July 28, 2020

Not much happening around here except for the everyday things which make me contented, the necessary jobs involved in meal making, keeping house, taking care of animals, and apart from a pandemic, a really great summer with lots of heat and almost the right amount of rain.

I laid out two soaker hoses in my vegetable garden, which, once again, is one of the best gardens I've had in years. It then rained overnight which gives much better results than any hose watering.  Maybe the success of this garden is about starting a lot of my plants from seed indoors, as well as having fresh seeds (ordered online during the thick of the pandemic). Or it could be that most of my completely full compost container got worked into the soil and it is a lovely, hot, humid summer.

I always love to look at the intricacies of plants. I don't have a fancy camera (in fact, it's just my phone) and I am finding that the new blogger does not provide crisp, vibrant images anymore. My header photo, for example is much brighter than you see here. Does anyone else find that to be the case?

Regardless, my peas are climbing and have little pods and beautiful white flowers with delicate curly-cue vines.

My three pumpkin plants (yes, I am aware that my garden is too small to house three pumpkin plants plus everything else, but all three germinated. What could I do??) are taking over the world and as the vines reach the edge of the garden, I redirect and let them continue to wind their way through onions, carrots, and beans.

The blossoms are so pretty. (Notice the squash beetle? Bastards.)

I always grow leaf lettuce, rather than head lettuce. This is almost too pretty to eat. 

I grew dill with the intention of making dill pickles, but we all know the story of my cucumbers, so now I just pull a bit off and squish it in my fingers to smell it. Heavenly!

Here's another colourful, although likely not edible plant. I did not plant flowers in my urns, as I was too late and all the good stuff had been scooped up by isolated, bored people. This coleus was a great alternative, grown by an independent green house owner.

Please imagine it to be more vivid than the photo is showing. It really is fabulous.

Blooming right now is my Russian sage, a perennial that is both big and little at the same time. The plants themselves take up quite a bit of space, but the flowers are small and understated, providing a "wash of purple" from a distance. I apologize for the out of focus one in the foreground. (No reading glasses at the time).

My header photo shows Russian Sage with Black Eyed Susan - a nice colour contrast.

Lastly, as anyone with "livestock" can tell you, sometimes something gets sick and dies. One of my brown hens was looking sick (purple-ish comb, listless, standing apart from others) and I likely isolated her too late, but I put her in a separate cage, gave her antibiotics in her water (and also put them in the water of the rest of the little flock), and a variety of food that she might like, but it was not to be. Now this morning, I saw another one had a floppy, although still red, comb and was starting to take that hunched - over stance that chicken owners are familiar with, so I managed to grab her and put her in the now disinfected cage with fresh antibiotic water and placed her in the shade, well away from the chicken coop. 

We shall see. I am preparing myself to lose a few more. It happens.