In My Garden Thursday June 28,2007

Here's Andy in his sunflower fort. It won't be long with how quickly the sunflowers are growing that he can actually play and hide in there.


The red cabbage is looking beautiful and starting to form heads.


The bell peppers are still small and just doing OK. I thought they would take off with this heat.


The carrots are doing great!


The onions are already maturing - they didn't get very big this year.

In My Garden Wednesday June 27,2007

I took some pictures yesterday but didn't get around to posting them - so here are Wednesday's pictures on a Thursday.


This hot pepper plant looks like a goner. I saw him looking like this yesterday and thought it was just wilt from the heat, but I watered him and he did not bounce back. I lost several to the hail so I only have 2 more hot peppers if this one doesn't make it.


One of the other two surviving hot pepper plants


The coneflowers are starting to bloom and look pretty


The basil is starting to go to seed. Time to pinch back the ends or harvest some.


The oregano is looking healthy

In My Garden Tuesday 6/26/07

Baby Tomatoes


I'm not sure what this is - a weed or something coming up from last year????


Baby grapes


Baby Watermelons


Peaches continuing to grow - I can't wait to taste them!

I just love this time of year - there is always something new in the garden each and every day.

In My Garden Monday 6/25/07

The first daylilly


A few (very few due to transplanting) black raspberries


And another bucket of currants. It is going to be a very good year for currant jam!

Sunday's Harvest

I got kind of busy yesterday and didn't get around to posting these pictures. I also dug a few new potatoes and cooked them for dinner. Nothing like the taste of new potatoes. I love the fresh taste of everything from my garden.


A basket full of lettuce and beet leaves for my salads this week.


Radishes from the third planting of radishes. I love the different colors. Whenever I have the choice to plant more than one color of something I do.


And another bucket of currants. This will be a good year for currant jelly.

My garden survived while I was on vacation

The currants ripened nicely this past week

Here is a close up of the currants.

Gee - I don't remember planting dill - nor did I plant any last year, but it comes up every year. You gotta love mother nature taking care of things naturally.

The beans are starting to trail up the strings.

The cabbage and brussels sprouts have totally recovered from the hail now and looking good.

The tomatoes are growing like weeds.

3 quart bags of currants ready for the freezer. They will eventually be made into jelly, but I don't have the time right now so I just freeze them and then thaw them on jelly making day.

It's good to be back home in my garden. We had a great time on vacation and it was nice to get away, but I always miss my garden when I'm gone.

A new addition to my yard

This is the Raid disposable Yellow Jacket Trap. I hate bees, but I especially hate yellow jackets. They can sting more than once - all bees should have to die like wasps and hornets do after they sink their stinger in you. Three years ago on vacation I got stung multiple times by a yellow jacket - it was in my sheets in my bed - I woke up the entire resort. It was NOT FUN! So when Bzz Agent invited me to take part in this campaign and test the product for free I got very excited.

Every year the apple tree attacts tons of them as they eat on the rotting apples. With the addition of a small pool in the backyard for Andy this year I am afraid the population of yellow jackets may interfer with my enjoyment of my own yard. I will not let the insects win.

This product is perfect for me. It hangs innocently in the apple tree and doesn't look like the killer that it is. It attracts them with an odor that they find irrestiable and then it traps them and drowns them. When it is full, you just throw it away. And for those of you who know how green and crunchy I am - it is not full of chemicals - it is a non-toxic plant based attractant.

This year it is going to be Kathi 1, Yellow Jackets 0. I may have to even keep a tally of how many I trap and how many traps I go through.

You can buy this product at most home improvement, food, drug or discount stores. It costs $6.99 per trap and it attracts yellow jackets over a 20 ft by 2o ft (400 square feet) area. If you have a big yard, you might want to buy more than one.

Oh - and it attracts the queens so it will kill a whole colony. I'm all for eliminating whole colonies of yellow jackets. I'm sure yellow jackets fill some role in this world - just let them fill their role somewhere other than my back yard.

For more information, go to killsbugsdead.com

My Garden Today 6/13/07

I've had a cold for over 2 weeks now and I'm getting quite sick of it. I guess I should probably go to the doctor soon and make sure it isn't my allergies. It has also finally gotten hot.

The tomatoes have just really sprouted up with this heat. I did lose several in the hail and replaced them with grape tomatoes from the nursery - but this is one that I started from seed and survived the hail. A week ago it was looking sickly and today it is the picture of health!
The pole beans are still looking beat up from the hail, but there is new growth and they are starting to put up runners. Before you know it, we'll be eating beans. Yum - there is nothing like that first taste of fresh green beans in the summer!
The lettuce has also bounced back nicely from the hail. I never pick the whole head except if it looks like it's going to bolt (go to seed) - I just pick the outer leaves and keep it growing. It looks ready for another picking.
The watermelon plant that my son started is growing and starting to flower. I sure hope he gets at least one watermelon. Nothing like success to keep a kid interested.
Andy's sunflowers are also up and looking good. They were pretty tender when the hail came, but seem to have bounced back.

In My Garden this evening

The bushes in front of the house are blooming

The currants are starting to ripen

The lettuce and cabbage are bouncing back from the hail - they are still looking tore up, but they have perked up and put out new growth - they will be fine.

The peaches are getting bigger - yum, I can't wait!

And black raspberries are forming. I am not going to get a lot of them this year since I transplanted them - but I will take any I can get. I think the blacks are my favorite. Dan likes the yellow the best and Andy just likes them all.

Hail in MN today

I have never seen this much hail before - if I have I was a child and don't remember it. A half hour ago it was coming down in sheets and the ground was solid white! Since it has started melting rather quickly I snuck out in the rain and took a few pictures right now before it's all gone. There was so much everywhere - I wish I had thought to capture it while it was happening - but I was having too much fun watching Andy be excited over it. His autism definitely shows when he is excited.

I'm sure this hail did some damage - I hope my plants are established enough that they bounce back. It's still raining too much to really check much for damage yet.