How Doesn't Your Garden Grow

It's been a whirlwind week. Last week I had two days of lunch dates and made a fabulous meal and totally yummy dressing to go with it. I'll post the recipes tomorrow. I had several meetings for the Capital Campaign at church and another for our homeschool group. My youngest daughter had soccer practice and a tournament Saturday and she turned an insane 10 years old today. In the midst of all of this my Lyme disease gave me much difficulty causing me to miss work. I'm very tired of it being a part of my life...I have things to do!

This past week brought Rhode Island yet more rain. I'm very worried about my garden. Friday night we had very high winds and all of my corn was uprooted and we had to replant them and create a support system for them. We also planted 36 tomato plants this year in hopes of canning and preserving most of them for sauce and such. With the tremendous amounts of rain we have had, I'm afraid the tomatoes have blight and many are already rotting. If we get a handful this year we will be lucky. A few cherry tomatoes are ripening but I just don't know how many we'll get before the plants die. Not too much I can do about it but it is disappointing and will not save us much money this year as we had hoped.

The fog has been rolling in every night. This is a view of the back of my house in the fog.

However, the flowers seem to be doing well and loving the rain. Is there anything prettier than day lillies right after the rain?

My Echinacea is in full bloom and loaded with butterflys and bees.

This is the side garden next to the pool.

The plants around our Koi pond are doing well. We haven't seen the pesky Heron in several weeks and my Koi are growing at an alarming rate. Can you see how large they are?

Look how fast the fog rolled in. This picture was taken just about two minutes later than the picture above it. I love the fog. Murder on the hair but good for my soul.

Some of the garden is doing very well. I've picked several cucumbers. They were delicious with just a little salt.

From a distance, everything looks like it's doing well. The weeds especially.

I've picked lots of Zuchinni. Tomorrow I will make some breakfast muffins.

The herb garden is thriving.

Golden Oregano glows in the evening hours.

I hope some of my garden turns out ok. How is yours doing?

Visitors to My Garden

I've been in blogger slacker land. Life is busy. We've been having trouble with a Heron who has breakfast every mornign at our Koi pond. So far he has eaten three prized Shebunkins. Okay well two. One he left on the mulch for us, disemboweled, apparently from a full belly. I'm not happy. I've declared war on this bird. Koi are expensive and he will not dine at the all you can eat buffet. Larry first saw the culprit the other morning when he returned from his jog. The bird was happily grazing, finding which fish were most delicious. Larry scared him off and the Heron roosted in the pine tree outside of our bedroom. Not happy.

Beautiful bird but he needs to leave my gorgeous Koi alone.

The Heron...sort of.

So today, after working the night shift at the hospital, in my bleary eyed stupor while making coffee at 1pm, I look out my window and see the Heron sitting there. Mocking me-sizing up his next meal. I ran out in my very attractive pink fuzzy zipper up the front granny robe to scare him off. Why won't he move? Plastic-drat my husband. I asked for netting, not the tacky plastic flamingo statues to adorn my garden. Drat. Truly a video for America's Funniest Videos. Tae loves him and is thinking of a name. Even gave him a bowl of fish food to sample before the Koi got it. Sweet kid. Feeding the wildlife that is feeding on MY wildlife.

The girls have been moved to the big coop. We still haven't named most of them. So far we have Ginger, Butter and Trouble (the one who always pecks our hands and charges the door). Next week they will be able to go outside if the weather is good. We've had rain just about every day for the past three weeks and I don't want the babies to get chilled or wet. They are only four weeks old and still need the heat lamp. They are looking very dinosaurish these days as their feathers start to come in. Each day they are perching on higher levels and spreading their wings wanting to fly and be free. Just like kids-always wanting to grow up too fast.

These were two extra tomato plants that I had and no room in my garden to plant them. I couldn't bear to throw them out so they went in a planter. I'll move them to a bigger planter tomorrow. I planted 36 tomato plants in hopes of doing massive canning/preserving this year.

The Mint is doing well and is delicious in homemade iced tea, Greek pork and of course Mojitos!

Can you hear the four baby Wrens inside? Both the Mom and Dad are very busy feeding their babies but still find time to yell at me when I'm in the garden. They are very ungrateful even though I supply them with numerous bugs in the garden.

The sunflowers are starting to come up but I have to replant all my gourds. Not one sprout this year. I don't know if it is all the rain and lack of sun but the pumpkins haven't sprouted at all either. How frustrating. My Dad always grew sunflowers so when they are in full bloom I feel very connected to him. It's like his face smiling on my garden.

The visitors to my garden are many. These tiny white flowers are everywhere and you wouldn't notice them unless you got up close. I have no idea what they are but they are a pleasant surprise and seem to be everywhere.

The view off of our upper deck overlooking our garden with the chicken coop and future goat barn in the back.

Morgan and her friend Gab on the swings.

The side yard, pool and Koi pond.

I don't know what these flowers are. Someone told me they were Oxalis, but they resemble Primose so I really have no idea. They are just beautiful and the bees love them. Anyone know what they are?

My Lavender needs to be picked tomorrow at the latest. The blossoms are just starting to open and are at their peak. I will dry some and make sleep pillows out of the rest.

My Favorite Ballerina Rose.

It is supposed to be a dwarf variety but with all the rain we've had someone forgot to tell the plants that they are dwarf. Just beautiful. The weeding has gotten away from me. Three weeks of rain and weeds are everywhere and I'm not sure I can catch up.

The Ferns in my shade garden are monsters. I've never seen them this big.

The pink Astilbe is just starting to bloom.

The Wild Honeysuckle is just about ready to bloom. Next week, the heady smell will be overwhelming and the bees will buzz and the Hummingbirds will be in their glory.

We had our first Echinacea start to bloom. Our friend from church, Dan, is going to harvest a bunch of these and make an Echinacea tincture.

The Clematis is loving the rain and has spread all over my fence surrounding the pool.

Another Clematis that is stunning.

A weed that I wish I knew what it was. Very pretty. Can I eat it or make a jam?

My water lillies are blooming.

The Bullfrogs were resting in the warm sun today.

And smaller frogs hid in the mulch. Can you see me?

Even this Garden snake found glory in the day was basking in the warm sun on the rocks surrounding the pond. He seemed to have a full belly of something.

Is there any better month than June?

Freebies on the Almost a Farm

I have to admit, I've been a blogger slacker. Well not really, it's just sometimes life is in full bloom and calls for our attention. What have I been up to? Moving horse manure and I don't even have a horse. One of our neighbors posted on freecycle that she had plenty of free composted horse manure. Of course I jumped at the chance. Larry went on Monday morning and loaded our wagon with about 5 yards of free manure for all of our gardens. This was a huge $$ savings for us and I made a great connection to get all the free fertilizer I want. The farm is only 10 minutes away from us so that's even better for gas savings. Thankfully, Larry helped me move the last couple of yards into the gardens-hoo boy were my muscles aching. But I can't wait to see how lush and prosperous my gardens will be. Check with your local farms about free manure for your gardens. Many farms are more than willing to give this away.

A full cart of manure. Would you believe I still have more gardens to take care of? Sue, the owner of the farm told me to call her anytime. Now that's taking care of your community.

After all that hard work, Larry and I settled in for the evening with a nice organic steak. I'll post our meat purchases another time. We found a nice farmers market to buy grass fed beef and other products. These lovely greens however, came straight from my garden. I picked my first crop of lettuce and spinach and made a wonderful salad for dinner.

I ordered 30 pounds of fresh farm raised chicken from a fellow homeschooler. She charged $2.50 a pound and processed the chickens herself. I cooked two of them for dinner the other night. One we ate and the other will become chicken salad and chicken soup. Delicious and I feel better knowing my chicken was not factory raised and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.

I also grew some Marigolds from seed and transplanted the rest of them into the garden this weekend. The Marigolds and Sunflowers were really the only flowers that did well. All of my other seeding attempts failed miserably because of the downpour rain we had and I ended up buying most of my plants for the vegetable garden. But I'm guessing with the amount that I planted that it will soon pay off too.

I think these are Bachelor's Buttons but aren't they pretty?

The Baptisia is starting to bloom and is a gorgeous violet color. These were free from a friend but beware, they do spread like wildflower.

I have two of these trees. They are called Golden Chain Trees and resemble Wisteria but are yellow. Usually, these are covered with honeybees and the humm is so loud you can hear it from inside. The bark also gets covered with lime green colored lichen and is just as decorative.

Our homeschool group met last week and for the first time this season we were able to sit outside under my beautiful Willow Tree. The kids were busy watching the chickens play.

We shared watermelon and apples and Karyn cut some coupons and Lisa knitted more washcloths. These families have all become my friends and look forward to seeing them every week. The conversation, support and ease of pace is just wonderful.
The kids busied themselves playing all afternoon.

Sweet Willow enjoyed some juicy watermelon.

Gideon contemplated some apples.

Avery enjoyed running with the big kids and eating the watermelon. Our Parents Planning night is this Sunday. No children, just some good food, planning and conversation. I'm so looking forward to it once again.
On Sunday at church, the kids Religious Education classes studied our 7th principle and made all green cleaners. We had a blast with the kids and talked about recycling and how not to use chemical cleaners from the store. The RE team purchased blue buckets and 4 spray bottles and then the kids formed teams to make the cleaners. Each team made a general purpose cleaner, window cleaner, air freshener and floor cleaner.

Celia and Patrick measure out the recipe for the floor cleaner.

The kids and parents sat in Fellowship hall and listened intently on ways to help our Mother Earth. We were so proud of the kids as many are already using green cleaners and recycling.

One of our homeschooling moms Julie brought in her worm composting and showed the kids how to make their own for homemade compost.

When the buckets were completed, we sold them to the congregation for $25.00. All of the 15 buckets sold and the proceeds will be given to the Providence Animal Rescue League, the kids service project for this year. It was a very fun time with them.
I am ever proud of all that they accomplish.