Harvest Season

We were planning a five day trip to Waldo lake with the new Kayak, BUT a big weather front is coming in. All the packing and planning is a ton of work, but being there is glorious. Darn. And the kids start school next week. On the other hand, it's good to be home too. LOOK at that bounty from the garden! Food needs preserving, cooking, baking and eating.



The Butterfly Tree is growing and blooming nicely. I was trying to capture the portraits of two little orange butterflies in this photo, but they were shy.


Have a look at THIS furry string bean I found in the garden!


Poppy Kitten.


Ok ok ok, I finally decided to be a "grown up" at least a little. We installed a stand up freezer in the garage, and I bought a full canning set up. This is our first batch of plums and pears. Looks like I need to pack the plums a little more firmly. We opened a mixed batch to test. Delish! I like the super light syrup with very little sugar.

Garden Goodness

How does your garden grow? How about a view of the flower "room" of our garden, where we enjoy outdoor dinners..... the clematis trellis has encouraged abundant growth! This is a view from the side. It seems like hundreds of huge purple flowers! Love love love them this year.


The butterfly garden is getting larger and fuller now. I'm very proud of all the flowers that grew from seed that are now blooming. Mostly, I find it hard to grow flowers from seed. Many don't make it. I HAD planted alpine strawberries from seed all along the edge of this garden, as a ground cover, and not one grew into a plant.

Of course not all the plants/flowers here were grown from seed! Three curly willows and a butterfly bush were cuttings from my mom's garden, for example. Everything in this bed is aimed for attracting butterflies and honey bees.


The crazy tomato plant that's taller than me already! It's going to be a good year for tomatoes.


View from the back of the garden. The red thermal plastic allows water in, while keeping plants warmer: cantaloupe and peppers.


Toli and Saffron are keeping a close watch on the spiders of the garden.....


This Thai eggplant is sporting a cute hat!


Three foot tall bean vine with purple blossoms. Grow little bean plants, grow! The spring peas are almost done, we are ready for beans! Gardening is just damn exciting. One of the ways being a "grown up" is fun. The kids don't particularly like cooked veges, but love making up their own salad before dinner, with a wander through the garden. Part of their salad is always a fennel burrito (fennel wrapped in some greens). Whew that's a powerful flavor, but the kids love it so much, each has their OWN fennel plant each summer.

Butterfly Garden

My butterfly garden seems to have attracted some very large, furry specimens! I can't spot their wings...... but they are cute.