It's been awhile...

I just did something I haven't done in over a month.  I went and sat on the back steps for a few minuets.  An old friend commented in a FaceBook message that my yard looked like a peaceful place to sit.
And I realized that, actually, was true.  My yard is a peaceful place to sit.  I just haven't done much sitting in it.
This last month has been a bit depressing as far as the yard and garden go, so I haven't been paying it much attention.  That, and I have been busy with many other things, so the yard has been neglected, a little.
I've been keeping up with maintenance, and that's about it.

But, sunrise was beautiful this morning:
And while I was out there enjoying the sunrise, with my friend's comment echoing in my thoughts, I realized it wasn't all bad.

The month started off good...

The peppers were doing really well.

There were some big green tomatoes.

 

The cucumbers were doing very well.

Then the squirrels started in on the tomatoes.  I tried a spray made out of pepper and hot sauce and some other stuff.  I think it worked, a little.  But I think Dusty killing one of their number has more to do with the recent lack of squirrels in the yard.  Even still they got more tomatoes than I did.  For all the bushy growth, the tomatoes haven't produced much.  I got a couple good ones, but I haven't seen anymore out there.
It was hot in July, but about the end of the first of week of August the weather changed.  We've had days in the 90s but nothing like the heat wave in July.
And that's when everything started dying.  I don't know if it was the change in the weather or what.  But, first my pepper plants wilted and dried up, even though I was watering every day.  Then all but one of the large bottle gourds died.  One of my sage plants withered and died.  Now the cucumbers are looking really sad.
I've got one bell pepper plant left.  And it's still looking OK.

The small bottle gourd is still holding it's own.

The bottle gourds have white flowers.




The one large bottle gourd is mixed in with the cucumbers.

The cucumber vines don't look all that good but they have lots of flowers on them.

So, I'm hoping there might be some cucumbers in the near future.

I did get some veggie goodness out of the garden at the beginning of the month.  I've dried some sage and oregano, and the cherry tomatoes have been good.
The volunteer tomato plants have green tomatoes on them, but I don't know if any will be ready to pick before the end of the season.  Right now I'm watching the cucumbers and the bottle gourds.

Not much is happening in the flower garden.

There are a few of these pink flowers blooming, but that's about all.

Not many yard visitors.

This little guy was hanging out on the door, one day.
And one day I had a visit from a ground hog.



I had to take the picture through the window.  He was very shy and surprisingly fast.



That little shadow by the big planter on the left side of the picture is the ground hog.  That's as close as I could get.  I didn't know that wood chucks were ground hogs.  Didn't find that out till I went looking to see if he was going to be a destructive addition to the yard.  He would have been, but he didn't hang around.  I only saw him the one day.  I guess he figured out that my yard wasn't a real good place to set up housekeeping.
The Cardinals are still hanging around.  I hear them all the time, but don't see much of them.
Last week I saw the garter snake.  Dusty was trying to play with it.  I made her come in and the snake beat a hasty retreat under the house.
All in all, August has been anti-climatic.

How the garden does grow...

Wow, the end of July already.  I've given up planting anything more this year.  Only finished a bit of the fence and it appears that nothing is growing.  Guess the seeds were too old.  I'm planning on transplanting a few more things in the flower garden.  Right after I put the seeds in, we had one of those torrential downpours and some of the seeds migrated to new and different places.  They need to move.
And I didn't expect things to get so big.
I'm counting this as a learning year.  There are a lot of plants out there that I have never tried before.  The seed packets were all mixed and I have no idea what's what.
And things are getting big.  The cherry tomatoes are about the size of plums and haven't even started to turn yet.  The yellow tomatoes are getting huge

And so are the Big Boys.

The tomatoes plants are getting out of hand.  I need to figure some other way of keeping them off the ground.  The stakes I started out with won't hold all the weight.

This volunteer:  Has the distinction of being the farthest flung tomato plant.  It's growing next the fence on the side of the yard. 








And the garden is all the way over there.

I'm leaving it right where it's at.  Maybe it will distract the dogs.

Though, I'm happy to say, Dusty has been staying out of the garden, at least for the time being.

The banana peppers are really going to town

 

I just picked a whole bunch Sunday and there are more to harvest.  I've been eating them on sandwiches, in salads, and just plain.  I'm gonna hafta get some jars and start putting them up.
If ya all want some just stop on by...

The bell peppers seem to be getting off to a slow start, but there are a couple of them with peppers.

The large bottle gourds are an impressive plant.

I'm fairly certain they are making their way up the tree, I just can't tell.

They're mixed in with the grape vine and it's impossible to tell where one stops and the other starts.
and They are starting to mix in with the cucumbers too.

If I had known how aggressive these two were gonna be I would have left more room between them... 

The lone small bottle gourd is holding it's own.

It's latched onto the old cloths line post.  I was hoping something would.

The herb garden is still looking good.

My two potted plants are looking healthy and happy.  I think the oregano in the pot looks healthier than the two I planted in the garden.  I'll have to remember that net year.

The basil has little flowers on it now.  I had no idea that it would do that.  This is the first time I've grown basil.

I've been working on the flower beds the last couple of days.  They were all in need of serious weeding.  I've weeded the two smaller ones.

But the big one still needs work.

There's another trumpet vine on the back fence.

I'm gonna leave it alone.  If I can't have morning glories then a trumpet vine is a good substitute.

All in all things are going OK.

But there's always more work to do.

Yard Visitors

Last Thursday we had a dragon fly.

 

He's fuzzy cuz he wouldn't sit still.

Friday there was a moth.

I'm not sure what today's visitor is.  It was difficult getting a clear picture.

It was some sorta shiny gold beetle.  I got one really good shot.

 

Time to head over to What's That Bug to figure out what this is and weather or not I'm gonna be sorry I left it in the garden...

Moving right along

Let's see...
Friday and Saturday I did some, rip it out by the roots weeding.
Sunday was all about mowing the yard.  I've got a double lot and it was time to mow it all.  I got everything but the alley done.
Monday I went out and mowed the alley and dealt with the grape vine, as much of it as I could reach.  There's still some bits of it clinging to the tree.  But it's dying and it's off the wires.

 
I did some spot weeding and picked a bunch of radishes.

That's all I did Monday.  It was one of those days were the heat index was over 100 and it was just too hot to work outside.
Yesterday was another hot day and there was no breeze.  I went out and shored up some of the tomato plants, added a couple of extra stakes and retied a few plants.  I picked some hot banana peppers 

 
Late in the afternoon a storm rolled in.

It poured, so that's about all that got done yesterday.

Today I've been weeding.  So what looked like this:

 Now looks like this:

I'm getting a handle on it.

Things are growing well.  There are tomatoes:     

And bell peppers:  

A couple of the lettuce plants came up:

The cucumbers are holding their own.

 

But the bottle gourds are amazing...

 On the 4th. they were getting a good toe hold on the fence:

On the 8th. they were hitting the top of the fence:

Today they're heading into the tree:

I don't know that I want them going for the tree.  I may try to reposition them...

The small bottle gourd is starting to catch up.  I think the added sun is helping.

The herb garden is doing very well.  I'm entertaining the idea of actually using some of them...

The bad news for the day is the flower garden.  I weeded it last Thursday.

But now you can't really tell that.

There are some flowers in there, but it's kinda hard to tell which is which...

So, in the coming days I will be weeding the flower garden, very carefully.

And, since I mowed the lawn, even though it already needs to be mowed again, I get to start playing with the wood chipper.

I really need the mulch.