Archive for the ‘sunflowers’ Tag
It’s the last of July already. It’s a little hard to believe that summer is more than half over. This dry spell we’ve been having for the last month is a minor annoyance but without nightly watering the garden will be burnt out. That little bit of water accomplishes miracles as you will see in the following pictures.
These Mammoth sunflowers will eventually reach 8 or 9 feet tall.
The sunflowers will be absolutely shredded by the hundreds of birds we feed regularly. They wait all summer for the sunflowers to go to seed and then it’s a bird free-for-all. This large bushy clump of plants in the next photo is, believe it or not, asparagus. The plants must be left alone for three years until they are firmly established before we can start harvesting the spears. Next Spring we’ll finally get to eat some delicious home-grown asparagus.
Sautéed in butter . . . there’s nothing better.
These last three photo are just general photos of the entire garden in three sections. As you can see in this first one the herbs are plentiful and I’ll be drying them steadily starting in about four weeks.
This next photo is one of the large frames. This will be the last year we grow veggies here. Starting next Spring it will be converted to nothing but herbs.
This final photo is a large frame filled with cherry tomatoes, green beans, rhubarb, asparagus, and a selection of hot peppers. The jalapeños are thriving this year.
That’s the update for the month of July. Here’s one last photo in my continuing war with the yellow-jackets, This nest was found under our deck after both of us had been stung as we walked by. I won this battle but the war will continue.
There you have it. Another month gone so quickly. I can almost smell Winter and the snow that will follow.
We’re in the heat of the summer and the garden is flourishing. Even though the amount of rain has been a little less than expected the nightly watering is paying off. We don’t water too much each day, just enough to keep the plants from wilting. It seems to be paying off big-time.
The sunflowers are already 4 feet tall.
As you can see the garden looks healthy and green. Even the pepper plants I was so worried about a few weeks ago have recovered and are producing what appears to be a record number of peppers. These hot days and night are exactly what they needed.
These jalapenos will help make some delicious salsa.
My better-half has already made a number of loaves of zucchini bread and I’m anticipating a lot more in our future. The zucchini plants as of this morning have an additional fifteen zucchini’s ready for use in breads and stir-fry’s.
This big fat one will be on the dinner table tonight.
If the rest of the summer goes as planned we’ll be celebrating one of the best gardens in recent years. In another week or so I’ll get really serious about drying and storing many of the herbs we’ve grown. We should easily be able to have enough on-hand for the entire winter and then some.
It’s time for me to get to work in the garden for an hour or so. Even with fabric laid down to eliminate weeds they still manage to grow in every little crack and crevice. It’s annoying but they must be removed as quickly as possible because they steal a lot of the nutrients needed by the vegetables and herbs.
WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THAT
How often do you open your eyes in the morning and spring out of bed to face the day? If you do, congratulations, but if you don’t then you’re like me. I lay there for at least ten minutes with my eyes tightly closed and not moving a muscle. If I made any movement my big hairy alarm clock (the cat) will pounce on me in a flash. He wants fed and watered and won’t take no for an answer.
If things are really quiet I know my better-half has already left for work making it possible for me to ease into my day. I make my way to the WC, take care of that business and then to the kitchen to feed the effing cat and get COFFEE!!!!. Without the promise of coffee I’d never leave the bedroom.
I made a trip to Lowes yesterday and purchased some lumber for today’s project. I decided to get a jump on 2016 by making a few alterations to the garden before the snows arrive. I’m hardy ever this motivated but I convinced myself to get off my butt and do something useful.
The better-half and I discussed making garden changes last week and I think I even surprised her a little yesterday. I decided to add two side frames to the garden that will be used to grow nothing but sunflowers. The total square footage will increase by only 32 square feet but that’s more than enough room for a lot of sunflowers. The better-half loves them almost as much as the birds that eat them do.
The first chore was to dig up the existing grass for removal to other areas of the yard to re-sod a few bare spots.
The soil in this area contains a lot of clay and it makes growing things difficult. That’s the reason for the frames. They are are to be filled with a lot of good topsoil and fertilizer to help those sunflowers along.
It’s takes a lot of work and time to carefully move the sod. We have one section of the yard that’s refused all of our efforts to grow grass. I’m hoping this effort today will finally solve that problem once and for all. After all of that work I’m left with two area like this:
Come April and May I’ll be so glad I finished this project today. Thank God for dark roast coffee.
Every person has the ability to create almost anything. That’s a simple statement that I’ll bet most people would disagree with. I can’t begin to tell you just how many people over the years have told me they have no creative ability. To those people I can only say "I’m sorry". I’m sorry that no one ever gave you the confidence to discover those abilities that you have. I’m sorry that people weren’t there with you when a little push was all that was needed to lead you to a life of creativity and self satisfaction. It’s a damn shame that many really creative and talented people are sometimes convinced early in their lives that they didn’t have what it takes. How many potentially great artists, poets, and writers have been lost to us?
Your probably asking yourself what exactly prompted that last paragraph and why I’m on my soap box about it. Let me explain. Over the past months I’ve had the privilege of watching a small baby begin to grow and turn into a real person. I watch him closely when we’re together and have been intrigued by his interests and curiosity. I can see his mind working as he builds fantastic block creations without prompting from any of us adults. He’s experiencing true creative freedom and seems to be enjoying it immensely. Fortunately for him his parents and family are people who will recognize his efforts and encourage him in any way possible. He’s a lucky young man who in the future will come to appreciate that fact as he artfully paints, writes poetry, or sculpts a masterpiece. Maybe he’ll be a teacher or maybe a ditch digger but he’ll always have the freedom to sit quietly and create something new and exciting and to appreciate the feeling of satisfaction it provides.
For years I’ve watched my better-half talk about creating this or that but never seeing it happen. She’s spent many of her formative years being a Mom, raising three children, and working hard to give them every advantage in this world. It’s paid off in a big way and she should be proud. She’s one of those people who has immense reservoirs of creativity that up till now have been used to create three well adjusted and intelligent human adults. She’s proud of those accomplishments but I don’t really think she’s see that as being creative. She’s wrong!
In recent years I’ve begun to see her slowly developing a different outlook about many things. She’s finally discovering herself. I’ve watched her create beautiful flower gardens without giving it a second thought.
She has the innate ability to plant them in certain ways that is more than just a little pleasing to the eye. She does it without thought and again doesn’t consider it being creative. Again, she’s wrong!
I’ve spent many hours with her wandering around this state taking thousands of photographs. She has a photographer’s eye and has taken some breathtaking photos. She doesn’t count that as creativity, she’s just taking pictures. Once again she’s very wrong!
Oh, I forgot to tell you she’s addicted to sunflowers. So I have hundreds of her sunflower images in my archives and their all gorgeous. But as she’s told me many times “I’m just taking pictures of things I love”.
She’s slowly losing that fear that other people won’t really like the things she creates. Once that fear is defeated the gates will open like never before. I watched her yesterday as she sat totally focused for over an hour and took bits and pieces of sea glass she’s collected for years and with some effort created a rather unique mosaic on a large pot. At some time in the future that pot will be filled with flowers and have a special spot on the deck.
Watching her was very similar to watching her grandson as he plays. She was in that special moment of creating and she was excited and mesmerized by the experience. It did my heart good to see her beginning to really appreciate the talents she wasn’t sure she had. I look forward to more of her creative projects and intend to encourage her at every turn. She’s about to become a much happier and confident person and will grow creatively just as her grandson is.
I’m the lucky guy who gets to watch the two of them growing together.
everyuselessthing.com 