Week 13 - June 26/27 - Flower Photos

Clematis

Lamb's Ear

Astilbe

Yellow Lily on Monday

Yellow Lily on Sunday

Allium on Monday

Allium on Sunday

Daylilies are coming . . . 

So are the cone flowers . . . and there are going to be lots of them this year . . . I have had a difficult time getting any cone flowers established over the years, but something I did last year seems to have worked!

Week 13 - June 26-27 Herb Garden

I know I don't usually do a post just for the herb garden, but I've got a few pics this week, so I thought I would give them their own post!

The oregano is still trying to take over all open spaces.  I dug three pots of it for co-workers and pulled some of it this week and you would never know! Everything else is doing quite well.  The scarlet runner beans along the back are growing nicely and will need their netting put up very soon.

My Herb Garden

Thyme

Golden Oregano

Mint (mmm mojitos!!)

Basil (I bought this one!)

Oregano

Most of my annual herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro and dill) I grow in large quantities from seed in the vegetable garden.  The basil and parsley seeds are very slow to germinate and are still quite tiny, but the cilantro and dill are looking good!

Cilantro

Dill

Week 13 - June 26/27 - Vegetable Garden

 This weekend pretty much mirrored last weekend in the vegetable garden.  There were more weeds than I would have liked in the garden, but that is the price you pay for gardening with natural fertilizer (manure straight fromt eh barn yard) and no chemicals to control weeds.  For the most part, I don't mind working in the garden, it is a little discouraging right now but if I keep at it every weekend and try not to let any of the nasty weeds to go to seed, it should get better!

The rows of veggies are taller and the weeds are shorter than last weekend, but I think there are just as many of them!

As long as I keep at it EVERY weekend, most of the weeds in between the rows are small enough that I can get them with the hoe, which makes everything much faster and easier on the back!  And it's a good work out for my arm muscles!  I got through the whole thing with the hoe and then through about half of it, hand weeding right up close to the rows.  

It is amazing what a difference an hour with a hoe can make!

Everything is growing really well, expect the potatoes.  Quite a few of them didn't come up, which is really odd, because I have always had really good luck with potatoes.  I am going to have to find some more seed potatoes and throw some more in the empty spaces.

Zucchini

Kale (almost big enough for the bunnies to start having a nibble, they will be so excited!)

Green Leaf Lettuce

Red Leaf Lettuce

Beets

Carrots

Week 13 - June 26/27

The flower beds are doing great!  Finally, after years of filling in spaces, they are looking like well established flower beds, especially this back section.  There are a few things that are getting too big for where they are.  And other things that have seeded down little babies in places that they can't stay.  I have to try and find some homes for some of these little guys or I will have to pull them out.  It always makes me sad to have to pull out and toss away a little plant, I would much rather give them to someone to plant in their garden or move it to somewhere else in my yard than kill most things!  But, I am running out of space!  I do have to learn to be a little more selective about what I leave to seed down/grow as sometimes these things that I just don't want to pull out start to over power some other things.  

Back Garden

Side Garden (wow, that's a really crappy photo this week!)

Side Garden (another crappy photo!  I'll try to do better next week!)

Week 12 - June 19/20 - Flower Photos

Lamb's Ear

Lily . . . from Vesey's Red and White Lily Collection (fall fundraiser)

Burgundy Galardia . . . my birthday present plant from my mom

Clematis . . . the plant isn't doing as well as some years (a big piece of it was all of a sudden dead this week) but the blossoms are still gorgeous!

Hardy Geranium

Light Pink Peonie . . . this blossom was almost as big as a dinner plate!

Spiked Speedwell . . . the new plant that Henry picked out while we were on holidays . . . not the best photo, the sun was pretty bright and wash it out a bit, but it is a nice dark purple.

Milk weed in the ditch by our yard . . . too bad it is such a weed because it really is beautiful!

Our little walnut tree . . . it was a little seedling that we dug up and moved three years ago . . . it is growing into a very nice little tree!

Week 12 - June 19/20 - Vegetable Garden

The vegetable garden needed LOTS of work this week.  The weeks were taking over!  I spent an hour in it Saturday morning, 2 hours Saturday afternoon and another hour on Sunday.  By the time all that was done, it was looking MUCH better, but there are still LOTS of little weeks and grass taking up residence amongst my veggies.  Unfortunately, a lot of the weeds are too little to pull properly and many of the plants are still too small to do much close weeding, so it will be a battle of wits for a while.  Only time will tell who will come out on top, me or the weeds!

This is what the garden looked like before I started on Saturday!

A close up of my lovely garden of weeds.  YIKES!

This is when I finished what I could do on Saturday . . . pulled the big ones and took the hoe to the small ones, hopefully that killed at least a few of them!

As if weeds weren't enough, I also have fungus . . . 

Oh the joys of using manure straight from the barnyard!  You never know what you might grow!

Sunday when I was all done . . . for now . . . I am sure that I will be back at it again soon!  But for now I will enjoy the lack of weeds!

Look, nice rows of veggies . . . the double row is dill and cilantro and the single part is cucumber and zucchini at the very far end.

Teeny tiny baby carrots!

Beets

Tomato and pepper plants . . . they are still pretty small and hard to see in the photo, but soon enough it will be a jungle in there! (I hope!)

Two rows of lettuce (on the left) and a row of swiss chard and kale (on the right).

Potatoes and onions.

I can't wait for all this yummy goodness to be ready to eat!!!!!  :)