It's Almost August Already?

I was hoping all my lilies would be in blossom at the same time, and it happened! Barely, though. So I had five different colored lilies blooming together for about two days and they were beautiful.

My garden has grown quite a bit in the last month. We've been getting lots of sun and not very much rain, so I've been having to water pretty consistently. My cocoa mulch is holding up well against the weeds, but I try to get in there every day and do some maintenance weeding - my coworker calls it drive-by weeding. The middle row of plants directly in front of the gnome are all my jalapeños - about 18 plants in all.

My cayenne pepper plant has been producing steadily, but I've been plucking them off before they turn red. I have no patience! The mushroom is a new addition; I spent this past weekend in New Ulm for Bavarian Blast and picked it up at the Schell's Gift Store.

I have a ton of green tomatoes on the vine, I'm hoping they'll be ripe for the picking in another couple of weeks. I plan on canning a ton of salsa if I can get the tomatoes and hot peppers out of the garden at the same time. I've plucked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes already and heard they taste delicious. I love growing tomatoes, but don't like eating them. I'm just that way ya see?

And.........a real German gnome!

New Year, Same Old Garden

I've been super busy this Spring! My schedule just got a little lighter after last night, though. The little puppy mill Shih Tzu, Asha, that I've been fostering since the beginning of May just found her forever home last night!

My garden is quite a ways along already...but it is almost July, so that should go without saying. This being my third growing year at my NE home I'd like to think I have the neighborhood critters figured out; and so far so good! The only thing the bunnies have touched so far is my Love in a Mist, and I have plenty of those so I'm not too sad. This year I've planted bunching onions, seven varieties of tomatoes, a few varieties of hot peppers and sweet peppers, sweet & thai basil, and parsley. My dill came back like gangbusters as did my oregano, and of course the chives. I've already had to thin out all of those so as not to shade out the rest of my herbs. The cilantro came back pretty spotty, depending where the seeds landed last fall.

I have a couple new additions to the garden this year. The trellises for my morning glories...the one made of sticks was handmade by Jay, thanks Jay! They're kind of tough to see back there, but you get the gist.


And then I also added a few gnomes in homage to my German heritage. Although, these aren't quite as scary as the big ones that would walk around at Heritagefest they have been successful in keeping away the squirrels and rabbits!

I've done a bunch more work and cleaned it up since these pictures will taken, but this will have to suffice...

The Beginning...

My garden after I cleaned out the winter rubbish! So barren...