Friday, June 14, 2013

162/365 - Foggy Morning

162/365 - Foggy Morning by MossyOwls
162/365 - Foggy Morning, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

161/365 - Hydrangea

161/365 - Hydrangea by MossyOwls
161/365 - Hydrangea, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

The hydrangea by our patio is blooming. I love hydrangeas! One day, I'd like to try to make one bloom blue-- but pink is pretty, too.

160/365 - Rainy Day

160/365 - Rainy Day by MossyOwls
160/365 - Rainy Day, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

A photo from a window on a rainy day...

159/365 - Lily of the Day ;o)

It looked so pretty in the late afternoon light...

158/365 - First Cucumber

158/365 - First Cucumber by MossyOwls
158/365 - First Cucumber, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

Our first cucumber from the garden! Donald says it tasted good. (I don't eat cucumbers much, myself, unless they've been transformed into tasty pickles.)

157/365 - Red Rose

157/365 - Red Rose by MossyOwls
157/365 - Red Rose, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

This rose has been doing so much better since I moved it last year!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

No Thank You, Wind Power.

Well, at least there's some good news, today. 

I only hope they'll hold steady. I know I don't want those huge wind turbines anywhere near my house-- and letting them build an ugly, noisy "wind farm" anywhere in the county only increases the likelihood of that happening...  It's bad enough that we have a cell phone tower marring the view and making that ominous roar on windy days.  (Yes, I'm a horrible person, standing in the way of technological progress and green energy, throwing back my head and cackling an evil laugh into a perfectly turbine-free sky.  Ha!)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Garden Notes

(Notes more for my future reference than anything else, I'm afraid...)

The vegetable garden's grown so much in the past month or so!  It's gone from this:

111/365 - Vegetable Bed

...to this:

Raised Bed

(Both this photo and the next have notes on Flickr.  If you're interested in each specific plant's identity, click over to Flickr and hover over the photo to see the notes.)

Squash, Tomatoes, Blueberries


Vegetable Gardening Lessons (from this year, to date):

--  Don't plant tomatoes and squash in pots.  You don't want to go out there and water them every day, and they'll get very droopy even with watering.  Go ahead and plant them directly into the ground.  PLEASE.

-- Don't plant so many radishes at one time.  I don't eat them, and Donald doesn't eat that many, either.

-- Harvest and eat the lettuce faster.  What were you saving it for?  It doesn't get better with age.  (g)

--  Chives are very yummy and extremely easy to grow.  They taste like a mild onion and are nice as a sandwich topping-- or anywhere else you'd ordinarily use raw onion. 

-- The dill was easy, too.  (We should have seeds left over from some of these packets, btw...)


Annual Gardening Lessons:

-- The best performers this year (so far) have been petunias, marigolds, dusty miller, and begonias.  The impatiens don't look as happy, for some reason, and the vincas just don't grow as fast...

--  Morning glory seeds were pretty easy.  They took a while to get any size on them, though... Maybe start them earlier?  On the other hand, they're not really any slower than the self-sowed seeds of the cypress vine-- and those get huge by the end of the season.  (Patience!)

--  The portulaca (moss rose) grew readily from seed.  Plant more of it next year.  (I think they reseed, but the little 20-cent packets are cheap enough.)  Maybe plant more containers of them.  I think they're pretty drought tolerant.  (We'll see...)

--  The cleome from seed have done much better than anticipated!  I hope they make it long enough to flower!  (If so, I think they'll reseed...)

-- On the other hand, larkspur was a dud.  I think they like cool summers.  Ha!  Not going to happen...

-- Next year, maybe try some other seeds with good reputations.  Cosmos?  Sunflowers?  Something not too fussy, because I'm not that devoted to gardening once the heat and humidity arrive.

156/365 - Antique Roses

156/365 - Antique Roses by MossyOwls
156/365 - Antique Roses, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

They're tough as nails, pretty, prolific, and fragrant!

155/365 - Daylily

155/365 - Daylily by MossyOwls
155/365 - Daylily, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

It's given us a lot of blooms already this year.

154/365 - On the Patio

154/365 - On the Patio by MossyOwls
154/365 - On the Patio, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

153/365 - Silver Lining

153/365 - Silver Lining by MossyOwls
153/365 - Silver Lining, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

152/365 - Swedish Pierogis

152/365 - Swedish Pierogis by MossyOwls
152/365 - Swedish Pierogis, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

Not the boiled type of pierogi. Baked and very tasty.

151/365 - Squash

151/365 - Squash by MossyOwls
151/365 - Squash, a photo by MossyOwls on Flickr.

I've been eating squash from our first squash plant. (Donald's not a huge fan of squash on its own.)

150/365 - Digestive Chocolate

It's actually really yummy-- tastes kind of like a Kit-Kat-- but the name always seems funny to me. (g)