Hilled Up And Happy! :)

After 3 or 4 days of melting in temperatures of over 100 degrees, (one day was 106 in the shade), I'm happy to have a cool, comfortable, overcast morning to tend to things on my do list!

One of those things is hilling up the corn! While watering, in the mornings, I noticed the roots of the stalks were starting to show! When I see that I know it's time to give the corn "the works"! I weed, sprinkle a little organic furtilizer along the rows, use the hoe to hill up all the stalks, then give them a good hosing down to make sure they're well watered and that there's no powdered fertilizer left on any of the leaves! :)

They always looked refreshed and seem eager to grow afterwards! :)

Garden Goods! :)

It's time to share another update of the garden! I've already eaten a couple red cherry tomatoes, but most of them are green right now.

The Roma Tomatoes are putting on fruit as well! :)

So are the beef tomatoes! I'm anxious for that first beef tomato sandwhich! :)

This is one of many melon blossoms! :) If we never got to taste a sweet melon from them, their pretty blooms would still be reason enough to grow them! :)

These are the orange colored Sunshine Winter Squash! We LOVE their sweet meaty flesh! :)

Can you see the green pepper among all the green leaves? :)

The corn now comes to my waste and is beginning to tassel. I've noticed the first roots showing at the base of the stalks so it's time to hill up the rows! :)

If you look closely, you will see atleast four cucumbers in this photo! We enjoyed the flavor of the one we ate last week! Soon I will be slicing these along with some slices of Walla Walla Onions and soaking them in the fridge for a couple hours in a mixture of 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, & 1 cup sugar! This recipe never fails to please, and reminds me of my dear great Aunt Esther who always cooked from scratch! :) It was a recipe of hers that I loved even as a child! :)

Some like peppers hot, but I like them mild - like these sweet banana peppers! :)

So far so good with these pumpkins! :) I hope to see them adorning our front deck in 3 months!

This type is good for eating as well as for carving and decorating! :)

I hope this photo will enlarge when you click on it so you can see the bee that's in flight! :)

This is Blue Ballet, which is a smaller form of the hubbard squash. It's flavor is unbeatable! :)

If you've been following my blog, you know that the scrumptious Walla Walla is my favorite onion! :)

These snap peas are becoming a favorite in our family! We love frying them lightly with a little olive oil and carmeled onion! When you touch them with your fork they split and reveal the sweet peas inside! Yum! :) Cal even likes eating them raw, and Sheana does too! :)

We do the same with these snow peas! :)

These Bosc Pears will turn a golden-brown this fall and crunch like an apple when they're ripe!

Speaking of apples, - you can't beat this King! They're great for fresh eating, baking, and cyder!

These Concord Grapes make the BEST juice!! :)

The mixed morning glories are finally climbing up the garden gazebo! I'm anxious to see them bloom! They are a variety of pink, white, and purple! :)

I love the lemony color of this sunflower! I hope it'll enlarge when you click on it! :)

The honey and bumble bees have been active in the garden, promising us a harvest! :)

This year I got brave and lightly fried the small, closed summer squash blossoms as well as the zuchinni. I always see them do it on cooking shows so decided to try it for ourselves! They were good! :)

Zinnia Zest! ")

There's something deliciously sweet and charming about Zinnias! They're colorful, easy to grow, and appear quite simple in form unless you see them close up in the lens! Upon closer inspection one sees that there's quite alot going on with each little face! :) Try clicking on the photos to see if they'll enlarge for a closer look! :) Enjoy! :)

It's In The Bag! :)

When I told Sheana the potatoes are finally ready she expressed an interrest in seeing them dug, so this post has her in mind! :)

When I dug in the pitch fork, this is the average amount of potatoes I had from each plant! :)

In our family, it's the yellow potatoes that we are most fond of! :) Yukon Gold and Yellow Finn!

The timing couldn't be better for digging them up, as the pumpkin, and other winter squash, are looking for space to stretch out! :)

Rud's coming home today from working out of town! :) If he asks me where the potatoes went, I can tell him, "We've got 'em in the bag!" :) Not for long though! The majority of these will actually be served as part of today's meal! :) Since I love potatoes, I can hardly wait!! :)

Project Follow-Up! :)

For my own fun, I decided to do a before and after post, following up on the project I shared the other day! :)

Here's a before photo that was taken earlier this month - and there's more in the previous post!

This is the end result for this section of the flower bed! I wanted to make the mowing easier for Rud and Cal, and now that it's done, I think I'll enjoy it even more than they will! :)

A clean, well dressed, flower bed is like eye candy to me! :) It's delicious to my soul!! :) ... Now on to the rest of the flower beds that are crying for attention! :)

Summer Project! :)

I'm sure you all know how summer projects go! You intend to do one thing and it expands into something else by the time you're done! :) I was going to put a bag of beauty bark on this area to finish it off after planting the potted plants!

This is what I ended up doing instead! :)

I realized that the corner wasn't very lawnmower friendly so decided to cut a new lawn edge. While I was at it, I cut one of the branches off, the Japanese Maple, that was leaning out and making it difficult to mow around. Then I decided to lay a little brick to widen the platform at the bottom of the steps! :) When Rud is working regular hours again, and has time to assist me, we will probably improve what I've done with the brick. For now, it's atleast an improvement over what we had before! :)

Then I continued cutting the new edge all along the flower bed!

I lined it up with the step platform, so the mower can breeze on through for an easy cut! :)

Following it on around the full front of the house, ...

Rounding the corner, ...

And along the south side! :)

One of my goals for this year is to try to get all the flower beds in order! The soil you're looking at is the area Cal worked on for me! :) There is Alot of yard work to do still, but I'm hopeful about getting it done! :) Last year I managed to do half of all the flower beds, by myself, and this year I'm determined to get them All done, if at all possible, with Cal chipping in on occassion! :) Once they are all done I believe I can keep up on the maintenance by myself! This south side bed is in full sun and is often too hot to work, so it is one of the worst beds on our property! Earlier I heavily pruned the bushes back! I wish I would have taken a "before photo" of it, but it looks bad enough as it is, even though it's already much better than it was! :) I hope to have everything in order, with the beauty bark down, before the rainy season returns! :) I have 3 peonies that I want to move to this south bed, this fall! If I can get the front strip of the yard ready, by the road, I plan to buy some new, colorful, peonies to plant at fall planting time! :) - That's another project! :)