Week 17 - July 24/25 - Vegetable Garden

I got a break from the vegetable garden this weekend!  I guess the three hours of weeding last weekend payed off, because there weren't really too many weeds this weekend, so I just left it!  By next weekend, I am sure that it will need some attention.

Everything is progressing as expected.  We had a zucchini this week and have another one on the grill as I type for dinner tonight.  There will be cucumbers ready this week.  And that is an improvement over last year already!  I don't think I got any cucumbers or zucchini last year!   We are having fresh lettuce a couple of times a week.  And I had a snack of beets this week.  So far so good in garden land!

Vegetable Garden

Vegetable Garden

Zucchini

First Zucchini of the year!

Baby cucumber 

Herb Garden

Week 17 - July 24/25 - Flower Gardens

This week in the flowers, we have lots of cone flowers, day lilies are all still going strong, so are the star gazers and some of the Asiatic lilies, the earlier ones are just about finished.

I spent sometime today weeding the flower beds, overall they weren't too bad, but there seemed to be a lot of grass that hasn't been there before.  Not sure where it came from, but wish that it would go back!  Moved a few things around.  I got the huge, overbearing hardy geranium out of the back garden and moved a bachelor button that was hiding under a day lily to its spot.  Hopefully that helps both the bachelor button and the plants that were getting smothered by the hardy geranium.  Still have a few more things to move, but I am happy with what I got done today!

Back garden

Side Garden

Side Garden

Back Garden

BEETS!!!!!

Some of my beets were starting to push out of the top of the soil and they needed to be thinned, so yesterday, I took a look.  I was quite surprised with the amount that I found that were big enough to use. They are called Rodina Beets, and they aren't even the earliest ones I planted.  

I cooked up a nice little pot of beets to go with dinner.  I thought they were delicious.  But no one else did.  Liam took one bite and spit it out.  Henry just doesn't like beets.  So, I enjoyed them all by myself!  And ate the whole pot!  Everything always tastes better when it is the very first crop!

And the bunnies quite enjoyed munching on the fresh beet tops for their dinner!

My Favorite Favorite!

So, as I am sure you have figured out (and I probably have told you a few dozen times) that lilies are my favorite flowers.  That's why I have six different day lilies, a multitude of other lilies and it is never enough.  I would LOVE to have a lily garden, except that they only bloom for a short time, so I am considering an Iris and Lily garden.  I just have to find a place and the convince my husband that I really do NEED another garden!

However, the point of this post it to share with you my favorite of my favorites, which is the Star Gazer Lily.  It is an Oriental Lily and I have been in love with them for as long as I can remember.  Not only are they gorgeous flowers, but they have a wonderful aroma.  I have a bunch of them planted in the back garden, near the back deck so that when they are in bloom I can smell (or see) them every time I go in or out of the house.

Although I can't share the scent with you, here are some photos of my star gazer lilies.

Asiatic Lilies

Here are some more pictures of my lovely new asiatic lilies, which I now know are Tango Asiatic Lilies.  I think that they are just stunning, I wish I had more of them!  I ended up with one red, one orange, two yellow, one pink, one that still isn't open and one that didn't have blossoms this year.  I just wish that the blossoms lasted longer or that they would bloom more than once in a season as they are already almost done.  The will live on here until next year!  And in the dead of winter, I will look at the pictures and remember the joys of summer!