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