Monday, August 06, 2007

Blessed Rain

Almost 2 inches of rain fell in my yard over the weekend. Yay! Unfortunately, the relative humidity is about 95%. The grass needs to be mowed, but I'm thinking, Another day.

Almost every time I take a moment to sit on the deck and observe the garden, I see butterflies and hummingbirds.



This past Saturday I even saw a hawk perched on the back fence.

What is a summer garden without zucchini? This is the first of the season. I was a little late getting the seed planted, then it was so dry. Tomorrow night: zucchini pizza!



Shred the zucchini and saute with onions, garlic, fresh basil and oregano, etc. Top flat bread pizza crust with this concoction and a cheese of your choice, and enjoy!

Every year I try some new things in the garden, sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidently. The results are sometimes successful and sometimes not. Here is an accidental success.



It's hard to see in the picture, but the tomato plant is supported by a typical tomato cage, but the cage is upside down. This is one of those cages that is narrow at the bottom and wide at the top and you are supposed to stick the bottom prongs into the soil to hold everything off the ground. My soil is so hard, though, that I can't get the prongs in deep enough and once the tomatoes set, the whole thing usually falls over. This year I temporarily set the cages upside down over the tomato plants, and there they stayed. The tomatoes needed a little encouragement to stay within the cage initially, but once the plants reached a certain height, they held the cages in place themselves.

This is Queen Anne's lace, and if you look closely, you will see the spot of Anne's "blood" in the center of the blossom.



It's really an invasive weed, but while I am getting my bird, bee, and butterfly garden up and growing, it fills in the gaps. In the future, I will probably regret letting it get a toehold.

I truly did not expect the Rose of Sharon to bloom this year since it is a newbie, but it did, much to the hummingbirds' delight.



My plan to plant mammoth sunflowers was not executed, but a few volunteer oil seed sunflowers are filling the breech.



Reach for the sky, stranger!

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