T-Tuesday and Tea!

 Stormy Kitty and I had just sat down with the first cup of the day and I decided I needed to check up on what old friends were doing today.  I went to Altered Book Lover blog to see what Elizabeth and Bluebeard were up to and ran across the T-Today post!  WOW I don't think I realized that T-Tuesday was happening but now that I have found out I think I will post.  Elizabeth lives about 200 miles north of me in Kansas and reading her post it made me think about all the rain we have had here in Oklahoma.   I can't remember the last time it was this green on the 6 August!

My new raised beds are doing awesome and so green this summer.  I think part is the new raised beds and part has to do with the rain we are getting.  I took this picture in the rain this past week. 

The new raised beds are awesome!  I love the way everything is contained.  Poor tomato in the back was a yellow pear vintage breed that didn't have the VFN protection and the wilt got to it.  I have since replanted that box with potato sets that I found growing in my garage...yes I forgot and left the potatoes in the garage and hopefully I can salvage something from my mistake.  Potatoes are now $3.58 a 5# bag here and that is too much to waste. In the closest bed I have planted cucumbers, yellow and green squash this week.   Growing season here in Oklahoma lasts till November most years.  Don't know what it will do this year though since like I said I have never seen this much rain or green in August!

A view from the patio.

The plants in the far left box are a second crop of corn.  The rain has caused some rapid growth and it is now twice the height and starting to tassel.  The big leaved plants in the boxes are Sunflowers...Mammoth variety.  I bought a package at WalMart in the spring and planted the whole package and had to thin them down a lot.  The plants are about 10 feet here and with the rain grew a couple more feet and started to bloom prolifically.  Here are some pictures of those Mammoth flowers. 

The plants are about 12+ feet tall now.  The flower heads seem to turn and follow the sun each morning. 

Beautiful!

I didn't realize that sunflowers are like Poinsettias and that the yellow petals are actually leaves not the flower!  if you enlarge this picture you can see the little flowers and stamens.  Learned a lot by planting these flowers this year!  They attract beetles called assassin beetles that love squash bugs.  Horrible looking bugs but if they keep the squash free of creepy critters I am all for them.  

Well lots of things left to do today and I haven't even started to get them done.  Hope everyone has had a more productive day that I have...I laid a bed way too long today but good reason...I was crafting all night!!  Come check it out on WOYWW tomorrow!