Flowers All Over

It's that time of year where the flowers are everywhere and I can't get enough! Ahhhh Summer, I now remember why I love you so!

A Few Garden Update Pictures

With the new raised beds, the garden is full and thriving right now, I some times can't believe how much is growing and how well it is all growing! If I wasn't before, I am now a huge advocate of raised beds for growing veggies. The weeding has been pretty minimal the crop yield has been fantastic!

A tomato ripening on the vine in the sunshine.

A few zucchini still on the vine, we've already been enjoying zucchini here and there at dinner time.

I'm not sure why, but this year my broccoli seems to be a bit behind, but it's coming in now!

I've tried for years to grow pumpkins, but this is the furthest I have ever come with that.

Here's another little pumpkin that is growing in.

Like the pumpkins, I have had bad luck with corn in the past, but things are looking better this year here too.

This is my first attempt at growing eggplant, I'm sooooo excited to have a few blossoms, I've been dreaming about roasted eggplant on pizza!

So that's it for now...happy weekend and happy growing!

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are the sign of late summer for me...when the first sunflower blooms I know that the days of summer are numbered. But I still can't resent them, I love their gorgeous color! I'd love to one day live in Tuscany, but until I realize that dream, I am completely happy to have a bit of that Tuscan sunflower yellow in my own garden.

Happy 3rd, Baby!

Yup, we've made it through 3 years (yesterday)! It's been a very full 3 years, and in particular the last 3 months (or 3 weeks for that matter!) have been very full. We (or rather the husband mostly) are in the final stages of finishing a building project on our property. For my part I've been part of a couple of painting days as well as a day spent tiling floors and a day of tiling a shower. These are things we've done before which makes the work easier. A new challenge this time was learning how to do some rock/masonry work, it ended up being pretty simple once we go the hang of it. I've been reminded lately of how well the husband and I are able to work on projects together. I feel like I always hear how married couples can't work well together with remodeling or construction-type projects. So far we've been able to make it work, and we're no where near killing each other, if anything it's been good for us. In addition to all of that, I just signed the paperwork for a new brick and mortar teaching job which I will officially start next month. In the mean time though I have already been to some strategizing and planning meetings with other faculty - proving further to myself that this job is a great opportunity for me. I am still working part-time at the greenhouse supply store for a few more days until the end of this month, it's a bit torturous to be a short-timer there right now, it would have probably been better for me to give two weeks notice and call it there, but it will pass. We have also in the last week hosted a bbq for extended family and had some dear friends and their four great kids come from out of state to stay with us for a few days. I also got hit with a nasty summer cold that turned into an even nastier sinus infection. It's one thing to be sick when it's gross and rainy outside, it's a whole other game to get sick when the weather is gorgeous outside, summer illness is no good!

So here I sit, happily married for 3 years now. Life is full of joy and anticipation. I understand now when I hear people say that they love their spouse more after years together than they did the day they were married. Evolving as people together has been key, so has good communication and flexibility. I feel very lucky in life and love!

By the way, those flowers are my "wedding flower", liatris. They once again have blossomed just in time for our anniversary and making me think back 3 years to that beach in Hawaii. *swoon*

We plan to celebrate a bit more formally next month when our project is finished. I'll be done with my greenhouse job and there wil be a few weeks before I go to work full-time. We've talked about heading to the Oregon coast, which sounds very restful, and before the busyness of a new school year, I can go for that!

Wisteria Vine is Home!

I am finally getting around to doing a little show and tell with this one. The wisteria vine I received as a birthday present finally got it's permanent home. The husband custom made this cedar planter to fit around one of the deck support posts on our patio. Once it was made, he and the s-son worked on staining it. Then I filled it with dirt and planted the wisteria. It will be here for many years and I love the way it looks! I am going to train it to grow across the bottom of our deck so when you are on the patio below you are underneath a sea of wisteria blossoms - gorgeous!

Eureka, We Found It!

This post should have been made a couple of weeks ago, but I've been busy and like all good things, it was worth the wait. For this particular item, it has been a long search, a long wait, with several misturns and disappointments. Well, the search is over because we finally found it. Or maybe it found me. I was wandering through a local vintage shop not too long ago, I wasn't really even planning on stopping in, but I had a couple of minutes and I thought it would be fun to check out what they had.When I saw it, I had to blink because I couldn't believe the price, it was an amazing deal, less than a third what we would have spent for a table that I only so-so liked. It was only slightly more than the one that I knew I'd be settling for - that one didn't even come with the chairs, they were extra. I have finally found the dining room table and eight, yes eight chairs that go with it. I don't love the fabric the chairs are upholstered in, but it is not hideous and at least they are newly upholstered, so it will do for now. When I find the fabric I want to reupholster the chairs in, I will know it. This table and chairs are lovely and fit beautifully in the room. It is well built and solid, so one day when we follow through with our idea of topping it with a slab of marble or granite, it will be able to hold the weight! The husband had to like it too, of course. That meant telling him about it when we came home and then heading back with him later. The cool thing about him is that he doesn't mind doing a bit of haggling, so he was able to get the table and chairs as well as another piece of furniture I liked (that's another story) for the price that had been on the table and chairs (it always makes me nervous when he starts negotiating, but I have to say that he's really good at things like that). Having the table in the room made us want to hang the framed pictures that we've had sitting and waiting since last Christmas. Now maybe someday we'll get around to finishing that ceiling lid!

Next Year's Flowers Planted.

This past Saturday I spent a few hours putting several hundred bulbs, corms and tubers into our front flower bed. I got them cheap, a buck a bag, which worked out to about 10 cents or less per bulb. It felt good to get them in the ground, this chore had been looming for several days. But, at the same time, it's a bit anti-climactic to plant bulbs that won't be up for another year. At least I had company while I worked, these girls decided to take their free ranging my way. I'm sure in a year I'll be taking pictures of those flowers and putting them here on the blog. Here's to waiting patiently!

First Egg From the New Hens

The first egg from my Buff Orpington hens was laid today. I didn't expect any eggs from the new ladies for a month or a few weeks at the earliest. But, today was the day, there was a sweet little brown egg lying in one of the nesting boxes next to a few of the green eggs laid by my older gals. Such a sweet little gift! It could have been laid by any of my nine new ladies, I have no way of knowing which. In the next few weeks there will be many more first eggs laid!

Bug Love Part 2

Okay, so my post the other day wasn't just pure bug porn...there's a little theme going on here. Here's a few huge hints in the form of pictures. And lastly, these little daisies are going to be a pretty darn cute accessory in my new suprise.

More soon!

Bug Love! (Part One)

Sooooo, I caught these two in the act on one of the sunflowers in my garden and had to share. In a strange sort of way, it's kind of romantic...if there were a sunflower big enough I'd probably do the same, tee-hee!

Today's Berry Haul

Here's what the husband picked from the garden today...yum! I'm thinking I'm going to put the blueberries and raspberries into a batch of scones and some of the strawberries will be eaten fresh (some already were) and the rest are going to be frozen for later.

Gotta love the "free" berries!

Little Pea Lover

It turns out that my little Bambino likes peas...actually, he likes almost anything that he sees me eating. So when he watched me picking peas off the vines growing in my garden the other he had kind of a longing look on his face. So we stood in the garden and snacked on peas together. There's more than enough to go around. I love this time of year, nothing beats healthy snacking off of the plants I've grown!

Come Take A Walk With Me

I'm enjoying a day off, I've planted my birthday wisteria in my newly-completed-husband-constructed-s-son-stained-cedar planter (I've got a picture to show tomorrow or the next day, whenever I get around to it). I've [finally] finished planting my tomato plants and burried the hole-punched containers that I will use to give those tomatoes the deep watering experience they so love. There are still other outdoor/yardwork type tasks to tackle, but in the last few days it got hot outside and not having climatized to the heat just yet, I'd gotton sweaty enough for one morning by the time I was done with those few chores. I did manage to eat about 10 sun-warmed strawberries that had been warmed by the sun while standing in the garden - this is one of the benefits of no chemical spray gardening, all I had to do was brush a bit of sandy dirt off a few of the berries (most hung above the dirt). I have to say that I enjoyed those berries more than any others we've already picked this year, they are delicious fresh off the vine and warmed by the sun!
I did think it would be fun to take my camera along for a tour of the flowers that are currently blossoming in my garden...won't you join me?

This is the third year I've had blooms from this gorgeous peony, and this year the plant is bigger than ever!

I love the way they look as they are beginning to open up.

This bloom found it's way into a vase that I brought inside, it will bring cheer to my bedside stand for the next week or so.

This overgrown planting of sweet peas could use some pruning, but I haven't the heart, I kind of like the wild look it has. So for now it will continue to flourish. These sweet peas are not very fragrant because they are perrineals which unlike annuals, do not have a strong scent. The nice thing about them though is that they come back on their own each year, there's no need for me to replant. They too have grown bigger, faster this year than they did in the past two summers. The flowers tend to "self-arrange" nicely when they are put into a vase.

This little bloom-in-the-making is on a dahlia plant that I've had in this spot for three years now, it too is bigger and more full of blooms than ever.

Perrineals really are a wonderful idea, one investment followed by years of enjoyment.

These almost not quite real looking blooms are on one of the fushia baskets that hang from the pergola at the entrance to my vegetable garden. Fushias are my new favorite plant this year, the varieties of color blow me away!

I'm not normally a fan of calla lillies, to be honest, they remind me of funerals. Actually, let me amend that statement, white calla lillies remind me of funerals. BUT, the pink/purple variety that is growing in nicely in the beds by the entrance to "The Pod" greenhouse doesn't make me think of funerals or death. I actually find this variety of calla lilly to be cheerful and delicate all at once.

White calla lillies: not so much! Calla lillies with color: yes, please!

Thanks for joining me on my little flower walk, the summer garden really is the most beautiful!