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!