Recent Sunset Picture

I know it's not a picture of the garden, but I couldn't resist taking this photograph of this sunset. We were sitting outside the other night, and the sky was absolutely gorgeous. Enjoy everyone!

Special Request by Grandma (Louise)

The next series of pictures are in response to a special request by Grandma L. to see the entire yard. These are for you Grandma....enjoy!!!!

Flowers

The Cana is about to produce a flower. The Celosia is growing tall, and the Sedum is filling out nicely. There are flower buds on the sedum as well.
Sorry about the blurry picture. The batteries were dying in the camera. Check back soon, I will update this picture with a non-blurry one. This part of the garden looks very nice even blurry.
The Tiger Lilies are in full bloom now. Notice the bare branches from the bush next to the flowers. Earlier this spring, the bush had full foliage with little pink flowers. A few weeks ago, all the leaves shrivelled up and fell off. We have no idea why this would have happened. There are a few spots now with new leaves, so maybe it will come back yet this year.
Close up of the tiger lily.

Another Vegetable Update Part 2

Check out the potatoe patch now. The flowers are slowly disappearing, but the plants are still doing very well. Hopefully, the potatoes underground are doing well also. We have an abundance of lettuce. So far we have had salad for meals two times, and you can hardly see where we clipped the lettuce. It was very good by the way.
The herb garden has been progressing slowly, but the dill is doing quite well. Next year we may either start the herbs indoors, or but the plants in the spring and transplant them.

Another Vegetable Update

Here is the rows of corn in our backyard. So far so good with the corn. We have had some warmer weather which has helped it to grow tall. It is knee high and not yet the 4th of July. Below are the tomato plants which surround the pole beans. The vines for the beans are working there way up the poles. The ones which were eaten early on by the rabbits, grew new leaves and have also worked their way up the pole.
Cucumber patch with Marigolds growing in the front.
This is the yellow squash, also with marigolds in the front.
Sugar snap peas growing very tall now. Many flowers are visible at the tops of the plants. There are pods growing as well (not pictured).

Flower Update

Here is one of our Iris plants in bloom. In the background, you can see the bearded iris, which was at the end of it's blooming.
Below is a close up of the Iris!
The Alstromeria continues to produce beautiful purple and white blooms. The flowers last for a long time, and new one's seem to pop up every week.

The Tiger Lily is starting to bloom. This was taken last week when the first bloom opened. Now, all of the green one's seen here are open. I will be taking new pictures tomorrow, and getting those onto the site soon.

Vegetable Update: Pictures from last weekend (6/10/07)

Here is one row of potatoes. Notice the flower in the foreground. This was taken a week ago, there are a lot more flowers now. Hopefully, I can get a newer picture up soon. Yesterday, I edged the sidewalks, and pack patio, and used the grass clippings and dirt to hill the potatoes plants a little. You will notice the hilling in future posts.
Not the greatest picture, but these are the cucumbers which have emerged and are growing nicely. Once again, this was taken about a week ago, so they are much bigger now.
Rows of lettuce, almost ready to be picked. By the end of the week, I think we will have some salad with the lettuce. It has grown rapidly this past week with the heat.
Sugar Snap Peas! This was also taken about a week ago, and they are about 8 inches taller now. I think they are ready to flower, so when they do, I'll post that picture. So far, the fencing has worked. I also spread "Shake Away" which is a powder form of Garlic Oil. It supposedly trick the rabbits into thinking it is fox urine, which in turn scares them away. So far so good. The product is also 100% organic, and does not harm the animals. Works on mice and rodents too.
This is the yellow squash. The row furthest to the right is significantly smaller. That is because there were tree branches from the neighbors yard hanging over the fence. This shaded that row all day. Vony trimmed those branches back the day of this photo, and they are growing better now. You'll see what I mean in future posts.
Not pictured is the corn, which is probably 2ft tall now. Also, the beans have recovered from the bunny attack, and are sprouting new leaves and stalks. They have begun to snake up the tripod that I made from green poles. The tomato plants that were planted along side the beans are doing well, and have filled out nicely. Some have even flowered. It seems that the soil conditioning that we did before planting is paying dividends. For those of you who are interested, we used Duck Doo, Bone Meal, Peat Moss, and Leaf Mulch. The Leaf Mulch was homemade by mulching the left over leaves from last fall. We initially broke the soil with a pitch fork and turned it over once or twice. Then we added the materials previously mentioned. The soil was again turned over and evened out. I have periodically added grass clippings here and there to keep the soil fresh. Well, that's all for now. I will post pictures of the flowers soon.

Rose Bush Blooms

This is our rose bush that was transplanted in the fall last year. Almost half of the flowers opened for Father's Day today. The flowers have a citrus type smell to them. They are very pretty flowers. Enjoy!

Lots More Coming This Week

I am hoping to post many more pictures this week (maybe tomorrow). Everything is blooming nicely. The roses are open, cactus is blooming, potatoes have flowers, and the peas and beans are defying gravity. It seems they are growing at a faster rate this past week. We have had dry and very warm weather. The corn is also filling out nicely. I promise more pictures soon. Thanks to all who are checking in on the site, and a special thanks to those who are leaving comments. I do enjoy reading them. Check back soon!!!

Rabbits-Let The Games Begin

Most of you who know us are aware that we both love animals, especially rabbits. Up until last summer, we had a pet rabbit named Snuggles. As much as we know they need to eat, and have shelter, I would prefer if it were not my garden. Of course, they are not aware, nor care who's garden it is. To them it's free food. See the picture below to see what a new baby bunny did to the beans. Take a close look at the pole furthest back in the picture. You will recall from the previous post that there were big leaves growing. No all that is left is little stems.

I also noticed that this bunny also likes peas, so I have attempted to outsmart the little guy. We'll see the fencing does anything to prevent them from grazing. I placed the fencing on Saturday, and So far so good. No damage was done today. You will notice the chicken wire fencing in the below photos.

I finished planting the last bed of corn and replanted some of the peas that the bunny ate.