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...

Varmints

So after I posted the picture of my baby last week some varmint came along and snatched it. I guess we weren't meant to be together. But I've been sent a new little baby to help me heal. Here she is...she's covered in cayenne pepper, maybe that will keep away the baby-stealers.

These are my tabascos, there's a lot of them and I can't wait to eat them.

This is my herb garden. My dill is turning into caraway and I don't care for caraway. So I'm letting some of the seeds dry out and fall so they come up again in a couple weeks. The others I'm plucking off and composting (throwing under my deck) so that the dill doesn't completely take over.

Here's the veggie garden, it's coming along nicely. Some of the kohl rabi that the rabbits snipped off have come back, though they're all still pretty small - they're to the left just behind the marigold border. I only have one morning glory coming up on the trellis. My thai basil is nuts, I love it. The Love in a Mist are mostly done blooming for now, they'll be back though. Pretty soon I'm gonna start digging up the potatoes. Next week maybe...

Mama's So Proud!

Here's my first eggplant, isn't it beautiful?!

This is my second of these super hot red peppers, the first one was snipped off and discarded by a squirrel or rabbit.

There's two different shades of purple in here, they don't call them Bee Bombs for nothing. They attract SO many bees to my garden, it's fabulous because everything is getting pollinated.

These are my Love in a Mist.

Mean Rhubarb Lady

See below for a picture of the ridiculously large rhubarb. It's been pelted down by some hard rains and wind...but still?! Some of those leaves are honestly so big I could make a dress out of them. Lady, why are you not harvesting your rhubarb EVER? Why do you get mad when people even GLANCE at your lot filled with gargantuan rhubarb and creeping charlie. By the way, Lady, your neighbors don't appreciate your lawn of creeping charlie - it seeds itself into our yard. Take care of that, would ya?

This is the trellis my boyfriend, Jay, made for me. Isn't it fabulous? Jay is my hero.

This is my baby boy, Robbie. I just got him groomed because he had his Doggie Fair on Saturday. It was put on by the rescue organization that I got him from. All the adoptive families with their babies were there...and the purpose was for Robbie to see his foster mom - but I didn't see her there. But Robbie did find the biggest dog there and tried to hump him. It goes without saying but Robbie had a blast and can't wait till the next big dog comes along so he can try to hump him, too.

Summer Solstice

So today is Summer Solstice which means it's the longest day of summer. It's been mostly cloudy and muggy today, but I'm hoping that means we'll get a good downpour.

Here's the small flower garden next to our porch. About four or five years ago my grandma gave me some unknown bulbs from her garden and they turned out to be four different colors of Asiatic lilies. I planted them at my other house but split them when that house was sold. This is their second summer at this place and they're doing well. There's a big rose bush in between them that blocks out some sun. I don't even like rose bushes but I keep it in there just cuz. I want to dig it up this fall and move it over along the porch to extend this area a little, it's getting a little too crowded! In the back are the day lilies and in the front are the seedum, Coral Carpet, that I transplanted in early Spring. I love seedum.

Here's my veggie garden. At the bottom of the shot are the Love in a Mist flowers that are growing like weeds, but easy to control so I'm not worried about them taking over. In the middle of the flowers, kinda to the left, I planted a chocolate mint plant. They seriously smell just like you would expect by their name. My plan for them was to make a mojito inspired drink with them, I have yet to do it. To the far left along the rocks are the marigolds that I planted from seeds that I saved from last year's marigolds. My marigolds last year got huge! They were like big bushes defending my garden from rabbits. That is the reason I now love marigolds when I couldn't stand them before. The next row to the right are the jalapeños I planted by seed. They've been loving the heat and if they all produce by season's end I'm gonna have more jalapeños than I'll know what to do with. The next row which is accented by a big plant in the middle (store bought transplant) is my Thai basil. The ones I started by seed are still pretty small, only two leaves each. I'm guessing they'll be pretty big in a couple of months. The last, barely discernible, row on the right are my green onions. They're about 8-10" tall right now. The big plant you see in the upper right corner is a potato. I have five potato plants I think. They're huge and require more dirt than I have, so I've been just letting them go. They've been flowering so I'm hoping I'll be able to harvest at least a few potatoes from each of the plants since they're all different colors and kinds. There's also some kohl rabi in there that are still pretty small yet.

This is the other side of my veggie plot. This is all mostly perennials that were there before me. You can't really see the colors so much as they're all reaching towards the sun and away from me. In front are the buttercups and they've been dwindling down, they were crazy last week. There's also some day lilies in there, but those things are everywhere and so very boring. In the back by the door are the Chinese Lanterns. Then I have no idea what the rest of the stuff is until it blooms. I have a little rhubarb plant in there that I transplanted last summer. There's a plot next to our garage and the lady that owns it lets her rhubarb go to seed every year and never harvests any of it. They honestly get so HUGE, it's ridiculous. So that's how I got my little plant, it seeded itself in my yard and I moved it. So there, Mean Lady Who Doesn't Share Her Rhubarb!

And last but certainly not least is my little herb garden. You can see the dill has gone nuts! A few of them are already going to seed which means I'll have a new crop to harvest again in a couple of months. Behind the dill are the chives. To the right of the chives are the cilantro - the taller ones are the volunteer ones and they're going to seed already. Then I have the small ones in rows that you may, or may not see, that I planted by seed. In the front right corner is my sage. Back right corner is oregano. To the left of the chives, where you can't see, is my sweet basil. And hidden up front in the left is a sweet pepper plant, they're supposed to be little round red peppers. I can't wait to make salsa and pico de gallo this summer!

Well, that's how my garden is looking today. It's been a struggle trying to keep up with all the weeds. Once a week I dedicate some serious time to one of my four areas; the veggies, herbs, small flower garden, or the HUGE perennial area along the property line. It's been mostly maintenance since then and I generally don't mind weeding, but it gets old. And every once in awhile, without looking, I'll wrap my hand around a stinging nettle plant. Such is life!