Wordless Wednesday

Shifting Winds

 

We woke up this morning to the sound of the wind. Rain was in the forecast for today which pleased us. We haven't had rain in a week and the garden needed a drink. I stepped outside. The wind wasn't a hot, muggy July wind. It was more like end of summer, Autumn's calling kinda wind. I grabbed the camera right before the rain came and snapped a few photos to remember this end of July day.

1. Watching the rain fall from the back deck.
2. Crepe Myrtle in full bloom towering over the tomato plants in the garage garden.
3. The corn blowing in the wind.
4. Black Eyed Susans in full bloom behind the tomatillo bed.
5. New squash bed, freshly mulched with grass clippings.
6. Thai Basil in bloom. I'm letting one of the plants flower for the bees. I've never grown this variety of basil before.
7. And finally..........tomato harvest! We have to pick them a little sooner than we'd like because the mockingbirds like to 'taste' them.

It's going to be a busy week ahead.
Until next time.....

National Ice Cream Month

Did you know that July is National Ice Cream Month? I discovered that a few years ago and I try to celebrate as much as I can. We keep our ice cream canister in the freezer so we can churn up a batch of ice cream on a whim. When the temps and humidity are soaring, like they have been this week, what better way to cool down than to have ice cream for dinner (or dessert).
Until next time.....
You can see more of the Dancing Cat's artwork by clicking here.

Wordless Wednesday

Strange Days Indeed

The weather continues to be all over the map. We're still getting rain, although it's more of a pop up shower in the afternoon and it's not enough to flood the gardens. I've done a plant body count and things aren't as bad as it looked at first (or so I keep telling myself).
We lost 21 out of the 29 pepper plants that we started. We were growing six varieties of hot and sweet peppers. Although this is a MAJOR loss for us, peppers are something that we can buy locally and won't cost a lot of money.
We lost 10 out of the 43 regular tomato plants and 4 of the 43 Roma tomato plants. At first more plants were shriveling up, but it looks like they're coming back. Fingers crossed.
This year, I decided to divide our tomato crop and plant it in different sections of the main garden. I also planted some in the bed behind the garage and in the bed next to the compost. I've never done this before and am so glad that I did.
The peppers are planted in a fairly new bed that obviously needs to be raised, since it's the one that flooded the worst. I'm in the process of building it up with compost and grass clippings. Lesson learned.

This week's round up:
1. Corn with Dixie Speckled Butter Peas in the foreground. Okra in between.
2. Vitex in bloom with happy bees and butterflies.
3. Tomatillo. Can you say Salsa Verde?
4. Cypress Vine and Morning Glory. Hummingbirds will be happy!
5. Cucumbers continue to shine.
6. Wave Petunias. I usually don't plant anything in pots in the summertime because it usually is too hot here. No matter how much I water, the plants rarely flourish. Not this year.
7. Corn tassels! Can't wait to eat my first ear of corn; fresh picked and raw.

Here's to a wonderful week all around.
Until next time.....