Amaranth starting to bloom

Amaranth is an ancient food plant, used by the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan cultures. Both the leaves and the seeds were used for food. Much information is available on this plant and its uses at Wikipedia.
The flowers on this small planting are just starting to open and will develop into bright pink plumes.
If I leave some of the plants after they go to seed, the birds will enjoy eating the seed.

Going to seed

Many of my plants are going to seed - basil, hyssop, agastache, nepeta, fennel, cosmos, salvias, chard, sunflowers, and more. Benefits include lots of bird activity (sunflowers especially encourage birds) and seeds for more plants. Earlier this summer I collected and sowed seeds from my salvia verbenaceae and the second generation are blooming and creating seed. This is especially good for biennials like chard. I'll now have first-year and seeding chard plants every year. One of the red chard plants has been producing seeds like crazy. The birds love this plant and lots of baby chard (pictured) are growing near the mother plant and in places where I've scattered the seeds.

Planning a swale

This section of the front yard is currently a buffer of plants along the road. I am planning on creating a swale here instead. 12 ft wide at the widest and 4 feet wide at its narrowest. I am currently making calculations on the appropriate depth and appropriate berm height. Also planning the vegetation to go in the swale and on the berm. Trees and shrubs will go on the berm (ginkgo tree, pineapple guava) and annuals and perennials go in the swale (italian parsley, daikon, bell beans, chard (biennial), valerian, thyme, lavender and more). The plants currently along the road (lavender, lavatera) will be moved to suitable sections of the swale. These plants are drought tolerant plants. This swale will help deal with the deluge of water runoff from the road during the rainy season and focus that to a target tree (ginkgo), which will offer shade from the afternoon sun. The swale will replace a section of lawn with a wider diversity of plants, create visual interest from the road side and the house side, and encourage diversity of insect and bird life.
I'll start digging as soon as the temperature cools to a more reasonable range (80s).

Corn & Squash

Ripe dent corn (Maize) "Bloody Butcher" and squash - Butternut & Trombetta.