I also did some planting outside yesterday ... I know it's late, but the plants were on sale for 50 cents for a four pack. I came in drenched like I had taken a plunge in the creek! I don't think it would be so bad if it wasn't for the humidity. It was like a sauna outside ... even at 9:00 p.m.!
It is 93 outside right now with a heat index of 110. I'm staying inside where it is cool!
The view outside my kitchen window has changed so much over the past couple of months ... now all I see is a sea of life ... green, growing plants (some in bloom) and a wide variety of birds in all shapes and sizes at our feeders including our hummingbirds. Sometimes in the evenings, a frog or rabbit will hop across my field of vision.
As I look out the window, much of my view of the yard is obscured by the Bradford Pears. They have grown so much in the past year. Now they almost canopy the steps. I only catch glimpses of the yard through the leaves, but there is enough open area where I can see the waterfall, although it is slowly being blocked by the hollyhock I planted last year. I can also see the end of the garden where the corn is growing tall. While I wash dishes, I can see the bounty of my labors as hummingbirds flit across the porch and land on the feeders. Every now and then I will catch a glimpse of a goldfinch or indigo bunting as it flies over to get the thistle in the feeder near the new beds. Redbirds visit that area too to get a taste of my homemade no-melt suet that hangs under the thistle feeder.
I have been busy during the spring. As I mentioned earlier, I cleared off part of our hillside and Pat & I threw out flower and wildflower seeds. So far it is full of what looks like weeds, but a few flowers are peeking through. Next year it should be beautiful. Just like the cliff behind the house ... the seeds we threw out last year have put on some pretty beautiful blooms this year.
The former brick grill in the corner of the property is now full of ferns and hostas, as is two left over chunks of concrete (many years ago the property was a gas station). I've only had a couple of problems with the brick grill ... a chipmunk thought it would be a great place to build it's burrow ... until it dug down and hit the rock I hand lined the bottom with for drainage purposes. It didn't give up but tried a second time ... or some other chipmunk tried. I've now planted that poor hosta twice since it was originally planted.
Pat still talks about our trip to Bayer's Nursery that I mentioned earlier. He had promised me this trip last year and then didn't take me until I begged. I only insisted because I really wanted herbs, a weigela bush and a butterfly bush for the yard. I found out why only after the trip.
Pat & I were in Bayer's huge greenhouse. I was looking at herbs for the new herb garden that I had put in and he wandered off to look at the banana trees. When I went to find him, he was gone. A friendly employee asked if he could help me, but unfortunately had not a clue where my errant fiancée had gone. I went outside and looked around but did not spot him until I looked toward the truck where he and two other employees were filling the truck bed with ONE HUGE banana tree. We have now built a new planter to house a banana tree next to my two new flower beds. Pat has repeatedly said in the past couple of months ... "I told you not to go to Bayers".
As I mentioned earlier, I put in two new flower beds. I lined the front of one of the beds with rock from the cliff in the back ... which was a chore in itself.
I also discovered a couple of things putting in that flower bed. One was that a total of 40 bags with 40 pounds each of top soil, manure mix, peat & bark mulch will fill the bed of the truck to the point where I had to get the tires filled to get home. The second light bulb moment came just as I finished the last flower bed and I thought to myself "What was I thinking?!?! Now I have two more areas to weed!” The final realizations came the next day after I had unloaded the truck and then moved all the bags to where I wanted them in my our new flower bed (Pat was at work and I wanted to surprise him the next day) ... I'm not as young as I once was and I wished we hadn't already drained the hot tub!
Oh well, with the hostas, sweet william, banana tree and elephant ears in the beds are already beautiful. The magnolia tree, which is in bloom, offers the hostas plenty of shade. The sweet citrusy fragrance of the blooms are an added bonus when I walk between the beds. The seeds that I threw out are growing too. The only problem is my "old-timers" disease has kicked in and, other than the cosmos, sunflowers and salvia, I can't quite remember what I threw in there. I just hope I didn't pull up anything I planted while I was pulling up those weeds!
The garden is starting to put on vegetables. The strawberries put on a couple of handfuls ... some eaten straight off the vine ... and are beginning to bloom again. I've already picked some banana peppers and we've eaten more than our share of radishes in the past few weeks. I've also added some lettuce from the garden to our salads each week.
My cantaloupes are blooming and the watermelon are spreading their wings and starting to vine out in the garden. Snow peas are grasping at the trellis and starting to climb to the top. Small yellow squash are growing with their blooms hanging onto the ends for dear life. Finger-sized cucumbers are on the vine and I spotted one nice sized cucumber for a salad this weekend. The dill is really growing and should be ready shortly for the dill pickles that I plan to make.
It looks like a pan of fried green tomatoes may only be about a week away. Numerous small green tomatoes and yellow blooms are loading up our vines. I've already been searching through my magazines for recipe ideas on what to do with our overabundant crop ... salsa, tomato relish, spaghetti sauce, and, of course, cans of stewed tomatoes for next winter's meals.
Although the corn is only up to waist and knee high now, I can hardly wait to bite into the sweet corn it will produce. I tried to buy some the other day, but our local fruit & vegetable market isn't carrying any ... to high at $1.00 per ear.
One fly in the ointment is the amount of weeds I need to pull at the corn end of the garden. I pretty much have the rest of it under partial control. This year I have laid a plastic garden cloth between the rows to help a bit, however there is still a lot of weeding to do and it is just so darn hot! I really need to get them pulled so I can plant my pumpkin seeds.
If all the above is not enough, we've also added a weeping cherry tree (it is about three foot high, but growing) that I found for a great price on ebay. Pat also bought some honeysuckle bushes which turned out to be not as great a deal as we first thought, but some of them have survived and are putting on branches. I have surrounded all the trees with hollyhock seeds, some of which have started to grow. They will be really beautiful next year ... like the ones I planted last year.
In all the hours of outside labor, Tux has been my constant companion and "supervisor". He always seems to know when I need a break and comes over to sit in my lap for a pet, then wanders off a few feet to lay down. He then turns to look at me as if to say "get back to work" ... LOL.
As you can see, there has been good reason to be so neglectful of my poor blog ... hours and hours of outside chores have consumed my days. There has been very few hours to leisure to go "chasing butterflies", but I still managed to catch a few pictures which I have shared with you below ... along with other pictures of my labors.
All of the above leaves the hours after dark for getting my other chores done ... such as cleaning house which I should be doing right now, but I'm procrastinating, as usual. Maybe now that the heat is keeping me inside later and later in the afternoon, I can play a bit of catch-up with other things.
