 17. The tour is a self-guided wander about of a dozen private railway gardens from Tacoma to Everett. Cost is $10 and a map and details can be found if you click right here.

In Pierce County, the homes of Dave Kiesig, in Orting, and Carol and Pete Comley, in Bonney Lake, will be open for garden train voyeurs.

According to Kellman, the "Kiesig layout has a fabulous look with many tracks and lots of buildings and miniature plants. The Comleys run miniature steam engines, some fueled by real coal."

Little sproutlets, guru gardener Ed Hume is inviting you to his educational garden in Puyallup. Never been? Get yourself there.

Details here from Ed Hume's people:

Sunday August 17th
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Ed Hume's Educational Garden, 11504 58th Ave E.
Puyallup (off Canyon)
Adults $10, Children $5 -- all proceeds go to the food bank
(For tickets and information, call Tanya 253-460-2841)

Enjoy a guided tour of the garden and seed factory with Ed Hume!
Autographed books "Gardening with Ed Hume" half price!

For Children of all ages: Maze; Quiz Garden; Insect eating plants; Punch and cookies; Scavenger Hunt; Art projects for children to make; Games; Face Painting; Artists in Action

Spring? Summer? Well. Hmmm. I got a funny email from Sue Goetz, one of our garden writers and the talent behind Creative Gardener in Gig Harbor. She reports she has two mismatched crops, spring peas and summer corn... at the same time. Geesh. Sun? Hello?

Funny note from Sue and photographic evidence here:

Ok...so first here is the proof of a very bizarre garden year...two shots taken today August 1st. The close up shows the peas on the vine are now just ready to pick...while the corn is starting to silk in the background. A cool weather spring crop ripening with a warm weather summer crop...go figure.

A question: What are your vegetables doing? Anyone seeing success like Stacey Mulick, with her tomatoes (scroll down for that post). My herbs are little-shop-of-horrors abundant (like they could eat me as I harvest them), but my tomatoes and zucchini? Eh. Lame. Will we just have to contend with a frosty harvest in late October this year? Thoughts? When was the last time summer was like THIS? I don't even remember.

Note: Craig Sailor is off this week, so I'm blogging solo here, and also blogging here. Anyone have any garden events I can write up? Email me. You know you wanna.

This just in from Laura Pittman-Hewitt, of Ambergardens, a regular nursery vendor at the Tacoma Farmers Market:

Hey, I'm going to be making lavender wands at my booth this Thursday 8/7 & will have materials & instructions for people who want to learn. People can just come watch, make one, or take stuff home to do later. There will be a $5 charge for complete "lavender wand" kits that includes fresh lavender, ribbon & instructions.

I also now have culinary lavender available, both bundled flowers & dried buds in a spice jar with recipes.

Also, I'll have fresh garlic bulbs, as well as several varieties of fresh & dried lavender.

hope to see you!

I'll be there. How about you?

UPDATE: Laura emailed to tell me what lavender she'll have for sale at the market tomorrow. She says:

I'm getting pretty low on plants now. I have 20 or less each of Grosso, Royal Velvet, Blue Cushion, Loddon Blue, Hidcote Giant, Silver Frost. Have 40 or more of Jean Davis, Hidcote (some are newer cuttings though so not very big yet), Spanish, Alba (not ready for another week or so). I have small quantities of Provence, Cascade Velvet, Victorian Amethyst, Spanish viridis that will be available in a few weeks.
I have a number of lavender cultivars on my property so if someone wants a particular variety, they can contact me - I may have it to grow from cuttings for them.
I am bringing lots of Grosso fresh cut lavender bundles to market tomorrow.

We sometimes report on the green-thumb setbacks of Stacey Mulick, our newsroom crime diva girl. Today? She reports success. We applaud her gynormous tomatoes (Don't get me started on how fugly mine are. Yellow, small, and... pathetic).

Tomato news from Stacey:

It’s not been the best of summers for tomatoes, especially with last week’s more fall-like clouds and temperatures.

But I must say, my two tomato plants are growing wildly. We planted two varieties of grape tomatoes that we bought in May at the Puyallup Farmers Market.

The tag on one said it was for smaller spaces. The other one has completely outgrown the spiral wire support that initially helped provide some stability. Now, I’ve got branches going along the grass line and into the other tomato plant. It’s crazy but promising. (I’m glad I talked my husband out of trying three tomato starts. We would not have had the room.)

The only thing I did differently with my tomatoes this year is fertilize them once in July, I believe, with a tomato fertilizer.

Up until now, though, we’ve only had a handful of ripened tomatoes to pluck off. And they were pretty teeny at that.

I’ve got several dozen green tomatoes ripening on the vines right now and more yellow flowers still blooming. I only hope enough sunshine will bless the South Sound for the remainder of the summer to get a bountiful crop before the weather turns for good.

Here, a photo, see for yourself.