Garden Update

Here's the first good sized crop of tomatoes and zucchini from the garden. 

And here is a look at what the garden is like today. Compare that with the previous photo... Actually, I took this one last weekend. The storms that blew through on Friday afternoon kind of beat up the tomatoes, so they aren't quite as tall now. 

 

What I've Been Up To in the Back Yard

This year, my 4 foot X 4 foot garden has the following:

• grape tomato
• yellow pear tomato
• beefsteak tomato
• red bell pepper
• jalapeno pepper
• yellow banana pepper
• 8-ball squash
• radishes
• flat leaf parsley
• sweet basil
• thyme
• cilantro
• green beans when the radishes are done

I took this picture earlier in the week. Everything has pretty much doubled in size as we've had plenty of rain and warm weather. 

Everything else has been blooming for a while. The begonias up front look great. I'll take a picture of them once the Asiatic Lilies open up. There have been several baby birds in the yard. A few very young cardinals and assorted "chee-chee birds" as my dad calls them. I potted dahlias this year in some new blue pots I got a good deal on and one old one I've had for ever. 

All that warm weather and rain has been sticking around. Last night my friend Elisabeth and I ran a 5K out in Blue Grass, IA. It started at 7 PM and was 86-degrees and high humidity. Elisabeth was great and ran slow with me and walked and was a great running buddy. I beat my 5K personal best by a little more than a minute. Finished in just over 43 minutes.

Well, You Missed It

"Only two things that money can't buy, That's true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Guy Clark (sung by John Denver)

I ate the first red one today. I picked it earlier this week. It was huge. So I ate half of it with just salt and pepper. The other half was sliced and put on low-fat triscuits with a little laughing cow cheese and a basil leaf. TASTY! So tasty in fact, that I didn't bother to take a picture of it.

That was such a good snack, I am sure there will be repeats. I'll take a picture then.

Goddamned Zucchini

I have so much frikkin zucchini I don't know what to do with it. I baked a loaf of zucchini bread Saturday, and shredded enough for 3 more loaves that I froze. There are 7 more good sized ones that I need to do something with. At least they keep for a long time.

I got my first red tomato today!! I am eating it with lunch tomorrow, for sure!!

Me and my bad ass tomatoes

Apparently, my tomato plants are pretty bad ass. I had two separate groups of people stop and admire them this evening. Miner has been doing a good job chasing off the rabbits and squirrels, so everything is looking quite nice.


This is the biggest green tomato I could find. I have already picked a handful or two of the little yellow pear ones. But those never made it in the house.


I currently have five 8-ball squash (round, dark green zucchini) sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to make bread or ratatouille or something. I've also harvested 3/4 of the green beans. The basil is going nuts, so if you need some, call me.



Finally, a close up of my dahlia that made it back from the brink...a result of erratic watering and then its sunny spot on the west side of the deck turning shady when the neighbor's fence went up.

Dag Nab It

eh...apparently that's not the first time I've used that subject for a post.

I am torn. Why is it so hard to make a decision? I really would like to have my yard fenced so Miner can play in all of the back yard. I am thinking at this point, it won't make the yard too little. And I think I can get most of it done with the help of my neighbors and maybe Brian (hint, hint).

Guess I have another conversation to have with Rick.

What to do about the fence

So, I bought all the stuff to do the fence a while back. After purchasing, I learned my new neighbor was putting up a fence, but she didn't say what kind. I was thinking, well, if she puts up a chain link fence, I will still want the fence panels. She put up a 6 ft. privacy fence. Now I am not sure what I want to do. I can always return the stuff to Lowes, I just have to convince Rick to help me.

It looks nice, and I can still do a flower bed in front of it with some trellises or something. I am just not sure what to do about the space between the garage and the fence.


Thoughts:

• No fence of my own
• Make that whole space along the fence into flowerbed
• Put down gravel in the space between the garage and fence
• Other ideas people?

Update: I checked with Rick, and he will help me take the fence panels back next week. Then checked with Chandra (new neighbor) and she is cool with me putting a flower bed all the way to the fence. :)

I KNEW there was an orange one!

When I bought these near dead lillies last year, I was pretty sure that I got two white ones and an orange one. Last year, however, I never got to see a bloom on the orange one...and I began to doubt if I really did get an orange one. Well, I did! The lillies opened this week.

Here's a couple Miner pictures, too. He's looking quite puppy-like in this one on the blue dog couch in the basement.

Summer of the Deck

I have declared this to be the Summer of the Deck. Last night, I had 8 friends over for grilled spicy pork tacos (recipe care of Cook's Country). It was a great time.

I've also decided that I want to put of some privacy fencing on the west side of my back yard. Just 6 or so panels similar to what my neighbors put up on the west side of their patio. So, I am off to Menard's this morning to price that out.

They're White!!

Late last summer, my friend Marcy gave me a bucket full of irises from her neighbor. We didn't know what color they were, so I've been waiting patiently to find out. There have been buds on them for weeks and over night, one finally opened.


Miner doesn't seem real enthused about them.

Totally Gross

My gutters needed to be cleaned. They were overflowing and flooding my flowerbeds. So, my neighbor, Rick, loaned me his big tall ladder and helped me with the hard, scary, high parts. There were massive amounts nasty mushy wet leaves. I filled up a little 13 gallon trash can 2 times with that disgusting mess. Guh-ross!

I'm Taking a Breaaaaak!

I can only focus on school work for just so long. So, here's what I did to give myself a break today between rain showers.


This is a Dahlia plant in the terra cotta pot. Those three little green mounds are perenial groundcovers called "blue star" something or other. You can walk on them. Given the fact that just to the right of where this picture was taken is the fire pit and Miner and others gather around it and sometimes stand in the mulch, I am thinking this is what I am going to plant all around that area. Plus, it smells lovely. I also planted a daylilly, put a trailing petunia-type flower in my hanging baskets and potted three geraniums.


On the NW corner of the house, I was looking for something to go with the bleeding hearts (which, by the way, got their bloom on this weekend). This is a geranium that is hardy in this area, so it will come back every year, too.


Finally, the Asiatic lillies are coming up. Begonias always did well on my front porch in pots, so I thought I'd try planting them in front of the lillies.

Miner just hung out most of the day. He really wanted to eat the blood meal I put around all the new plants to keep the rabbits and squirrels away. Then we went for our walk. Now, just chilling in the living room, checking the internets and going to do some more reading.

New Toy, 1st Weekend of Class

Last weekend, I bought a new weed eater. The old one was gas powered and heavy and frankly, I hate it because it was an anniversary gift I didn't ask for or want 2.5 years ago. So I need to get the details on it and put it on Craig's list. The new one is under 7 lbs. and powered by an 18 volt rechargeable battery. It is great! Very quiet and easy to use. So much so, that I think I will get the leaf blower that uses the same batteries. Thank you Black & Decker for making things that short people with poor upper body strength can use.

This was the first weekend of my intersession class. I am taking "Maximizing Team Performance." I need to think of a project topic. We have the choice of working in a group or working alone. Honestly, I think if I can't pick a good topic on my own, I might just work in a group. I need to think of something along the lines of teamwork that I'd like to learn more about. This is a fun class so far.

Birds

I have a bird feeder right out my dining room window. It's a pole that has two feeders hanging off it and a hanging basket full of yellow pansies. I love it. Especially that this morning, I just saw a male and female cardinal on it. :) I spend a little extra on bird seed to get straight thistle seed for one feeder and straight safflower seed for the other. This keeps the cardinals coming and keeps the dang crows away. The crows make such a mess and run off all the other birds. That's right. I am bird prejudiced.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I wish it would quit raining. This means I am going to have to mow mid-week, because I didn't mow yesterday. Damn!

First Casualties of the Season

All I can say is I am glad I didn't find them. My neighbor Rick found 5 baby rabbits in one of the nests in my yard...the ones I keep trying to fill back up with dirt...that I don't want there precisely because I don't want baby rabbits in my yard. Rick disposed of them yesterday, but I found out today. This explains why Miner would not come when called this morning when he was sniffing around that hole. I need to mow the lawn. I never did a late fall, mow it short one last time sort of mowing...so there are some long patches of grass. Plan is one day this weekend to mow, and buy a few bags of top soil and fill in the rabbit holes and build the soil up where the drain tile is exposed. Really, I am just greatful that I didn't have to deal with the baby rabbits...as in clean up the mess when Miner would have eventually gotten hold of them.

Pousson. Amy Pousson.

It's official. Actually, it was official on the 16th. The decree was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home yesterday.

I am feeling really well. I have a great sense of "good, now I can get on with my life."

Plus, I came home to the very beginnings of spring. The grass is starting to get green, and my irises and daffodils are starting to come up. I think I need to start my annuals from seeds inside this weekend.

Say Hello to My Little Friend...

I've wanted a garden gnome for quite some time, but was looking for one that was just right - preferably not bright colors being the main thing. This weekend, I found one on sale. Little gnome man will go outside when there isn't ice and snow in my flower bed. Miner doesn't seem to be too excited about the new addition.

Blustery Day

Is that a word? Blustery? Anyway, it's super windy here and there is a chance of snow tonight. I pulled the last of the green tomatoes off the vine and cut the plants down. It's too windy to mess with raking leaves, so that will have to wait for another day.

There's a pile of dirt and rocks on the concrete next to the garage. It's left over from the flower bed building. A friend gave me a 5 gallon bucket full of irises that her neighbor divided. 2 or 3 months ago, I planted the ones that looked good and healthy and tossed the rest on the pile. This morning, I noticed that there were about 6 or 8 of them that had sprouted up. So I pulled them out of the junk pile and planted them. Who knew a pile of dirt, rocks and dead house plants sitting on a concrete slab was a fertile environment for bearded irises. We'll see how they survive this winter. Worst that could happen is they don't make it...but they were free, so no huge loss.

Fall is Here

As much as I hate winter in the midwest, I LOVE fall (and spring, too). Summer was strange. Rainy, so it screwed up the timing on vegetable gardening. It's been cool, then warm, then cool again. Amazingly, the $0.40 geraniums I bought from Km@rt are looking awesome.


And the front door is all dressed up for fall, too. (Note my reflection - I've started wearing overalls when working in the yard. An homage to Grandpa.)


Finally, a photo of the massive entertainment center that took over our basement for at least a month. I think David did a great job, but then, I am biased.