He's seven this year!
He insisted it wasn't official until he got that first bite of birthday cake!
My baby is 5 this year! AAHHH!
Instead of 'birthday cake' he wanted brownies. He didn't even have to have a candle! This child knows what he likes! He appreciated the sprinkles that formed the 5 though!
My mother in the garden harvesting lavender flowers with my little toe-head beside her.
See? There he is!
That lavender plant was just dug up by my Miracle Worker (I was wearing sandals - not good for digging) at the cabin and I plunked it down in an open spot I could find here in our new garden. I think it will like its new home, it's getting plenty of water to help it settle right in.
We were at the cabin to gather some plumbing supplies because MW brought water in to the garden so we could create watering zones with soaker hoses. The watering rapidly became a few hours worth of work with the hand sprinkler.
Digging the trench...
...helpers cleaning it out...
...laying the pipe and running electricity out to the garage while we're at it.
And now the garden is divided into four zones with a fifth outlet for hand watering any spots that need special attention. Yes indeed, my hubby is my Miracle Worker, no doubt about it.
We had a marauding rabbit in the garden so MW bought me some chicken wire. While he was out working, my mother kindly helped me put it up around the perimeter of the garden. Miraculously I am now seeing cucumber seedlings surviving long enough to keep their seed leaves! Unfortunately I think the rabbit had enough time to eat up my Edamame seedlings. I'm not sure it was the rabbit, but it makes me feel better to simply blame it on him.
Yet another sort of pillager in the garden was a bird I can't identify accurately. All I know is that he has a slightly curved beak and digs effectively enough to dig up grubs and leave behind large deep holes that were jeopardizing my seedlings.
My lizards chose not to try chasing off this grub-lover (smart lizards), so I've had to lay down this bird netting to protect the corn until it gets larger.
The rabbit also chowed down on some of my tomato seedlings, so I put these wire cages around them. Now that he can't (hopefully) get in, they'll serve as tomato cages.
One tomato is about to make its debut in a salad!
Mmmmm, homegrown tomatoes....a summer delight.
We harvested the garlic in late June! It looks, tastes, and smells oh so good!
In the garlic's place is where I've recently planted corn, non-hybrid zucchini, and organic yellow summer squash.
Across the garden where I planted potatoes with peas I also planted non-hybrid corn. I want to see how the non-hybrid corn does compared to the hybrid sweet corn I just planted. My son is thoroughly enjoying harvesting the peas.
Next to the potatoes, peas and corn is the relocated lavender, anaheim peppers, corn, sunflowers, an artichoke, lots and lots of allysum, bush beans, winter squash, cucumber, and hopefully carrots.
I'm going to have to think up something tasty to celebrate this season's first anaheim pepper!
Bell Peppers will soon be gracing the table!
I wish I'd block planted the non-hybrid corn this way.
But it shows hope nevertheless!
Bird netting over the jalapenos...
...for obvious rabbit reasons! But hopefully he and/or others won't be coming back!
A bountiful harvest of non-hybrid Lincoln Peas and some Yukon Golds.
Shelling peas together!
I taught the boys to find the 'zipper' as opposed to the 'spine.' After finding the zipper I told them to unzip the pod. They caught on rapidly and loved the sudden success of finding a whole line of perfectly round peas inside!
What fun we all had simply shelling peas!
Everyone loved the square peas found in this pod!
So far this Summer has been full of hard, time consuming work, not to mention financially consuming and challenging!
Life is good!
Summer is great!
But it wouldn't be complete without...
Sun Tea!
Celebrate your Summer!
Oh my, I'm glad (not really!) to see that we are not the only ones fighting the critters for the garden this year! If I may ask, where in Arizona are you?
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are getting rain when many places are dry.
ReplyDeleteI could taste the peas, I love them raw.
Our garden has been attacked by every critter imaginable this year. Yours is looking very productive.
Hi Candy! We're in Mohave County but can't really claim proximity to any town or city since we are so far from any of them. Kingman is 60 miles away and it's where we do our errands and shopping. Wikieup is at least 25 miles away. Other than that, lots and lots of dirt roads! If you have time, visit my post "A Different Solar Life" under March of this year and it might provide some interesting insight as to how these distances impact our lives! Thank you for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteHi Gail! Looks like we're all in good company, sharing in critter trouble! :) Wishing you luck in your garden! Thanks for visiting!
WOW what a gorgeous garden!
ReplyDeleteYour garden is amazing! All that time, money and work will certainly pay off for you.
ReplyDeleteTeresa
A goat could really feast in that garden! I don't think the bird net would even stop me!
ReplyDelete