An artichoke blossom blooms in a backyard garden in Cascade Park. Artichokes are as beautiful if you let them go to blossom.

One day's harvest from my garden on Sept. 19, 2012.

Otto and Finn loved my tomatoes and had fun picking out the largest and most tasty!

My largest tomato from my garden this year — an heirloom Brandywine! Delicious!

Partial harvest from Nancy Harrison-Pinkney's garden 2012 in Vancouver.

One of my better big bad boy brandy wine tomatoes from Nancy Harrison-Pinkney's garden 2012 in Vancouver.

Harry F. R. Soderlind's Corn and Pumpkin Patch.

I have 3 blueberry plants. At the height of production I was picking at least 1 cup of berries every other day. In the picture are some of the biggest. I wash and freeze them for later use as an afternoon snack.

Calypso beans. My daughter asked if we would take care of 6 plants for her.

We have 6 cucumber plants in a 7 foot section. These are some of the 121 cucumbers harvested so far. I canned 7 pints of dill pickle spears, plus the equivalent of 19 pints of spicy bread and butter pickles. The rest are eaten with homemade hummus, in salads, or given away to neighbors and friends.

Scarlet runner beans. We had 4 plants growing on 2 trellises. The plants got so big, the trellises were falling down. We had to prop them up with sticks.

Bought a pack of seeds. It said the plants would get about 5 feet tall. NOT !! Most are between 8 and 10 feet tall. We're harvesting the seeds to feed the birds this winter.

Tomorrow we'll be making fresh salsa from these Roma tomatoes.

\ Lemon cucumbers, regular cukes, zucchini and sweet 100 tomatoes make this silly veggie face.

*I Heart tomatoes* From my garden in Woodland.

I planted beans as a novelty and they grew to be a yard long, but they taste great!

Gabby Magyar believes the tomatillos by the wall of green beans in her grandmother Julie Persitz's backyard garden are "fairy bubbles" that hatch garden fairies under the full moon.

Glynda Hamilton says Mexican Sour Gherkin are considered heirloom seeds.The cukes are a darling and a fun addition to a salad or veggie tray.

Bounty from a garden — all harvested on Sept. 17.

Ethan Persitz collects giant tomatoes from this year's abundant crop to take to local foodbanks.

A 2 pound-plus pineapple tomato.

Sunnyside: Kevin Flinn's backyard garden produced this Roma tomato that resembles a swan.