Sunday, June 28, 2009

Lovely weather

The weather this weekend could not have been more perfect. Warm but not steamy. The breeze kept away the bugs. And it rained enough last night to soften up the ground for easy weeding. These are the days I dream about all winter.

Watermelons, muskmelons, and squash. The big one toward the back of the picture is a pumpkin.
Cucumbers are on the right.


A few pea pods were ripe for the picking. I ate them right off the vine. Yum!

The beans are on the left.

The lettuce is beginning to bolt. It was a good season.

The tomatoes are to the right of that. The bell peppers are in the two rows on the right.

The coreopsis is being joined by a few blanket flowers. The whole circle around the telephone pole is a big mess, but somehow it is always stunning.

Okay, so I still haven't planted these roses. I bought them thinking I would put them in the weedy circle above. However, since the weedy circle has never looked better, I couldn't bear to dig it up. So, alas, these climbing roses are still sitting in my garage. Yes, that's a bloom on the left. Imagine how spectacular these would be if they were actually in dirt instead of sawdust.

Earlier this week I planted the hosta, coral bells, and creeping phlox I got from my mother. They wilted pretty badly in the intense heat, even though I've been watering them. Hopefully they'll perk up soon.


Next year I'm planting nicotaina (pictured here in the hanging baskets under the dining room window) instead of impatiens across the whole front of the house. I suspect this area gets more sun than I thought.

Case in point: the impatiens on the patio are blooming and gorgeous. The impatiens in the front are no bigger now than when I planted them.

The planters in front of the garage are looking quite nice as well. Yup, plenty of sun in the front of the house.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Two for dinner

My neighbor Jerry was right. As I was weeding this evening I noticed lots of hoof prints in the garden. And several plants showed signs of having been chewed on. Now I know the culprits...
Yep. Those are deer all right. I think I smelled them before I saw them. I noted a manure/barnyard smell before they came out from between the butchered honeysuckle between my yard and Jun's.
I didn't think male deer traveled together, but both of these deer had antlers and were obviously pals.
Where's Troy when you need him? I bet these two would be real tasty.

They weren't afraid of me at all. I just did my thing and they did their thing.
They hung out quite a while before they wandered down to Josephine's apple tree, and I lost them in the dark.


The mystery flowers are in full bloom. One is a dark purple and two are light purple.

The peas are blooming, too. Shouldn't be long before I'm picking pea pods.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Birthday, Linc!


My nephew Linc turned 1 year old yesterday. They had a party at the Hawthorn Suites in Oshkosh. I made him a growth chart with a Cars theme.


Like Christmas.

Nash sat patiently while he waited for his brother's party to begin.

The party had a trucks theme. There were lots of them to play with.

Both boys attacked the big present with gusto.

Nash tried out Linc's new toy even before it was out of the box.

Sarah made dirt cake (pudding and mini oreos). The little dump truck was Linc's very own.

Before: nice and clean. Here, Linc. Use the spoon.

Spoon? I don't need no spoon!

Pudding!

After the party, we all went down to the pool. Linc fit in the inner tube perfectly.

Father and son. Aww!
Mama chillin' with baby Linc.

A big smacker for the birthday boy. He rewarded us with a toothy smile.

What a great family!
Hey Nash, over this way!


All done. Pudding is all washed off, even the bit I had up my nose.

Linc is SO-O-O-O close to walking on his own. Any minute it looked like he would take his first step.

Nash helped Grandma open her birthday present.

Linc was pretty good at navagating the bus.

Mmmm. Cheese!

Mary played hide-n-seek with Nash while Linc and I had our pictures taken with the growth chart.



"Goodnight Grandma Clarke. Thanks for coming!"

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Garden update

It's been a great year for lettuce.


Coreopsis from last year's wildflower packet.

You can hardly tell these were individual pieces of sod.

It's time once again to play "Name That Plant".

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lots o' mulch

Now that the sod has been removed...

...I laid down mulch. Thank goodness I don't have to mow or weed wack up this hill any more.
It looks pretty bland right now, but eventually I'll have some perennials here. I think hosta and coral bells would look nice.

Hey, what I coincidence! It just so happens I have hosta and coral bells to move from the back patio. You can see I also bought some pavers to fill in the peninsula.


What is this plant? (It's also in the background in the picture above.) It has a pretty blue flower that only lasts about a week.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

A sod saga

So I had some sod to move. I figured, hey, that's not much sod, I'll find a place for it out back.
I'll turn my compost pile and cover the bare spot. Perfect! That should take care of it.

Guess again. Still more sod left. Hmm, let me see now, where to put it...? I've got it! I'll dig up the ugly weed spot from last fall's compost pile turn and put it there.

Jeez, still lots left. Where to next? Well, I hate this horrible bishopweed stuff...

OK, almost done. Looks pretty good, I think.
The remaining bishopweed can be removed later when I do the brick peninsula project.

Whew! Finally done.
These leftovers filled in an area that used to be an evergreen bush. The stump is still under here somewhere.