Yesterday I spent practically the entire day working in the yard. Having been gone for several weekends in a row it was time to get some work done. And the title of this post…well, I was pretty filthy when I finally came in shortly after 6pm yesterday. I had arm rings, neck rings, dirt covering my legs and feet; I was awesomely filthy! All the filth was well worth it as I ticked off items on my to-do list. This photo is really for Chel because it shows our nasturiums coming up in our front flower bed. They are coming along nicely and I hope they take over the bed…

Sometimes you just need something pretty to look at and make your day a little brighter.

For various reasons we decided to leave the community garden we were gardening at earlier than expected. We still have a plot of sweet potatoes there that we will harvest in a month or so and then we will be done. So, that has forced us to find a place to throw some seeds down for the Fall or purchase some of our produce instead. This area is the south side of our house where eventually it will be a flower garden with a nice pathway. It had tomato and peppers plants when we moved in, and I found a rosemary plant that will survive with some pruning and care.…

Summer. I’m done with you. You are hot, sticky and well, frankly I wasn’t really able to enjoy you much. I didn’t dip my toes in the water. I didn’t hike. Beach? What beach? I saw a post on a blog the other day that turned the whole “Aww, only one month of summer left” into “YEAH! One more month of summer!” While I do like their optimism, I am wishing it was 20* cooler. As you can see above the garden is in a state of crispness. When I’m averaging once a week or less to the garden of course it turns crispy. I’m always afraid of what I…

I should have taken a photo of this bed a couple of days ago before I trimmed up the vine on the left hand side, closest to the beans. It’s already impossible to walk between the bed and the eggplants on the right, but I really didn’t want to have both sides overtaken. The melon in this bed is the Bidwell Casaba melon—and apparently tastes like orange sherbet. Two weeks ago we had several afternoons of thunderstorms which provided a much needed drenching for the beds. In turn the beds responded by exploding in new growth. This one has just kept on going. The vines of the melon aren’t the…

Chris came in last night for the closing of our house today. We made dinner then went to find a nonexistent ice cream shop (thanks Google Maps) before heading to the garden. The heat has been brutal this week, 100* many of the days; the beans can’t handle it and neither can a few other plants. Sometimes between moving we’ll have to find some time to do maintenance on our beds. I was busy watering the garden and Chris had been putting hoses on various beds and then piddling around. I went back up to the front of the garden and found him deep into picking figs off the Celeste…

Right now we have multiple beds with a variety of cucurbits growing. So far the melon varieties, such as this Charentais cantaloupe have been taking the heat well. I’m looking forward to eating some fresh fruit later this summer! A smaller staged version of the same cantaloupe. We had two plants of zucchini which have both bit the dust, as well as a smaller replacement zucchini we left in our grow-out pots too long. The first zucchini, this one pictured, bit the dust when someone in our community garden chopped the growing tip off. I was not pleased. Another zucchini, a golden variety, bit the dust one day due to…

I’ve been opting for my point and shoot lately for ease, and I’ve been enjoying it.

Back in late February/early March when I decided to plant all the flowers in the garden I also decided to plant some vines along the back fence. I found luffa seeds at a local garden center and immediately had to have those because they reminded me of Florida. We grew some along one of our fences there. I picked up those seeds and then planted some birdhouse gourds that were in the garden shed—they didn’t come up, mostly likely because they’d been in the shed through the heat of summer and were no longer viable. Instead I picked up more bottle gourds at the store to re-seed in their place.…