In the Garden

 So, the vegetables:

We got lots of peas before the powdery mildew and heat did them in. I just pulled out all the plants yesterday. We'll plant cowpeas there next, which should go good for the rest of the summer.

The cucumbers exploded. We've been eating them every day. I canned a few jars of bread and butter pickles and my husband made some jars of half sour spears. There are still plenty to put in salad and give away.

We've also got a bunch of eggplants coming and pablano peppers and bell peppers and jalapeno peppers too. (We love peppers!) If we can find them, we will add some shishito peppers. We love to pan roast them in olive oil, salt them, and eat them as a snack.

And of course we have tomatoes. We just picked the first one yesterday. This year, we are trying the string between posts method to keep them upright. Last year, they were huge and out-of-control. We hadn't anticipated that. The plants quickly grew out of their spiral tomato cages and I had a mishmash of garden frames and stakes holding them up. So far, the string and post method is working well.

And then, the flowers:

Well, everything is just happy as ever.

Lace cap hydrangea. We have loads of these in white and purple.

I had to stretch and hold my camera up over these six foot beauties.

Gorgeous ones like these only last a day or two!

Cat whisker reseeds itself

and grows like a weed. This year, I am letting some of them stay in certain areas of the garden.

We have few plants growing in the pond this year. Last year they were sucking up so much water we felt like we were refilling it nearly every day.

I had to stake these hydrangeas this morning because they were blocking the gate. We've also go an incredibly huge patch of blue one.

I know it's not for everyone, but I am so happy to work outdoors nearly every day. I love going out and pulling weeds and smelling gardenias and listening to the birds (or my audio book). I love staking overgrown plants and de-heading and trimming back and fertilizing. I love that bees come here and butterflies and hummingbirds and dragon flies. I love all the many bird regulars who nest around here. I love to see (or hear!) the occasional frog.

I hope you have a great rest of your week!