Bee Magnet

A couple of years ago I planted a Russian sage in my garden. This is the first year that the plant has topped 6 feet. The lovely lavender blossoms are a magnet for not only honeybees but bumblers too. I took some time the other day trying to capture some of these bees. So, today I share with you what I caught.

Russian sage attracts the bees

Heading to a blossom

Some sweet nectar

Seeing all parts

Harvesting

I wish you could smell the aroma of the plant. It is heady! Thanks for stopping by today and be well… ^..^

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A Local Native – The Hazelnut

Years ago, when I was in the Big Trees State Park, there were loads of hazelnut trees. I thought that the leaves on this tree were very pretty. I attended a native plant sale at our county fair grounds years ago, and the master gardeners had hazelnuts for sale. I bought one. It has not produced nuts, which was disappointing. I was surprised this year when upon inspection I discovered that it finally has nuts. Here are photos of the developing nuts…

This is what first caught my eye.

Developing hazelnuts

Looking around my bush, I noticed that there were a lot of them hiding under the leaves.

Hiding under the leaves

There were single nuts.

A single hazelnut

And, a pair.

A pair of hazelnuts

Even triplets!

Triplets

Here is what the bush looks like.

My hazelnut

I am really excited that this shrub is producing. Stay tuned as I wait for the husks to dry and the nuts to fall. Hopefully I will get to them before the squirrels!

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Vegetables from the Garden

I had every hope of having a bounty from my vegetable garden this year. There was not as much as I hoped for. Even so, here are some of the amazing home grown veges from my garden over the years!

I love acorn squash baked with maple syrup and butter!

Acorn squash

There is nothing like the sweet flavors of home grown corn on the cob! These were very sweet!

Sweet, sweet corn

Here is a brilliant display of some colorful tomatoes!

Pretty slices

I love taking a huge zucchini, hollowing out the middle, stuffing it with tomatoes, herbs and then topping it with mozzarella! It tastes just like pizza! Here are a few of huge zucchini!

Huge zucchini picked fresh today!

For some reason, fresh home grown onions seem to be stronger in flavor than store bought. So, I now grow these every year!

Just plain onions!

And I love the flavor of a fresh artichoke! How about you?

Artichoke

Now I am hungry for some fresh, fresh veges!

Thank you for stopping by today! May you have a terrific day! Be well! ^..^

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Marigolds in the Morning

Marigolds are a very sunny flower and a great addition to any garden! They are beneficial in that this lovely plant has an odor that keeps some of those pesky garden insects away, like the aphid! They are also a deer resistant plant! There are yellow marigold and orange, but I prefer the beauty of the variegated variety called Queen Sophia. They have an amazing rust color and as the blossom ages it changes color! So, for today I give to you Marigolds in the Morning!

Marigolds in the Morning!

An emerging blossom

A bit of sunshine!

Amazing colors

Positively glowing!

An older blossom of pure sunshine!

I hope that you enjoyed this series of photos! Be well and have an amazing Saturday! ^..^

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Harvest 2014

You might remember that this year was the first year of using wine barrels in the garden. The barrels were to thwart the gophers and they did their job. What they did not deal with, though, were the ground squirrels! Yes, my garden has been ravaged by ground squirrels! Ground squirrels know how to climb!

At the beginning of the season the zucchini and acorn squash were doing rather well. Then the eating began! As the fruit started to develop the little rug rats discovered them. I had to share! Not that I minded at that point because we were getting plenty to eat. Then they started to eat the flower blossoms! Yup! They ate the blossoms! And, the birds? Well they picked the leaves off the green beans, wax beans, Tuscan melons, and the watermelon too!

We did get some amazing corn! And, we are waiting for the hundreds of tomatoes to turn red. Due to having turned my ankle, I sent my husband to the garden yesterday to harvest onions, carrots and potatoes! So, today I share this bounty with you!

The potato seeds indicated these were to be fingerlings. Clearly they are not but they sure are a nice mix of different potatoes!

Colorful potatoes

Check out these carrots and onions! The aroma from the onions: Amazing!

Carrots and onions

Let’s look at them a bit closer!

Onions before cleaning

Carrots before a good scrub

One of the carrots was a mutant!

One odd carrot!

My husband got busy scrubbing and here is the cleaned up produce!

Cleaned up!

The entire bounty

The best part? Fresh vegetables to go with our dinner!

Eating fresh!

Pretty aren’t they? The taste? Phenomenal!

I hope you enjoyed our little harvest! Now go out and have a great Monday, and week for that matter! Thanks for stopping by! Be well! ^..^

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Repurposing – The New “In” Thing!

We live in a world that is disposable! Sure one can recycle as there are centers everywhere. You can recycle old TV’s, cell phones, paper, plastics and many more…But sometimes one ends up with something that there is no local recycling center. So then, what does one do? They REPURPOSE the item! See if you can see the item that we repurpossed recently in this photo!

Notice anything odd?

Did you see it? Well if not…Here is the item!

A new planter from an old item

Yes! It’s an ugly green toilet! This is one item that was in the house when we bought it that has has always bothered me. This and the sink. So, we decided to make this toilet part of the garden. Planted in the bowl is a lovely lemon balm plant, and in the tank I planted two salvia!

It works!

The sink? Well that was one of the first things to go. It was a pedestal sink which gave us no space to store stuff in the bathroom.

The old sink has been in use for a while

So this was planted in the front yard years ago with a plant, whose name alludes me right now, that has a lovely blue flower.

What have you repurposed lately? Before throwing something away, put on your thinking cap of how else and where else you can use the item….like in the garden!

Have a wonderful Thursday! Thanks for stopping by and be well! ^..^

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The Vegetable Garden Today!

Back in May we planted up the vegetable garden in wine barrels. You might remember that post. If not, you can see this post by clicking HERE! The garden is growing beautifully and I wanted to share some photos with you! Now I do need to mention that I am having issues with the birds eating seedlings, and the earwigs doing some nibbling too…How about a preview of some of our tomatoes?

We have tomatoes!

Going back in time…Here is a view of the vegetable garden when we planted. Mother’s Day is when you want to plant a garden here in the Sierra Foothills! Ready?

May 17th

Here is a view from the deck of the garden today!

Looking over the garden today

Quite a difference eh? I have already harvested zucchini! Here is a shot of the zucchini with the acorn squash plants in front.

Zucchini and acorn squash

My corn is now in bloom and is over 6 feet tall!

Corn

We have 3 different varieties of tomatoes. Celebrity, a purple heirloom and a Roma.

Tomatoes

And, this year I am growing fingerling potatoes!

Fingerling potatoes

Also in the garden are wax beans and green beans. Having bird issues with these plants! We also have onions and carrots. The radishes have been eaten by something and same with the cantaloupe. My peppers are just seedlings and the cilantro is starting to get bigger! I will be replacing the melon plants with something else that I might see if I can get today.

I hope you have enjoyed this garden tour! Now go out and have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for dropping by!

Be well! ^..^

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Hollyhocks!

I have always loved the flower on the Hollyhock plant going back to the days when I was a kid. This plant is in the mallow family of which there are about 60 varieties! When we moved to our house here in the Sierra Foothills, this plant appeared in our garden one year. It was a beautiful shade of pink…

Pink

We have had this particular color in our yard now for about 6 years. Maybe three years ago, a darker colored hollyhock showed up. I am not sure how we ended up with this lovely contrasting color. This one is almost black in color.

Black

This year more colors have shown up! They showed up in an area where I harvested seeds last year. Do these mutate themselves? I have no idea! None of our neighbors have this plant in their yards, so maybe they do!

Here are photos of these new volunteers showing all their lovely colors!

Pale Pink

Red

White

Burgundy

The seed pods on this plant are round buttons that have numerous flat round seeds inside. The plant does survive our snow fall in the winter, and are drought tolerant. We do not water these plants and they make it through the hot summers here just fine!

The deer: They find the leaves a tasty morsel as the summer season progresses. I noticed yesterday that the deer are already feeding on this plant. As much as they mow these down, the plants come back! I would have included a shot of the area where all of these lovely plants are, but all you see are the flower stalks! Maybe later in the season as they recover I can post a photo!

Have a great Monday! Thank you for taking the time to stop by! Be well! ^..^

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Pink and Pretty!

This year my pink peonies bloomed later than the white ones. I have no idea why. And, there was only one bloom! It still is a glorious flower and I wanted to share with you this lovely blossom! so let’s head out into the garden – shall we?

Here is one lovely blossom!

One lovely pink peony

Isn’t it pretty? Check out this side view.

Pretty in Pink

The center of this blossom is just beautiful!

Into the center

One more side view!

Ruffles

I would love to have more of these lovely flowers in my yard! Trouble is that they need to be caged as the gophers find them very tasty!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by! Be well!

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Something New in the Garden!

Due to all the issues with the gophers and voles in my vegetable garden, and also a bad back, I bought a whole slew of barrels to create a raised bed garden of wine barrels! You might remember the post that I did a couple of months ago on what is inside a wine barrel. That post was the second step in creating this garden!

To get the garden going, we had to reduce the area that held the raspberries, and also the strawberry patch. And, we cleared the whole bed of weeds. I am hoping that this garden will do really well this year! So let’s go and check out what we did here!

Here is the first area that we put the barrels.

One area of barrels

Here is the other area…

The other area

I just planted these last weekend while I still could because of the upcoming chemo. Check this next photo out! My potatoes are emerging! This year’s potato crop are fingerling potatoes!

Emerging potato

My tomatoes have been in pots now for a month, and here is the Celebrity variety! I have my first of the season tomato!

First tomato – Celebrity

Check out my zucchini plants!

Zucchini

In other areas, I have artichokes and of course those raspberries!

Artichoke

Golden raspberries

I hope that you enjoyed today’s tour of the vegetable garden! As the garden develops I will share with you more views!

Hugs and be well, and thank you for stopping by!

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