In the Gardens

Andrew brought me a bouquet of flowers from his own garden.  I remember a toddling boy with chubby legs and rubberband wrists picking me flowers and bringing them to me and now he is scrawny and lean, tall and capable and still brings me flowers.  I hope it never stops.  I love this boy and his flowers.

This was our main garden a whole 12 days ago:



This is our garden yesterday:

The raindrops that come every 48 hours or so have made the vegetables grow by leaps and bounds.  Unfortunately for me, it has also encouraged the weeds to grow by leaps and bounds.

So far, the only garden disappointments are #1 the weeds and #2 the corn.   Probably 2/3 of the corn we planted never came up- making for a barren and splotchy corn patch.  Since the gardens are full to the brim and I never had room enough to plant Kale, I'll use some of that extra space to add that in...and maybe a few fall crop like peas around August.  

But, I'll miss the corn.  Boy, will I miss it.

Not everyone gets to be serenaded by handsome boys while during garden work.  I am blessed, I know.

The flower circle is getting wild and wooly.  It feels almost like a jungle at this point.  Which I love.  Do you like the boys' rubberband gun range in the above photo?  We have enough wooden guns to have quite a little army around here.

I am pretty much in love with the Delphinium.

We picked the last of our strawberries this week.  The last harvest.  :-(  I noticed quite a few berries with a dusty mold on them while picking...they looked like dead gray mice.  How is that for appetizing?  There was a good 2 quarts of totally ruined berries.  I haven't researched it yet but I am thinking all this rain has had something to do with it.

All in all, though, it was  a wonderfully productive year...the best strawberry year we've had! We harvest about 14 quarts of berries from our small and often neglected patch which was enough to consume but not really to put up.  I would freeze some and then wind up using them in smoothies for breakfast anyway.  :-/

The elderflowers are in bloom.  I am determined to do something with them this year.  Cordial, perhaps?

The sweet and sour cherry trees we planted last year produced two berries each.  Hoping the yield grows more plentiful as they mature...because two cherries just ain't gonna cut it!

They are pretty (and exciting!) to see!

My permanent herb garden was awash.  I painstakingly planted different quadrants with seeds of all kinds.  Borage.  Nasturnium.  Dill.  Thyme.  Calendula.  Chamomile.  Oregano.  Cilantro.  Basil.  Parsley.  

When I went out to look at the progress, from far away I was excited with all the green.  When I got closer, I realized the green I could see were actually a million weed seeds everywhere.  If there were seedlings for herbs somewhere in the midst of them, I can't distinguish them so as I weed, I am likely weeding herbs too.  *Sigh*  

The pumpkin and sunflower patch is totally random and scattered.  Corynn and Andrew did this area by themselves and now I kinda regret it.  It will be hard to get mulch around such randomness but it needs to be done... the garden area looks like lawn with a few pumpkins and sunflowers hanging out.

Matt brush-hogged the pasture.  It was driving him crazy.  So, now he is happy.  And the animals are too.

That's what has been growing here.   We'll see what next week brings...