What a difference a couple of weeks makes...

I can't believe we're almost done with June.  My garden is going crazy, and I love it.  I haven't been as good about doing stuff out there as I have been, but there isn't much to do but water and watch and make sure nothing is eating the plants.

I've been training for an Ultra-Marathon, a 50k, that I'm going to be running in October.  I ran my first half marathon last weekend, and yesterday I ran 17 miles on the trail, the furthest I've ever run.  So today I'm tired, but it's a good sort of tired, and I just walked around and checked out the plants, to make sure nothing bad is happening.  Looks pretty good all around.

The raised bed area from the backyard, looking lush.  And Zoe is making sure it's chipmunk free.

Spinach.  I've been harvesting a few leaves at a time and putting it in salads.  Mmmm.

Rest of the lettuce, looking good. Harvested and ate some for dinner.  Again, I just pick off a few leaves here and there to mix together.  Nothing like home-grown lettuce.

Unless it's accentuated with home-grown broccoli.  I harvested a couple smallish heads yesterday.  They were tasty.  They were also starting to bloom, so I knew I better eat them.

The tomatoes are getting jungle-ish.  I keep snapping off suckers, but I know I'm not going to be able to keep up. 

Some little green tomatoes peeking out.  Another week and these should be ripe.

First few Zucchini are ripening.  I won't let them get too large.  Giant zucchini are bleh.

Cabbage had a few worms on it.  I squarshed them!  This is my first year growing cabbage.  I hope it works out.  Mmm home-made coleslaw.

The sweet-corn is doing pretty well.  I replanted a few that didn't sprout, and they're coming up too.  I'm very excited for sweet corn.

Potatoes are growing slowly this year.  Probably because I found them shriveled up in a container in the beginning of June.  Here's hoping.

Lightning bug!

Yay!  My roses are looking sooo nice.  I'm not sure if I'm going to worry about re-blooming or not.  They're so pretty even for the little bit they bloom...

Asian Lilies are blooming, just.  I'm glad I found this orange version last year.  Now I'll have some really nice yellow and the orange ones blooming through the beginning of July.

I really love all this creeping thyme.  I'm hoping I can incorporate it into the yard somewhere... Right now it's very happy at the front of my flower garden.

Lavender is blooming.  I hope the sweet woodruff doesn't drown it out.

Astible.

Brunnera Macrophylla - Jack Frost.  I love how the flowers look like forget-me-nots, and the foliage is beautiful.  It went into my shade garden.

We're eating more stuff out of the garden.  Harvested a bunch of herbs and made a herb rub for turkey tenderloin tonight using rosemary, thyme, minced garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil.  Rubbed it on generously and grilled.  It was really delicious.  I surprised even myself.

The garden grows...

The garden is looking better and better.  I decided to move a few tomatoes out of one of the beds that wasn't doing quite as well, and am trying my hand at growing sweet corn instead. 

Here are my neat rows of corn... I shouldn't have too much trouble with wind pollination, and I can always break a tassel off and self pollinate (so my friend tells me).  I'm excited about corn growing in the back yard.  We'll see if I planted too late, or if my little corn will be "knee high by the fourth of july" which is always something I've heard around here.  And really, how high is an elephant's eye?  I'll have to find a way to measure next time I get to a zoo with elephants.

I found some old wooden pop-crates at a garage sale last week.  I put potatoes in one, and paired some tomatoes in the other.  I think they'll be happy.  They were a little droopy yesterday, but had perked up by this morning.

Stupid cucumber beetles got to the zucchini.  I'm guessing that they rode along on this seedling from the nursery, since I had no issue with them last year.  This (and my roses) I sprayed with an... um.. "safe" insect killing soap something something, and I haven't seen the little guys for a while.  I tried to hand remove them at first, but they little suckers have wings, and I couldn't get them!

My broccoli has been doing great.  I check it and hand pick off any cabbage worms I find.  I can see the first little tiny heads of broccoli peeking up out of the centers.

I'm going to have an amazing amount of black raspberries this year.  They're just finishing flowering, and I have clumps of them around the yard, against the fences, along the back brushy area.  I can't wait to taste them.

The garlic is getting giant.

Tomatoes are leaning towards the sun.

Lettuce isn't doing quite as well as last year, but still going to have a good amount I think.  I think I'm in the mood for salad for lunch.

Wild strawberries I moved into one of the beds.  They'll be small but if they work well I might try getting some strawberry pots and plants going next year.

My Japanese painted fern is so pretty...

Chinese Weeping... something?  It smells amazing.

Roses should bloom any day now, if the white flies and worms and other bugs stay away.

Lupine.

Daisies and Coleus in an old bucket.  Yay!

Now off for a hike!







 

This is why I keep running...

Some days I want to give it up.  Some times, I want to sit on the couch, or curl up under a blanket, and forget the world exists.  But these roads, these rolling hills, they call to me.

Rolling farms, the smell of cut grass, of rain, of earth... it's better than a drug for me.  I start out slow, and curl down hills and around bends, through thickets, and before I know it, I've run 5 miles.  And I keep going.  And someone mowing their lawn and seeing me run by mouths, "Good Job!"  And I feel the tingle of pride start at my toes and I pick up my pace a little more to get up a slight roll of a hill, and I see the countryside opening up around me, and I feel the urge to turn on an unnamed dirt road, and climb to the top of a hill to see just how that sky ends on the other side...

So I run... and I keep running... I don't really care if its road or trail or path, but it's here... this is my home... these are my hills... and I'll run... and if you're ever in the area, and you might want to see, or feel, or smell, or taste this craving that keeps me getting up, even when I'm down... drop me a note... we'll go running...

Rainy Day Alternatives...

So although today hasn't been a total washout, like most of the days this week have been, by the time I think the weather has made up it's mind and I get out there, it starts to rain again.  So Eli and I put stickers up in his room.

My boy loves his cars, and when I was running errands last week, I found this decorative wall decal set by Circo.  He already has a comforter and pillow and night lite from the set (and I also picked up a lamp).  It does a really nice job filling up the empty spot that was on that wall, and the stickers come off and go back on pretty well.  I think they cost me about 12.99, and they had different selections that matched different kid decor sets.  This was the "transportation" themed set.

The stickers came in three large sheets curled in this tube, so i was glad I had flattened them with a couple of large books before I started peeling, but since they're sticking to a flat wall, I'm not sure that being curled up would've made much of a difference.

I stuck everything up with careful instruction by the boss.

I think it came out pretty cute.

I couldn't pass up the lamp from the set, since his old lamp was getting a bit babyish for a big boy of 3 1/2.

Yay cars and trucks!

I really like how it turned out...  Now to hope it stops raining this afternoon so we can go on a hike!

Yay! Spring! Finally sort of!

It's been a couple weeks since I posted, but the yard is pretty much transformed.  We've had plenty of rain and last week everything was beautiful.

My yard was temporarily purple from all the violets in the yard... I love that.

The cherry/crab apple hybrid thing I have in the front garden was blooming, filling the air with sweetness, and also lots and lots of buzzing bees.

BZZZZZ

Sweet Woodruff is great for shady areas... be careful though, it will take over.  I'm going to plant some of it in my side yard and hope it will take over as "lawn" there. 

I love these phlox.  The tiny yellow center is sweet.

I mulched my veggie beds well, to keep weeds down and keep the moisture in.  This is broccoli last week.  I'll post a picture later in the week, it's already growing like crazy, especially after the rainy day we had yesterday.

My forget-me-nots are growing great.

SQUIRREL!

My name is Mud.

Just when I think it MIGHT dry up a little... more rain today.  We still went out and bought more dirt and decided to take a trip to a (sort of) nearby greenhouse.  It's one of my favorite places for it's size and selection, Wyattville Garden Center (I think is the name of it).

I mostly bought herbs.  I have dedicated a small portion of the newest raised bed for herbs.  I have dill, parsley, basil, lavender, rosemary, sage and thyme.  I also will be planting asparagus at the other end of the same bed. 

My forget-me-nots are just peeking out.  This one is blue, but I'm hoping a few will turn out pink.

White mystery flower.  It smells great, I'm just not sure what it is...

Ferns are starting to unroll.  Fiddleheads!!

Bleeding hearts.  I think I was taken, and that the white bleeding heart I purchased last year was not a perennial as advertised... *grumble*  Not a sign of it peeking up anywhere, while the pink one is very happy.

Tomorrow I'm running a 5k!  Hopefully will have a bit of time when I get back to put a few more stepping stones in.

Still more gardening!

No, I'm not tired of gardening.  I think I'll have the tomatoes and broccoli and other seedlings hardened off enough to put in to the beds next week.  Today I got another raised bed in.  And ran out of dirt when it was halfway full.

Blast!

So I'll be heading over to home depot to get a few (cheap) bags of topsoil tomorrow... because I think a few bags will do it, and I'm not going to get another truck pulling in here... I do need to get mulch in a couple weeks though...

So now I have many raised beds.

Seven.  One is dedicated to perennials for propagation of more flowers to move around to different places, and one is dedicated to garlic.  One will be mostly broccoli, and one to two will be for tomatoes.  One is already full of lettuce, so I think I'm booked up with most of the seedlings I have.  I'm going to put a few more stepping stones in tomorrow, and really try to get the dirt in that last bed evened out.

With all the rain we've had in the past week, and the sun finally peeking out the last two days, things are greeny up like crazy.  Most of the trees are blooming and leafing out (I'm so so so glad I do not have any seasonal allergies), and I think I'm going to go for a trail run tonight to catch how all the little spring blooms are doing.  It should be about time for trillium, maybe sassafras, maybe wood anemones... we'll see!

Hosta are really opening up.

My roses are doing really well.  One was a bit sluggish on the output, and i'm thinking of trimming it up a bit, since it's not budding out as much as the other two.

Pretty and smell sooo nice.

Saw this perennial and scooped it up.  I dislike buying plants at the retail giants as a general rule, but when I see something I really like, I'll grab it.  I hope this one does well and comes back next year.  It's called Lithodora(Grace Ward).  Not sure we're I'm going to put it in, but I'll figure out a spot.

Now for a nap before my run!