Summer can get messy in the garden

I'm always amazed at the difference between cold and warm season gardens.  In the cold season, everything seems to stay nice and tidy, politely growing in it's designated spot.  Growing but not crowding it's neighbor.  Warm season, especially summer, is like BLAHHHHHHH, everything just oozes into each other and if there is no room, it just spills across borders and takes over another area.  Above is the vegetable bed at the preschool garden.  You can see the zucchini spilling out of the bed because it has run out of room.  Cucumbers are growing on an arch over the zucchini. We finally had to tie all of the tomato cages in the back together and to the ground to stop them from being puled over by their abundant foliage up top.  And those are not wimpy tomato cages either- those are good strong ones that I ordered because I got tired of the wimpy ones. 

These zinnias took forever to seed, but now that they are going they seem to be shoving each other out of the way. 

Sunflower- just had to show it because it is so cool.  The two year olds planted these and no they are about twice as tall as the planters. 

Ahhh, here is another shot of the warm weather crazy growth.  Pineapple sage on the right whihc has NEVER gotten this big.  My god, its a hedge.  Herbs in the front with zinnia behind.  Can't even see the Mexican feather grass behind.  It's lovely all this crowding of plants, but it can really be a surprise after the polite garden of last season.

And I had to include this last shot.  I had a battle getting the zinnias to grow this year in their designated spot in the preschool garden.  So I'm cleaning out the garden one day and I carry all the weeds over to the dumpster, and what do I find????  This zinnia growing out of a 1" hole in the ground where the locking rod for the dumpster door goes into the ground.  Just goes to show you there is NO controlling Mother Nature.