Lemon Balm Tea

I went an picked my first handful of lemon balm leaves from the bush that keep doubling and tripling in size in my garden and brewed a spot of tea. The leaves smelled great, however, the tea is much weaker than the scent. Need to work on that I suppose.

I had a peak at the neighbor's garden today and noticed his tomatoes have little green tomatoes hanging off them and his zucchini already have the beginnings of vegetables visible. Me? Nada. I have a few flowers on my tomatoes and a couple giant flowers on the zucchini, but NO veggies yet. Sigh.....

I moved a bunch of flowers and cucumbers around yesterday too. The cosmic oranges were growing really well, but was being over taken by the raspberry bush, lemon balm and zucchini. I put most in front of the house where nothing is coming up, or is at least very small. I move a couple more cukes over to the fence away from the two watermelon that have decided they would grow.

Carrots are at least LOOKING like they will make a meal this year. The leaves are getting tall and thicker than they were at the end of last summer's crop.

Garden update

I took some pictures the other day and since then my first nasturtium have bloomed! the first is a yellow one and a red is just starting to open. There are a bunch in bud next to it under the peach tree. Guess that is the ideal location as none of the others around the yard have any hints of buds. The ones near my lilies LOOK the healthiest, however, they are just leaves so far. I have a single marigold in bloom and a bunch more buds in the driveway pots.

Below are some of my cucumbers. Corn is nearing 2 feet tall.
Carrots are looking really good. Might actually get a meal out of them!

Tomatoes are gorgeous (to me). 5 different varieties. newly staked.
Herb garden is there, not the star of the garden, though. Basil barely breaking ground and parsley is pretty sparse. I didn't realize, either, that cilantro isn't a continuously re-leafing herb like basil is. Once you snip it, that's it, baby.

Flower patch is coming along. Cosmic oranges in the back, Zinnias in the middle, and 4 o'clock mix in front. Seems like summer is half over already and they still aren't in bloom. Is this normal? They are even on the sunny side of the house!
Lily and flower mix (nasturtium and 4 o'clocks). These are the ones I thought would have flowers by now. Sigh...

Raspberry bush is looking fine, lemon balm is getting really bushy, zucchini has GIANT leaves. Yikes.

Instant Grits

So, I read online that Instant grits are a good way to get rid of ants. I either exterminated the ants on one side of the walk on the west side of the house or gave them a hearty breakfast from which they will each have invited ten friends to join them tomorrow.

Bon Appetite!

Flower update: My Irises are in full bloom! Yay! Flowers! I have a marigold that is in bud. ok, one bud, that is better than none! Tomatoes are growing so well I really need to stake them. maybe this weekend. My lilac bush is just finishing up it's blooming season. Only two this year like the tree, but these blossoming branches were really big. Lawn is s l o w l y filling in. Really thinking I should have overridden the seed bag instructions and dumped a huge wad on like the guy across the street did. I will be very jealous if his lawn turns out much better and fills in much faster than mine. I think all the cucumber seeds I thought were dormant/ dead have risen from this state and all germinated. There are a ton sprouting up on the mounds. I think my green thumbs are fine, it is patients I lack with gardening.

Growin' to town

Things are really happening out there. we will see how everything fairs through 4 days of above 90F heat. My four o'clock mixes are coming up nice. I even transplanted a bunch to a corner where nothing was coming up. I also transplanted some sprouts along the front of the yard and they are doing so well. It may be time to say my good byes... These Cosmic Oranges seem to like their location. I can't wait to see them in bloom.
My guard duck is watching over these mixed cut flowers planted in the basket we received from Beth at Sophia's baptism.
My first Iris bloom. Ahhhh. I took this picture yesterday and it is already wilting. A second looks ready to burst, though.

If you look REALLY close you can see some of the buds I hope will keep on going to become flowers.
Corn is about half of Dylan's height. At least this row it. I think the organic seeds I tried to use in a couple replanting rejected my non-organic soil. None would take. I replanted a third time with the first batch of non-organic ones and they are now coming up. Go figure.
Glad I ready a blog that was sent to me on basil. I never would have recognized these to be the beginnings of basil plants. YAY!
I am really not sure what the plants below are. hmmmmm.

Spring has sprung another flower!

Yahoo! My iris' look like they will actually bring splashes of purple to my front steps this year. The first two years they produced none and now this year most have buds, some multiple buds and the first one has even blossomed into a beautiful flower.

Looks like most of my seeds have at least poked through the ground. I have replanted a bunch and added more as I look out on my plants 3+ times a day and if I don't see any growth after a couple days (6+ times looking at them), I think they are duds and plant some more. Only the Zinnias haven't sprouted anything. I was in Kmart the other day buying Sophia "potty prizes" and that dang seed shelf had to be there. I bought another watermelon packet, a couple zinnias, dill and some more wild flowers. Now I get to wait and see again. This time is the last one. Really. For sure this time.

Other stuff is looking good - corn is at least 8" now, lots of cuke's popping through, zucchini had a big growth spurt, carrots looking fine...

Plant identification

I looked very closely at my seed packets and am pretty sure of two of the three mystery plantings and therefore the third is probably the cosmic orange as I saw a hint of "carrot top-like" leaf on the packet as I see coming up everywhere. I suspect this is the cosmic orange as it is the only other flower I planted in numerous locations. The first of the two "sure" flowers is the Nasturtium. It has a lillypad-like leaf where the leaf is flat, horizontal to the ground with the stem of the leave coming from the center of the leaf rather than the normal location of it coming from one end. The other "sure" flower is the 4 o'clocks that start with two rounded leaves and then start sprouting out more pointy leaves from the center. Yay! How exciting!