More than Lettuce, Weeds, Stitches and Question

 Finally!  More than just lettuce to post about!  These are the first shelling peas that I picked.

It has been so hot and humid here lately that we went out after the sun had gone down somewhat and picked this big bowl of shelling peas.  That will be our veggie for the next two or three nights!  They are so yummy so not complaining one bit!!!!!

I have a question for all you gardeners that are smarter than me!  I want to grow the peas that you eat the pods.  I planted these which are Sugar Daddy.  It says on the package that they are a stringless podded pea.  3 inches long.  Mine are about two inches long and after a bit they form the peas inside.  The pods seem to taste okay to eat though.  Did I buy the wrong kind of seed for what I want?  Can I sautee the pods even if they have started forming the peas inside? What kind do you recommend for eating the pods???????   Thanks for your help!!!!

I have pulled just a few green onions.  The small one had a bad spot and was not tasty.  The other one was a little large but okay.

One day I picked a little lettuce, one pak choi, little swiss chard, one kale leaf and a few sugar peas.

This is a little Sunsugar Cherry tomato.  I harvested two of them but one didn't make it into the house!

We have had some wrens around.  See the little bird in the top part of the trellis!

This butterfly seemed to love my lavender yesterday and stayed around for the longest time!  I love having butterflies and bees in our yard.

  

I thought this was calendula that reseeded in this pot with the marigolds!  I guess the joke was on me.  After looking at the leaves more closely I decided they were just healthy weeds and cut them down!

These white chairs have a little round table which we eat lunch at sometimes.  They are uncomfortable so we are using different ones.  I set these out in the yard for decoration and put a pot of flowers on each one.  Later added a little bird house beside them on the ground.  They are beside my newly planted this year butterfly bushes.

Here is a close up of one with the pot of marigolds.

This is the close up of the other one!

The strawberries are about done and I cut some lemon balm to dry even though it is not as good as fresh!

Remember the little pail that Coco's flower came in for Mother's Day??  Melissa made up this cute little arrangement in it for me.

We had a little excitement.  The pergola needed a new roof and the family came over to help.  My "wonderful gardener" got accidentally hit in the head with a crowbar!  Before I could take him to the emergency room for 8 stitches he had to give instructions to the crew on how to do it!!

This is our energetic daughter Sue up on the pergola pounding the nails into the roof.  The heat was oppressing and this is after a morning of weeding for me!  Oh, to have half her energy!

After the weeding and roofing she went out and mowed the front lawn!  I think she burned her share of calories for that day!

Whew!  You must be ready for a cup of tea!  What flavor would you like!!!  Or maybe with this hot weather I should make it ice tea!!!  Thanks for visiting!

Guess what! Food, Plates, Flowers, Wallet & Curtains

Lettuce again!!!!  Ha, ha!  Well, I did harvest a couple other things too and much of the lettuce has bolted and is getting bitter.  But soon....I will have shelling peas to eat and I saw some sugar peas on the plants today!!  Yippee!

I believe this will be the last of the radishes for this year!  I have not had luck trying to grow them in the fall but may get ambitious and try again.

Picked a few small strawberries from the patch I didn't get anything from last year!

The "Littles" were over yesterday and picked the few strawberries out there.  Of course they ate them!

I have been picking a little lavender from the lavender circle and hanging it to dry.  This is in my grandmother's spoon holder I believe.

No more spinach left!  I am trying to grow more but not much success yet!  Actually I think this is Swiss Chard and not Spinach.  I need to keep better records!

I went to the thrift store and found these Wedgewood plates for $1 each so bought them.  I already had two so now I have a set for four.

Here is a picture of the flowers in front of the raspberries.  I just love it when they are all in full bloom.  For some reason Cali (one of the littles) thought the sheep should come out of there the other day!

The pergola was in sad need of new curtains so bought some pretty blue sheets and hung them up.  I hope the winds we get here are kind to them!  Ignore the weeds in the bricks.  My "wonderful gardener" is working at getting them out today!

No, this rose is not from my rose circle!  My "wonderful gardener" brought it to me the other day.  I can't help it if my "wonderful gardener" is romantic!!!!!  It is beautiful!

Kathryn's Needles & Pins listed on my blogs on the side had a contest and I won this cute little wallet that she made!!!  She does very nice work and has an etsy store.  Thank you Kathryn!

This is the back sided of it.  I just love that little polka dot ribbon for the zipper pull.

And this is the inside of it.  Such pretty blue and green colors together!  This is it for this Monday.  Hope you all have a happy gardening week!

Lettuce Again!, Bushes, Garden, Carrots & Strawberries

I am still harvesting lettuce although it is starting to go to seed and I pulled some out for the compost pile today.  I have more growing so hope that I won't have to be without my salads!!  That is a little dill on top as I like to cut up a little of it in my salads.

Trying to keep at cutting a few things to dry!  This is more oregano and a little parsley.  I like to cut and hang them but taking them off the stems not so much!!!

We really enjoyed the dilly carrots that I canned last year so I got busy and canned three more pints towards next years supply.  I cut them up fine and add to egg salad, and tuna fish and sliver them to add to our grilled cheese.  I have even added a little of them to my salad if I am low on things to put in it!

This is my new strawberry patch just planted this year.  I must have missed cutting off this blossom as I was surprised when I saw this strawberry!

Here is a close up of it.  I think it was a pretty good size!

I have a few old strawberry plants from previous years.  I didn't get hardly any from them last year and even pulled out some.  I was surprised to find all these out there the other day.  They are small!  I am wondering if strawberries need a lot of rain as we have had quite a bit of it!

We do like our strawberries so after church we went and bought five buckets of them!  Gas is very high here in Indiana and we were part way there.  Lots of work but will be so yummy this winter!  I do hope I can grow more of our own next year!!!!!!

My pea patch has lots of weeds that I didn't have time to get pulled but it is loaded with blossoms now.  My sugar peas have blossoms on them also!  Can't wait!!!!!!!

My little 4x4 foot patch of beets are doing well.  Hoping to have some to make pickled beets.  I love them!

Coco is all better now and out helping us garden once again.  Let's hope she doesn't eat anything else she is not suppose to!

This the Gerbera Daisy that Coco got me for Mother's Day and ate the flower off!  It then got mildew.  I trimmed the leaves off and sprayed it and now it is short, but has a new flower and looking healthy so I planted it out.  Hoping she doesn't decide to eat the flower again!

This is the cute little pail Coco's flower came in.  It is only about 4 and 1/2 inches tall and about 5 inches across the top.  It is kind of gray/green spackled paint looking on the outside.  I would like to reuse it in some way!  Could someone be creative and come up with some ideas????????  

The Yarrow at the corner is blooming so beautiful right now!

Last year I had two Asparagus ferns hanging on our front porch and a bird made a nest in one of them.  This year I hung two Boston ferns and they are so thick I didn't think a bird could make a nest.  I was surprised the other day to see this little tiny nest right in the middle.  I just checked and there are four tiny little eggs in it.  Two are speckled and two are a real light color.  I have only seen a bird looking interested in the plant once!!  I will have to keep an eye out to see what my renter is doing! 

We had two of my Dad's milk cans painted black sitting in front of our garage.  I was so disappointed when someone stole them.  The space is not very large but we finally decided on these two little bushes.  They are Royal Burgundy Barberry and the average size is suppose to be 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide.  We also have burgundy shutters so hope they will look nice.

Here is a close up picture of one of the bushes.

Our front porch really needed some pizzazz!  Of course, being frugal, I did not want to spend any money! LOL I decided to stick this little round table out there with the pink tablecloth and a scented geranium.  I have a little chalkboard I intend to write welcome on and set it by the plant.

Here is another picture of the table, flowers and my Cozy Thyme sign and our little welcome dog!  Laundry and making lunch is calling so I suppose I have to do something besides gardening since I don't have a maid!!!!  Have a wonderful week!

Herb & Veggie Harvest, Toad, Comfrey Tea & Fruit

Time to start harvesting herbs to dry!  Here is some lemon thyme and raspberry leaves.

Picked a little oregano and lemon balm too.  Even though we have had lots of rain and up and down weather things seem to keep growing!

I was able to harvest this one day.  Radishes, spinach and lettuce,  swiss chard and one lone asparagus!

I am very happy to see this nice big toad visiting in one of my gardens!

We planted this clematis along our back fence last year.  I am so pleased with the way it is growing and love that color!

More lettuce and the following picture of spinach picked another time.

I think this is about the last of my spinach.  Has anyone had luck growing spinach in the summer?  If so, tell me your secret!

This is my comfrey tea brewing!  First time to try this to fertilize my garden is this year.  My "wonderful gardener" looked at the water when I ask him to carry it to the garden and said, "Your not going to use that dirty water, are you!"  He thought I was making it to drink!  It is a five gallon pail so that would be a lot of drinking!

My sheep have finally decided it is warm enough to come out into the garden!

We enlarged our little fountain garden a little.  Even though I have not gotten it completely weeded the flowers are blooming anyway!

Another view of it!

My peach tree limb has the peach tree leaf wilt but it has a lot of little peaches on it.  They told me to use some organic stuff on it next March but too late to do anything this year except fertilize it and keep it watered.  Wonder if I will get any peaches?????

This is my Chojuio Dwarf Pear tree and it has little pears developing.  I see the little black spot  and wonder if someone could tell me what that is and if it will be a problem.  What should I do about it????

You need two dwarf pear trees for pollination and this is my Hosui pear.  It has a black spot too.  This is my first year to have the little pears developing on them.  Sure hope I get to harvest some!  I fertilized all my fruit trees.  Then Coco became very sick.  I worked an organic fertilizer into the soil, watered and put mulch over it.  I see she dug holes in the mulch so have an idea she ate some!  After spending money to take her to the vet she is doing much better.  We have spent more money on this dog then our four kids put together when they were growing up!  She has developed a special place in our hearts!

My last harvest of asparagus.  Now I will let it grow to develop more for next year.  Sure have enjoyed eating it.  Can anyone tell me why sometimes they curl around like that one in the picture??

Baking is at the bottom of my "to do" list when it is gardening season!  I felt sorry for my "wonderful gardener" and baked him a raspberry pie yesterday.  The raspberrys were in our freezer from our yard last year.  Wow!  I sure posted a lot of pictures this time! Have a wonderful week enjoying your gardens!