Oh and forgot!!

We have our first peas!!!!

Another week......... Wow!

What a week! Can't believe June is more than half gone. We have needed a good rain terribly and finally got it!
Dragging the hose around was getting a bit tiring but raised beds seem to need more water. I have already
deduced the potatoes are not going in raised beds next year and will be back in the ground. They are huge!
Especially after the rain. It was a good thunder storm and this morning the wheel barrow was full of water!
The pond was filled too! The rain will end the poppies and the peonies and most of the roses are looking
very bedraggled to time for deadheading. Looks as if someone sprinkled dirty Kleenex around the garden.

After gardening all last summer, the kitchen was neglected! Thought I would work on it last winter, who
knew winter would rear it's frosty head on Nov. 11 and stay until March! Never had a chance to dig out
the saws and compressors as it was just too cold and snowy to run power tools with mittens on!

I am back at it! This week I finished the moulding around all the windows and doors. Finally secured
the dishwasher in place! No more dishes tumbling out on the door! Finished the window shelves and
ordered the glass. Ordered the last piece of granite counter tops and back splash....... two weeks!
Started on the shelves in the dining area. Taking a bit longer than I thought.......... Ha! doesn't everything
these days!

Garden Friday.....

The frantic energy is gone in the garden.
I was thinking gosh now it's time to sit back for
a minute or two and sit in that lawn chair and have
cool beverage!

But then I strolled to the back gardens and bent over to
pull a weed. That's how it starts, that is how it always
starts. Pull a weed at 9 am and the next thing I know
it's dinner time!

June 12th and I still have a box of leftover seeds.
With our cool nights, little rain and sometimes cool days
the plants are just sitting there most days. Not growing too fast.

Just about the time I was ready for that cool drink I realized was time to:

1. Pull out the radishes now going to seed.
2. Trellis the thrice eaten pea patch.
3. Stake the tomatoes.
4. Weed out the violets ....... again
5. Plant a second crop of beans around the blackberries & aspargus
6. Plant Rodondo zuchini
7. Sucker the tomatoes and strawberry plants.
8. Plant more beans where the radishes used to be.
9. Mow
10. Cultivate the soil around the veggie garden.
11. Curse the deer for eating the sun chokes
12. Curse the deer for eating all the blueberries.
13. Curse the rabbits for eating the sunflowers.
14. Curse the rabbits for eating the fennel.
15. Curse the groundhog for eating the echinacea.

and after muttering and cursing at little furry animals had time to frame in
a kitchen window.

Just got word the new floors have arrived so off to Cleveland on Sat. to pick them up!

this old house has turned me into this old spouse!
happy weekend!!

almost a year.......

Was nice to head down to the farmers market today,
a break from my garden to see what others are growing.
Due to rain and cool temps the market was slow but that
was okey dokey because it gave me time to catch up with
Maggie at Wood Road Salad Farm! Best lettuce at the market!
(flowers too!)

I started this home grown escapade last July 1.

There were no raised beds from 2.5 tons of stone handpicked
at our local quarry, no veggie plants, no compost bin,no pond or waterfall.
Everything was transplanted or given a new home at a neighbors house,
truck loads of garden soil and mulch brought in, trees out, shrubs pruned,
berry bushes in.

We are already eating out of the new vegetable gardens & have put up
spinach and chard in the freezer. We are also enjoying
the flowers in the new perennial beds and fresh herbs in the kitchen.

I would do it all again in minute! We have had many more birds and
garden visitors, neighbors stopping in to see what is going on here,
and high garden satisfaction at the end of the day.

Still dreaming of getting off the grid and living a bit easier on the Earth.
It is extremely satisfying to know we are a few steps closer to sustainability.

Working till Dark.......

There is always something that needs touching in the garden.

Yesterday I touched the lilac, make that whacked the lilac.
Syringa, Miss Kim had finished blooming and that is the
best time to prune. I thought just an easy trim this year.

One snip, then another and another. I took half the growth
off. Why? because Syringa, Miss Kim is just going to get
bigger and bigger as the summer goes on and by Sept.
will be setting buds for next years bloom. Best to prune
hard now and then keep her in check through out the summer.
Little did I know Attilla the pruner would show up! It was
a massacre!

Guess it's time to go back out this morning and clean
up the mess and then with luck get to the studio!

spring moves into June too fast....

If the slide show is too small you can click on the You Tube link in the left column.
Flowers always look better on the full screen!

Trying to keep with up everyone ......

This seems like the best way to keep up with family, friends, fellow garden wenches and the likes.

Abby is off to Camp Fitch for the summer, Rachael is back in Alaska working as a tour guide, (click on her picture at the right, it will take you to her blog. Really roughing it in that little red plane on a mountain top in Alaska!)

Butch is sailing on the high seas of Lake Erie and I am gardening with the dog.

When the phone rings and no one answers this might explain why! Seems like there is always
something brewing up here on the hill, even with the road closed on both ends.

We are feasting out of the gardens, a new pond has been installed; (thanx Rachael!)
The mulch has been spread, the bulbs planted, new beds installed and summer is just about in full swing!

off to buy a couple gold fish for the pond........ The raccoons will love it!

Loads of bird activity this year!
Hope your feeder is hopping too!