This is the clematis vine in our front yard. It looks positively stunning for about 2 to 3 weeks every summer. Then it's just a green vine. While Mike and I were sitting outon the front porch (yes! He went outside for the first time since surgery last week and it was delightful to sit and enjoy the breeze and our quiet street on a Sunday afternoon in the shade), I had a little brainstorm to split this vine in the fall and plant the other half in front of the other bedroom window. I think that would be really cool! And symetrical.
We have these pots in our front yard. And ants. So many ants. Ants that eat all baby plants. I planted some seeds in the pots. Some are finally starting to sprout. The middle of the pot has cosmos seeds, and I planted a bunch of old left-over carrot seeds around the outer edge of the pot. The little clay pots have Forget-me-not seeds in them from my friendly neighborhood realtor. They sent them in the mail.
The white stuff is something that is supposed to deter insects. Diatomacious Earth. Ground up white dirt/rocks from somewhere. It's a very fine powder. I'm telling you, I think I will just douse the whole flower bed with Sevin, high-potency toxi bug killer. Those ants are large and rather awful. And voracious. We have tinier ones in the lawns near sidewalks that swarm quite regularly. Ugh.
The celery in the blue pot in the backyard haven't changed since I planted them. But the egg plant has one blossom. The petunia and pansie (door prizes from a work dinner) on the top are still alive.
These are the pears over the wall from us. I water the pear tree, the home owner said to help ourselves to any of the fruit back there and I really quite enjoy Bartlett pears, so I water them.
Above. Cherries. On our side of the wall. Very ripe and very high and un-reachable. Darn. Eric says he can stand on an extension ladder, and he would fall carefully. How generous of him, but not really worth it, thanks anyway. I mean, we really love cherries and they are very yummy. But not at the expense of Eric risking life and limb.
Our peach tree is doing okay. I keep thinking I'm watering enough, but they don't seem to be consistently growing. Some look stunted and small, others look not too bad.
Here's the overview, looking north toward our apple and peach trees. I've bee trying and hoping to keep the lawn nice, but it is still struggling in areas.
We have a couple of cucumber plants, some carrots and some tomatoes with marigolds planted between. Half our marigolds were eaten by bugs. Their purpose is to repel insects in the garden. I guess nobody told the bugs who ate them.
The raspberries are on! Yum, yum, yum. I've had to work hard at eradicating yet another bug-induced disease in this patch. At the end of the season we're taking some drastic measures to get rid of whatever pest that is.
My story of the week: While installing the swamp cooler and going back and forth to Ace Hardware, I purchased a zucchini plant and put it in the ground. It was lovely. The next day it was eaten and dead as a doornail. Grrrrr. I'm telling you, Dear Readers, I am in a battle to the death against these destructive creatures! I'm not sure if it was ants or grasshoppers. Either way--they are doomed!!!
Our Jonathan Apple Tree produces a nice crop about every few years. Some years we spray for bugs; others we skip it and get no fruit because it just falls off the tree. I think this will be a good year.
The view looking south. Raspberries are along the fence on the right in the shadows, green beans, weeds, tomatoes, onions, peppers. I did plant a few potatoes, but they never came up. Or, perhaps they did one day and I missed it because bugs gobbled them up before we got a chance to even greet them!
The size of the apples at this time.
And that's what has been going in in our yard and garden this past month or so.
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