Garden and Company

We had company for a few days and took them on a tour of this beautiful mansion in South Bend, IN.  It is the Oliver mansion.

This is one of the rooms.  Can you imagine living in a house this size?  Or may be some of you do!!  This would make one nice size craft room!

This is one of the gardens!

Another one of the gardens.  We were also able to tour the butler's house right near the mansion also.

We had a storm and when I went out in the morning my tomato plant had toppled over!  A lot of green tomatoes were on the cement!  Not a good thing for a gardener to find first thing in the morning!  The stem was not broke so we propped it back up!

These were the tomatoes I picked up off the cement.  Boo-hoo!  That was my only larger tomato plant besides the Sun Gold and the Patio ones on the front porch.

The leaves on the top of that tomato plant were all eaten off!  Coco can not reach that high!

This picture is from the internet but my friend found one of these ugly things on my tomato plant.  Yuk!!  He is the guilty one that stripped my leaves I believe and ate a little of about three tomatoes.  Why could he not have just ate one and ate it all instead of nibbling on three.  My friend took it off for me.  I am a sissy gardener I guess.  We finally decided to flush it down the guest toilet!  Didn't want it put down mine!  Haha  She left this morning so I hope there are no more!  I kinda doubt that "wonderful gardener" would take it off for me.  Maybe I will become more of just a flower gardener and buy my tomatoes at the Farmer's Market!

This is the one side of the front porch that has the sungold tomato plant.  It has had a lot of little tomatoes that were delicious but I think is about done producing.  Maybe some Mum flowers will go there in the fall.

This is a pole bean in the pail.  It has not produced well and I have mesh around the bottom.  Three guesses why!  Coco found a hole in the mesh (or put one in) and helped herself to what few beans there are that she could.

Our friends that we met when we were both full timing left for the airport this morning to fly back to their home in AZ!  I am on my own now if I find anymore tomato worms!!  Wish me luck!  Thanks for dropping by!  Come again!

July16th

My very first Roma tomato this year!!!!  It was hiding and hard to see.  I am hoping the rest of them on my one plant will ripen nicely.  The sungolds are almost done producing so it will be nice to move on to these.

Another nice size zucchini!

A dermatologist did a biopsy on one of my itchy rashes.  Found out I have Dermatitis herpetiformis.  In simple words I am allergic to wheat, rye and barley.  Fun, fun, fun!  I found this Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookie mix at Aldi's and it is quite good!

Also found a gluten free pancake mix and made them up.  Pretty tasty!

I was grumbling (imagine that!) because the landscapers didn't plant any perennial flowers in my front yard but now I have two bushes flowering.  They are pretty but I wish I knew what they were.  Do you think they might be some type of hydrangea?  

I needed some smaller dessert plates so went to the thrift store this past week.  Found 6 of these pretty little vintage dessert plates which had my name on them so home they came with me.  Love them!  All for now!  Thanks for visiting!

Success and Failures

My first year in my courtyard garden has resulted in some success and some failures!!  I am having a hard time trying to grow green beans this year.  The leaves get all tan and then fall off.  Is it a bug or too much nitrogen????  I have put Neem on two or three times.  Should I continue to do so???  Some later ones I planted have stunted growth also.  I have harvested a few from these plants.

Even my Roma tomato plant has some leaves like that although it has lots of tomatoes on it.

Soon my pole bean will be able to compete with Jack and the Beanstalk story!  Even it does have some of those affected leaves.

My raspberries have not done well either.  Just have a few on them.  Woe is me!

My yard long beans have some bad leaves also but are producing some beans.  There is one out there now that is even longer than the 15 inch one.  I don't know much about saving seeds but would like to save some from this plant.  I only have one plant.  Can I leave one on to save the seeds and keep picking the rest of them????

I am cutting up chives and drying them.  My chive plants are in a pot.  I wonder if they will overwinter in a pot?  I have always had them in the ground before but my problem furchild, Coco might eat them so I keep them up high in a pot.

One success is my Sungold tomato on the front porch!  Yum! It has produced well.

So far one small zucchini and one larger one.

I did not plant many beets this year.  I don't have room to grow everything I would like. (I hate to admit it but I don't have the energy either!)

Lots of pretty blossoms on these cucumbers!

Looks like I will get quite a few green peppers off from this one plant!

I guess I bought the wrong lily.  Had one bloom and that is it.  

The one on the left I had at my other house and it bloomed and bloomed.  I thought since they both had the word Hemerocallis on the tag that this one would too.  Woe is me!!

My basil did well so made up another batch of pesto and froze.

It brightens my day to look out in the morning and see this beautiful pink geranium.  See you next time!  I hope you enjoyed your visit!!

July 4th

I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and nice 4th of July!  "Wonderful Gardener" and I celebrated our 57th anniversary by taking a trip to see the Creation Museum and The Ark.

I would say that is one HUGE boat!

Harvesting tomatoes and Coco was getting into my yard long beans so roasted a couple of these and three little turnips and carrots together.  I love roasted veggies.

Since  Coco started getting into the yard long beans we put them and the pole beans up on chairs.  Not the prettiest but so far it has worked to keep her out of them!

Coco is enjoying some Kale that she helped herself too!

Quilty!!  I caught her snitching!!

I no longer have the energy to go blueberry picking so we bought 20 lbs to freeze for our winter supply.  I might need to pick up five more pounds yet!  Time for my nap!!!!  Thank you for visiting!  Please leave a comment so that I will know you have been here and have a wonderful month of July.