August

A good scratch.

Yes, the mosquitoes are still here. They like Rusty.

Late summer flowers

The new bed is done.

Had some time on my hands...

Rusty's checking out mom's old knot garden, which I planted with moss and herbs. Boy did that bring back memories. Mom, searching for the perfect little plants that were just the right scale...hunting down the best moss, collecting it wherever she went. Remember the little round ones she got from the wall at Whittington Court, T?

I have a lot of "steppables" and plenty of moss to play with. Mom would love all the mosses we have! She'd also love that little silvery thing, (Scabwort), in the center, it has tiny leaves and looks like it could be santolina or sage. I'm not worried about scale, I really like the texture of that hairy moss in the hearts, though it's far too coarse for mom's standards. It's fun to play with, if the transplants don't take, I won't mind starting over.
Next I need to clean out the Oxford garden and replant it with moss. I wonder how the rest of the little gardens are doing?

Veg News

The tomatoes will make it, fingers crossed!
Beans and zucchini are coming out of our ears, yay! Where's that little vegetarian now? She needs to hurry and get home to help us eat all this good green stuff. I harvested the first kohlrabi, it was nice and crisp, despite the hot weather.
The raspberries are growing tall, and have started to flower!
This is an exciting year, gardenwise; everything has fallen into place and works well, finally! The leaves we put on in the fall made a difference, but it also just comes down to time, in two respects. First, we've been here long enough to make it work and figure it out. And second, this summer, unlike other years where I leave for a few weeks, I've spent most of my time devoted to the garden: watering, weeding, fertilizing and covering the greenhouse every night. At this very moment I feel a pull to go out there and check on things. See ya later!

It's 86 degrees, 35% humidity, sunny with a breeze at 1:00 pm.

The 90s

Hot weather has arrived. Yesterday, July 22, was the first day I was outside without the constant buzz of mosquitoes. It is now possible to sit down outside in one place for more than 30 seconds! I was finally able to enjoy some time in the lawn chair, my favorite place. Happy day! This morning I sat on the porch and read a bit of the paper. The contents of the paper were disheartening, but sitting outside without getting bitten was lovely.

The Rudbeckia is blooming, along with the Monarda, Nasturtiums, roses, and lavender. All the wild color brings bees and butterflies and hummingbirds, and plenty of grasshoppers. Rusty and Snoodly are scaring all the birds away. They were trapped in the garage yesterday morning and a little flock of grouse came by, searching for seeds in the grass.

The harvest in the greenhouse includes beans and zucchini now. Carrots and onions are ready in the box, lettuce is done. Out in the fenced garden, arugula and lettuce are ready, and a few strawberries are on the new transplants. Everything is doing well out there now that the weather has warmed.

Slammy is on a trip and I miss her.
It's 80 degrees, with a light thunderstorm passing over at 12 pm.

So pritty

Hi y'all, Snoodly here, long time no see! I've grown, and I just keep gettin' better looking, don't you think? I've got the natural eye liner, cute little rose nose pad, and gorgeous green eyes. The markings on my forehead mean something in cat language, but I can't tell you what they say, 'cause then I'd have to kill you. Well, I'll see ya later, I gotta go catch some crickets.

Boom!
July is here! The weather is great, the mosquitoes are terrible, and the garden is bloomin'! We watched the fireworks at J's coaster, and Jr. took these Outstanding photos.

Most of the flowers are bigger and better this year, the garden has finally filled in and looks so much prettier! It's a mix of wild stuff and things planted from seed, bulb or small plants. It takes a few years for the tiny plants to get established, but all the waiting has finally paid off. The mosquitoes make me want to abandon all of this though, they are driving me crazy!

It will help to mow all the tall grass, if we could get a lawnmower.

Ox-eye daisies

Snapdragons. These are doing so well this year, the plants are much bigger and somehow survived the winter.

Yarrow and bachelor buttons

Coreopsis

Gaillardia. I love this flower! It was grown from seed last year, and this year it's big and beautiful.The wild version, blanket flower.

This is my new project, another flower bed. It's so much fun working in the dirt, I have been in no hurry to finish getting all the grass and rocks out in preparation. Honey has been niggling me, trying to hurry me up, but why? Is it that pile of topsoil waiting on the lawn that the cats are using as a cat box, or could it be that he can't stand to see a project go on and on unfinished, with no seeming progress taking place? I don't know. All I do know is that I love working out in the sun, playing with rocks and dirt.

The cats love it too, when Snoodly hears the rake he comes running over to play. Here's Rusty, taking a little nap in a cool spot.J and Jr. collected some nice big rocks and I got them in place today. Next job is putting on the topsoil, then planting, then I may put on a rock mulch.

We took the plastic off the greenhouse and replaced it with row cover fabric. It breathes better.

The beans are doing great, looks like they're nearly ready to harvest. We've been eating peas, lettuce and lots of herbs. The zucchini are almost ready, but the maters are very slow. Hurry up maters!

It's 77 in the greenhouse, clouds and sun at 6 pm.

Summertime

Middle of June! How can it be?

I haven't even taken any pictures lately. We went to the car show and and Jr. got that nice shot of the Corvette and Mustang.

The weather has been alternating between very warm, and nice and cool with thunderstorms. We actually got a couple of brief downpours. Puddle making rain, it's a blessing here. Very pretty outside, green and lush, flowers blooming, but the mosquitoes are driving me nuts.

Garden update:

We had frost this month. The beans I planted out in the fenced garden got burned, even though they were covered with the blanket. Everything in the greenhouse is fine.

Potatoes are coming up out there, I thought I had dug them all up last year, but nope. I transplanted strawberries from Aunt J's garden and planted lettuce and flowers out there which are coming up slowly.

I've been harvesting radishes, bok choy, and lettuce from the box, and had the first greenhouse peas on Saturday.

Peas, zucchini, bush beans, onions, tomatoes, kohlrabi, carrots, radishes, spinach and a few flowers are in the greenhouse now. I put a tarp over part of it for shade on hot days, and that keeps the temperature down.

Animal news:

We have more birds this year, I'm sure, because there is a lot of lovely music outside, night and day. Well, it seems like night when they're singing, but the sun rises at four thirty so to them it might be morning at three.

Research on goats has made me think twice. Apparently they don't like grass and clover much, but they love trees, roses, tender tips of shrubs and pretty much everything I want to protect. They do eat some weeds, but not enough to make up for the damage they do to other stuff. Then, they turn out to be great escape artists and can undo latches and jump over fences and push through them and---what a headache!

I'd actually rather have a donkey, because they'll eat grass, and they're way cuter. But he'll need a friend, so maybe a little pygmy goat would be ok. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? The goat will be the instigator and mastermind, and the donkey will carry out his evil plans. Good luck catching them once they break out.

Rusty is behaving very badly, I don't know if he's jealous or has indigestion or if he's just a brat cat. J took down the swing support so he can't climb on the roof anymore and wake everyone up three times a night. Snoodly is behaving angelically, he's turning out to be a great cat. He's happy living out in his garage, never grumbles or demands more attention. When I pick him up he's a little rag doll, relaxing into my arms with total trust and purring up a storm. No wonder Rusty is jealous!

The fish are multiplying like mad, pretty soon the tank will be a sea of orange, as the huge school of Platy swim by, and Sharky and the bottom feeders will just be flashes of silver and brown.

It's 61 degrees, sunny at 8:30 am.

Some other news

I'm going to leave the garden for a bit to talk about some other news.

Slammy got tired of sharing with a garden gnome, so she's moved here. And now there's another blog in the family, called Z Project. See what you started, Dori?

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We got hooked up to (so-called) high speed internet. It's only been working about 30% of the time though, too many trees in the way of the signal. Boo hoo. The company is virtually unreachable on the phone, so it's quite frustrating, and I'm close to throwing their equipment off the roof. There, how do you like that, you, you, bad service internet company!!!? And I'm not paying my bill either!

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It's been a stressful summer, and I'm actually looking forward to Fall. Even to snow. (Am I crazy? What am I saying?) A nice cozy fire, a good movie, a savory pot roast for dinner with potatoes and carrots and apple pie for dessert, while the snow falls steadily outside the window. What a peaceful scene, but not likely to occur with two teenagers in the fam. Simplify, simplify, why is it so hard to simplify? It's all those after school activities, they completely mess up the dinner hour, and empty the gas tank. Should I just put a ban on them? So they can tell their kids what a mean mom I was for not letting them play basketball? I imagined such a simple, slow paced life when we moved here. A little cabin out in the snowy woods. My hermit dreams are not shared by the kids, alas, (or thank goodness.)
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Back to the garden

The potatoes are not a complete wash, I found a couple under the straw that weren't rotted, green or half eaten. I need to go and remove all the straw and see what's down there. Some of them are green because the straw is letting in light. I'll just cover up what's left with dirt.

I let Rusty in to investigate the gophers, and he got right onto their scent.

The cats follow me wherever I go, mocking my efforts to keep pests out of the gardens. I put the row cover back on the box, and it was working until Rusty decided it was a comfy blanket.

Katy likes it too. We have quite a few Katydids this year, and I hope they're bug eaters, not plant eaters.

Indy can get in this garden even when the gate is closed.The beans and squash in here are producing, good news, as it's almost fall. The pumpkin and watermelon are not going to make it. Single tear.

Knapweed Revisited

See the resemblance? One is cornflower, or bachelor button, and the other, knapweed.

I am the walrus.

I picked, and picked, and picked. This wheelbarrow full has a potent smell of poison. Toxic waste! I can't stand seeing livestock around here eating this stuff. Now that I've gotten rid of it in our grass field, I'm ready to go get a cow. After I build a fence, and a barn.

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Beautiful Bugs

The mint is attracting lots of buzzing flying things of all shapes and sizes, even the elusive honeybee.

I have no idea what this is, but I don't think I want to know.

Flowers Excuse the length of this post, who knows when I'll return?

It's 77 degrees at 4 pm.

When I'm done with this bean plant, there will be nothing left for you, human! hahhahahhahha!

August would be a good month to go on vacation. Somewhere cool and refreshing like Glacier N.P. or maybe the Oregon coast. I'm tempted to hop in the car and do it. But my guess is there's nary a campsite or motel available, as everyone else probably has the same idea. Not to mention the fact that the garden would be toast without water. Not that there's much to lose...after the deer, grasshoppers and rodents have done their work, there isn't a whole lot of produce left for us, lucky we have a small family.

Check out the potatoes. I used to be smug about not having any gophers up here, and now look. If it isn't gophers, it's a close relative. Not only the tubers are damaged, but the leaves are getting completely stripped as well. Meanwhile, our neighbors' potatoes are doing fabulously well. I've decided to ditch the straw. It just isn't working. What the garden needs is some serious nitrogen. The neighbors plowed in leaves last fall and that really seemed to work for them. But now that the gophers have found us, there may be no point. Last year they took down a few bean plants, but that's all. I suspect it'll get worse every year. Where's that cat, anyway?

But the stuff in the greenhouse is doing well, even though it's only the first year and the soil is terrible. I used Jobe's organic fertilizer spikes and they help a lot. It's much easier to have a vegetable garden close to the kitchen, I've noticed. I think maybe the further one will be better for berry bushes or fruit trees.

It's time to put the row cover back over the box garden, as the deer have been coming and eating up all the cabbage, which is ok, since it had already been decimated by insects. I don't want them getting the carrots though. I've tried replanting some crops, but the grasshoppers and their friends devour everything. The row cover may help a bit.

The mosquitoes are STILL here. The dust is here too, in the evenings. August is not my favorite month. We have been having a little heat wave and it makes me thankful we don't live in Arizona. But it's sposed to rain, so that's good.

August does have some rewards, the potted maters are ripe.

And these.
I love this perennial, Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Sun', also known as False Sun Flower. Good thing I kept the tag, it's not in Sunset!?! How could they leave it out? It's very cheerful, and the grasshoppers don't seem to like it.
They do like the Rudbeckia flowers.They even eat the Echinacea, maybe they feel a cold coming on.