Salsa

We had a mini-harvest this week - peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Of course we had to make salsa - it was yummy! The only sad part is that my cilantro didn't ever grow :(

I love my sunflowers!

I can spend sooo much time walking to-and-fro in front of my sunflowers.

They are sooo entertaining for me. Simple pleasures :)

I love all the varieties - I've lost all my seed packets so I can't share the variety names :(

My first red sunflower of the season!!!

I love the sizes:
The tallest ones are probaly 7-8 feet tall.

This little one is only 6 inches high and hidden.

Sometimes they don't grow just the way they are supposed to-

I love all the bugs!

Spiders

HUGE grasshoppers

Bees

Ladybugs

What were my kids doing?

Jolie ate all the tomatoes we picked.

Austin, Nyah, & Olivia were having a Pokemon club meeting in the pirate ship with their friends.

Sophie was sleeping in her sling - too precious!!!

Yum! Yum!

Olivia and I just ate our way through the garden. I love home grown tomatoes!!!

Blooming!

Too often these days I find myself up with Jolie long before the sun is up. We like to sit on the back deck and watch the sunrise. In past days I have enjoyed gardening at this time of day, but I am just too tired lately. Most of these pictures are from several walks around the yard with Olivia and Jolie, and all the interesting things they found to see or chase after.

Several of my Portulaca plants are thriving!! They are on the south side of the house.

Mystery flower on wildside - I suspect I know what it is, but I'm just not thinking clearly right now.

Another mystery flower.

Cosmos!! A favorite - I have several variations growing - this is one of the larger sizes.

Jolie and a wandering dog. He belongs to someone on some street near us and escapes once in a while. He likes to come where all the kids are playing and eating snacks.

Grasshopper.

Autumn Beauty Sunflower - I love the red tinge around the edges.

I think this is a Queen Anne's Lace Sunflower, one I grew last year and saved a few heads for seeds this year. The bees are busy, busy already.

Tomatoes! Tomatoes! I have lived here for 3+ years now, but it is still surprising to me how long it takes for things to grow and get ripe. I guess it may be because June was so cold and rainy this year. I think it was last year too.

Bronze Mum

Daisy

Stray cat - one of the things chased by Jolie.

I have 2 variations of coreopsis growing, above is one I planted this year and below was planted last yera.

Icelandic Poppy growing on the wildside.

And this is a new guy in the wildside of the yard - I'm thinking its a Mexican Hat flower, but don't know for sure. I was so excited to see it. It still makes me giddy.

Yard Update

Flower Report - We have so many flowers blooming in our yard!! I love all the different colors and shapes. Don't be too impressed about all the names I seem to know. I keep the tags that come with the plants so I can learn them. I lost last year's tags so there are several that I don't know.

Columbine - I have several red and yellow plants. I want blue but haven't found looked for it yet. I saw purple and yellow/pink at the store today, but was on a different mission so I didn't stop.

English Daisies and a groundcover I don't know. The daisies bloom this bright pink color and slowly fade to white. I love how these two are growing together.
Mountain Daisies - these grow low to the ground and the underside of the petals are pink

Another groundcover - Ice Plant - this one is a succulent and some of our plants didn't survive the winter.

I don't remember the name of these either, but I love the color!

Another no-namer that is sometimes eaten by deer.

Pots on deck - alyssum and violas.

Also on the deck is one of my favorite annuals - Portulaca - a delicacy for the deer, the blooms are all different colors.

On our side yard we plant a bag of wildflowers you can buy in any garden center, so it is a surprise to see what grows - I think these are Orange Wallflowers, which I know because we had a yellow wallflower last year but it didn't survive.

Orange Globeflower

I have a whole bed of Sunflowers - I am excited! I planted a variety and can't wait to see what blooms.

Lupine - somehow my purple ones are the only ones that survived the winter.

Salvia and Alyssum - growing in our side yard

Osteopermum Bronze (so says the tag, I would just call them a type of daisies) - these are new additions to our yard.

Coreopsis - returning well from last year.

Thrift

And now the Garden Report -

The tomatoes (cherry and early girl) are looking okay - not much growth, but that isn't surprising with all the rain. The cherry plant I have growing in a pot on the deck looks better that the ones in the yard, probably because it dries out more.

All the rain is drowning my green, yellow, and red peppers and zucchini plant. I think I'll have to replace a couple, but I'm going to wait until the end of the month when the weather should dry out some.

On the deck I am also growing strawberries, onions, and herbs. The onions look great. The herbs - basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, and oregano - are also doing pretty good. And some critter is eating my strawberries. :( I decided to grow them on the deck so the deer wouldn't eat them. I just hope it isn't a skunk.