the garden and life...

Decided I would do a separate post about the garden this week instead of adding all these photos to my WOYWW offering this week.  I spend a lot of time outside in the summer and it is always nice to be able to share it with everyone!  Today I went out and took a bunch of picture of what is growing and blooming around here!
I have taken a whillion...yes whillion photos so I probably won't talk about each one...this first group is from the front wildflower garden Chuck has planted in front of the wall...the big bush behind the wall is my flowering and fruitless almond bush!

Looks like a jumble of stuff and it is at this stage.  He plants the perennials and they come up helter skelter in the spring.

Cosmos...love the purple and white ones.

Shasta Daisies

Yellow?

blue spider wort

purple spider wort

June 13, 2017
What the flower garden looks like today!  Just month later it is really in its glory!  There are so many flowers in here that I just didn't take enough photos...ahaha!

Galardia

A huge sunflower that came up on its own!  6-7ft

These Shasta daisies and cosmos have been blooming continuously since March...Beautiful and prolific.  The sunflower was almost pulled out but Chuck decided to leave it in to make me happy.  It tends to take over but it is so pretty and just one isn't a big hassle!

How about bee balm?  A really pretty purple!

Mexican hat!  I love it the way he has the rudbeckia, marigolds, and the Mexican hat all together here!








By the front door it is a little more restrained and contained.

A welcome pot of flowers!

A mixed flower pot. 

by the front door...I got these pots years ago.

The backyard is more prolific!  The vegetable garden is really going strong...

Chuck is the mastermind behind the garden this year!  In past years I did a lot more but being not to well at times has dumped it all on his lap.  Luckily he really enjoys doing it.  A few years ago we put in these raised beds and we found we could plant earlier and later in the year and alternate what was put where.  The corn as you can see is coming along nicely despite its strange growth rate this year!

A couple of different views of the garden...

We have a total of 6 raised beds that vary in size from 6'x6' to 8'x8'!  You would be surprised what all you can grow in a garden that size.  A lot of good stuff!

Artichoke

Two of our favorites we are watching right now is an artichoke that is beginning to produce and some tomatillo plants.  Tomatillos are a funny plant...we have 3 in garden and only one is starting to produce...Tiffany a friend of ours said that hers hadn't started production and she read that you had to have more then one plant to pollinate correctly...she only has one plant but will get another soon.

We have scattered some veggies among the flower planters on the patio and deck...check this out...

the flower planter on the back patio...

a wooden deck that is falling apart but an integral part of our outdoor life...the big pot on the right end has two artichokes but they are alot smaller then the one in the raised bed and not sending up a flower!

This is a view walking from the overhang of the house past the gazebo.  We have tomatoes and peppers scattered all along the walk...

a sweet pepper plant

tomato

bell pepper

tomato

               

The tree in the corner is a Bradford pear...We are now being told not to plant them cause they are a soft wood trash tree that takes over if left to grow.  When I bought it I was told the things didn't fruit but guess what...They do...just fruit we can't eat but the birds do.   I guess the best I can compare it to is Kudsu in the southern states.  Their fruit looks like this...

The birds really seem to love these things...the flower is a beautiful white flower that comes before the plant leaves out!

Okay the last pictures are of the swimming pool...I love my pool and spend a lot of time out here in the summer evenings...  The swimming pool was put in 30 years ago and has always been a place the family and friends hang out!

My deck chair...so relaxing with a margarita and a beautiful sunset...

This is Homer JR...he is the second pool sweep we have had since the pool was put in.  His only job is to whip around the pool and keep everything in suspension so the pool pump can filter it out.  He has a little bag that picks up leaves.

 My daughter Heather surprised me with a couple gifts this week...she knows how tender hearted...and grossed out I am by finding dead critters in my pool so she sent me a couple gizmos that help them out...
This little gizmo has a ramp that the smaller critters can crawl up and out of the skimmer to safety...hopefully I will see less spiders and bugs...

This is a frog pad where the frogs jump up on the floating pad and can climb to safety on the mesh ladder!

 Okay enough of this...will bring updates as things evolve!

Wednesday musings and WOYWW

Well I am beginning to think that my memory is even worse then I think it is.  I think it is a problem of no time constraints and urgency of purpose.  I am feeling better and actually have been doing some more card making but...Well I just forget it is Wednesday until it is way too late to post!

For the WOYWW deskers here is a picture (or two)!  I am putting out a warning that this place is a pit!  The desk is an absolute mess to say the least.  My attention span seems to relate to making cards not cleaning up so I am piling stuff all over the desk and on the floor around it as evidenced by the second picture.  I like having my stuff I use close at hand cause with my back issues having to get up and down out of the chair makes my life living hell some days.

I know I shouldn't use that as an excuse but excuse or not that is the truth.  I promise to get it cleaned up soon!  Want to see some card pictures.  

A Mothers Day card!

These next three are  same but different.  I left the inside of the cards blank so I could put whatever sentiment in them I wanted before I send them off!   I love this paper and stamps.  The backside of this paper has popsicles and ice cream on it that would be fun for summer birthdays and I think I see some more cards being made with it!

Don't you love the colors on this card?  I used washi tape and pearl tapes to make the "paper" at the top of the card.

This is a fun tag and thank you card!

Pinwheel card!  Love these colors too!

These two cards were fun to make and I felt they were unfinished but couldn't figure out what I needed to do to finish them up!  Definitely have a Southwestern feel too them.

Love this hedgehog die and stamps!  they are from  one maker and the paper is from another!  I have had the hedgehogs for a while but the papers just came out.  Love how things come round!

Well that is it for the WOYWW post.  Go check out Julia's blog and learn what WOYWW is and maybe come play along!  

Thought I would share some photos of the garden and pool this year.   Chuck has been super busy in the garden and has planted all sorts of fun stuff...some we are already harvesting!  

 First up is a view of the garden along the fence line...We have a new bed in the center of the lawn that has peppers and tomatoes in it...  there are 6 raised beds in the background, 2- 8ft x 8ft and            4--6ft x 6ft

Garlic and potatoes are almost ready to harvest

This is a mixed bed of onions, potatoes, and chard!  Kind of interesting how that comes about sometimes!

These onions are getting big!

Next bed over is the tomatoes...something seems to be going on with them and we are thinking about pulling them out and buying new plants.  I grew these from seeds so I hate to do that but...        

 The corn seems to be having issues this year too!  They started out with a fantastic germination rate but everything has been wacky ever since.  The plants seem to be growing at such different rates etc that when it comes time to pollinate they will have issues.  Trying a high nitrogen fertilizer in hopes of bringing them around!

Beans and Okra are looking beautiful and we are hoping to get a lot of beans to can and eat!

The last raised bed is loaded with cabbage, kale, chard.  It is an experiment that seems to have worked out!  Chard and kale have been so prolific producing so far this spring...I just love the colors!

I love these Chard plants...so colorful and tasty!

We have a single artichoke growing at the end of the garlic planter...two more in a pot on the deck that we are hoping with produce for us this year...kind of an experiment of sorts!



I opened the pool early this year and glad I did because I have already been in a couple of times.

my view from my deck chair!

Have a great week everyone!