The Osage Orange tree is in the pasture  and  has  many many Hedge Balls.   I have put them all over the basement , garage, storage area's.     I have been told that they will help to deter insects, spiders, critters !!    So   we will see what happens,   I have them in the family room and still  have  box elder bugs ,but   not nearly as many as last year. 

    This  is only a  " few" of the hedge balls , I have already given many away , have them in the house, and Nikole is taking  2  bags for her mom, and family.  Guess I will pick more up and bring to house or storage shed.   

While in the garden yesterday,  I checked the  pepper plant , and this is what I found !    And there are several more small green peppers growing.    I will have to cover the plant the next few nights as it is to get to freezing or close.   Not that I will be able to save the plant but I think I will try.      Only a  few more tomatoes left,   there  are 2 pumpkin vines that are green, and a few carrots left to dig.  Then my first garden is done.     But I have  learned  a  few things , and have decided what I might want to plant next year.   I would guess this will be an ever changing project.  More pepper plants next year, and beets. 

Mars and I were out to harvest a  " few" more tomatoes  yesterday and on the way back to house  look what we found !    A  huge  shelf mushroom.   It is about 12 in. across.  The base of it appears to be coming right out of the tree.  I will keep an eye on it and see how big it will get.    One of the wonders of fall. 

Finally  I have my pallet shelf.  I took boards  from one of the pallets, cleaned them and this past weekend,  Jeff helped me or rather  I helped him to nail and glue together.   I have it in the 1/2 bath, and have put antique items on it.  Old shaving mug, straight razors, brushes, a  mustache coffee mug that was Grandpa  Jacob Jungwirths.   The straight razors ,shaving mug and brushes were my dads.      Just fun to have these things  out to look at. 

Now  the next several weekends I will need to get busy and get the garden cleaned off and ready for winter, and get the flower beds ready for winter.    We have picked up walnuts and taken to the " walnut man", and we have more  ready to take again. 

 Margaret Ann and I went " junking",  and there was an arrangement similar to this  for   $$.   So  I got my grandpa's old wood box out , scrubbed it and  arranged the candle and flowers in it.  My plan is to change the flowers etc. with the seasons.  

I cut Sedum and snow ball flowers  and put in vase,  I did this on Sat. and now on Thur. they still look great.  Hope they last  a long time. 

It is now Oct. , the summer is gone, we are finding other places to walk, and this is one of them. The High Tressel Bridge in Madrid.  This is on one of our night walks,  the bridge goes over the Des Moines River and is for walking or bike riding.    Very cool at night as the pretty blue lights come on at dark.

I have had  an abundance of tomatoes and decided  I would try to make salsa.    The first batch turned out pretty good, but  I didn't can it . So I have since made more and canned it.  It is a  huge  project for small reward.  Single recipe makes 2 1/2 pints,  so I doubled it and got 4 1/2 pints.  And today I timed  myself and it took 3 hours  from beginning  with preparing the tomatoes to  the end when I was taking them out of canner process. 

 But  it is good and I   used the tomatoes.      

 We are still getting green beans , but no as many, and the carrots  are very tender and good, I think a  carrot cake is in the future.   My corn is done, I was disappointed with it , but I  should have picked it sooner,   so   next year I will  make the calendar  so that  I will start checking closely  to pick.     I think I will also plant more green Bell peppers  and  will plant  Jalapeño peppers  also so I don't have to try and find then in the store.       All in all the garden was fun and kept me busy this summer.  And I have to laugh to think I am already thinking about how to make it better for next year.

  Like getting more  large  tomato cages  or  maybe we should make something instead to hold the plants up?    Just  something to think about over the long cold winter !

A nice hot , humid summer day, and the garden is loving it.We set the   extra large live trap last night as  I think  the raccoon is munching on my corn,  but he just took the peanut butter bread from inside the trap and didn't set it off.  GRRRR

  My corn with silk , and little ears of corn forming, can't wait  to have corn on the cob.

  Here is the first tomato that will be eaten, today it is a slight reddish  yellow.  Just a  few more days  and it will in a  BLT sandwich.

   After much investigating I found out what these little green things  are.  Tomatoes berries.  And if what I have read and understood is that only a few plants form these, and they will have potato seeds in them ,  a  hybrid seed.   So   I guess I will be  watching them and trying to collect the seed.  I need to get a  yard flag or something to mark that plant, so that I can find  the plant more easily in the future. 

It is getting to be the end of July, and the tomatoes are doing well,  we have had them several times, and there appear to be  lots of green ones,  just hope we don't get tired of them!  

There are several of the little pie pumpkins that are already turning orange, seems a bit early for that.     The rest of garden is doing ok, still green beans just not as many, The carrots  are  doing very well , we need to start eating those, I have pulled the lettuce and will think about planting another crop as I do have a packet of seed that I can plant.   The corn should be ready to eat soon, the ears are filling out and getting bigger.   The garlic looks  good on the top, just wondering how it is going in the ground?   Still want to try and plant some for a  fall crop ,  need to check out the nursery  and see who has garlic for fall planting. 

Here is the first of many tomatoes!    I can't wait till we eat tonight

Just the middle of June and I discovered little green pumpkins on the vines!!  Now I know it is 3 1/2 months till Oct. and  anything could happen , but I am still pretty excited. 

This is one of my big tomato plants lots of blooms,  I am hoping for lots of tomatoes, I can taste them now. 

The potato plants have blooms  also.  Just keeping thinking I will go out to the garden and the rabbits  will have eaten all of it !  Although I have not seen a rabbit in the garden there is a little one that hangs around  on the other side of the fence. 

My poison ivy rash is getting better,  and I am being very watchful as to where I am.

Mars is slowly getting around, his vision seems to be getting worse, he did not want to go on a  walk last night. Hopefully he can enjoy his summer here , sleeping and just  following us around.

Ah  I have green beans,  lots of green beans,so I guess we will be  eating green beans !!!   I had a couple fresh picked  so tender and tasty.  Can't wait for them to be just a bit bigger.

And I discovered  several small tomatoes !   YES !  Still managing the weed population, and I hope I can keep ahead of them. The dill is getting bigger ,although it seems that someone might be  having little snacks of those plants. The onions sets  are bigger, and are doing much better with bigger, stronger plants then the onions plants . They are small, and  sort of pathetic looking.   But that is good to know for the future, I will just do onion bulbs /sets .

I had forgotten how many lightening bugs  there were here in Iowa.  There was one that was on the side window by front door last night , just flashing it's light, it was  neat. The back yard is just a glow with them.  Due to all the rain that we have had in the past weeks  you can hear the water  in Bear Creek running.  I know that will fade here if we don't get more rain. 

My flowers in pots seem to be doing well. I will need to make sure and make notes  about what is growing well and what not for future plantings. 

  

It has been awhile since I last posted and things  have really changed in the garden. This is most of the garden showing, the onions, beans, carrots,lettuce, tomatoes.   We have been eating green beans for  couple of weeks, the lettuce is  pretty much done as it has gotten hot and it is now bitter tasting.   I will pull it and    wait till Aug and plant another crop to have into the fall. The carrots  are looking great.

My little pumpkins are growing  this is one of the bigger ones, it is cantaloupe sized.  Just hope I get a few as I have only 3  frozen containers   of pumpkin left.

Ahhh  the tomatoes!!!    I will have  ripe tomatoes by mid week,  I can almost taste  the BLT's , fresh sliced tomatoes with basil and mozzarella. The two big plants that I purchased from Earl May are  huge,I did not get them in tomato cages, but  I did put  dry grass clippings  under them to help hold down the weeds and to hold the moisture in the ground. The little  mail order tomatoes are actually coming along nicely, they all have blooms.  

These are pictures of the flowers  by the front walk, so pretty, the hostas are huge. They will need to be thinned out next year for sure. Need to find some one who wants some hostas.  

 I think I will try and  cut some of the white flowers to dry and see if I can keep them  over the winter,as a  dry bouquet.

We have had plenty of rain the past few days, and with sun and humidity things are growing well. Tonight I discovered that the  potatoes have flowers,

the tomatoes have flowers

and   there are little green pumpkins on the vines!

The lettuce is doing wonderful and we have had  many salads already and many more to have. 

I so far have been able to keep up with the weeds, and I hope that I can continue to keep them under control.

My poison ivy rash is getting better, thank heavens , and I am being very careful where I go , and  really am not venturing very far.

We took Mars to the park in Boone for a walk last night and he didn't want to get out of the car and then very very slowly went on the walk with us.  He just didn't want to go. I think my dog is getting old.  But I hope he can enjoy the summer and sleep and follow us around when we are out.

   Mars  and I went to the garden  late this afternoon, everything is growing, corn and pumpkins here.

Green beans , see the little blooms , I can taste fresh green beans now.  Hopefully I won't have so many I won't know what to do with them. 

This shows the onions, beans, dill and lettuce middle of bottom.

And here are the potatoes.  

It was very hot today 97 , and it is to be hot tomorrow, with possible rain on thur.  , so I am hoping it rains then, all my flowers in pots  were dry even though I watered them yesterday.  

Jeff is working on burning the stumps, has the one in front by bank  simmering !!

We had  almost an inch of rain last night, which was good as things were starting to get  a little dry.  Used my wonderful hoe today again, and noticed that there are blooms on the green beans.  The sweet corn is about 10 inches high. Onions  are   great , garlic is so so , dill and carrots  are growing, as are the potatoes.

There Blue Birds  have built another nest , so hopefully we will have another brood of little birds.

Nothing like taking a  city girl and putting her in the country,  I encountered poison ivy last Sunday, only a few more new blisters  today. Hopefully in another week things will be getting better.

  The garden is growing , everything looks good, we had  fresh lettuce greens for a  salad tonight , very tasty.  I planted 6 asparagus , 2 sage plants, and marigolds, all from Lorri.  These  plants  look wonderful, very healthy.   We had 1.5 inches of rain this  week,so a few days without rain would be nice.  I would guess that the beans will be the next thing that I will get to harvest, then the carrots.  Although I can't wait to taste sweet corn and tomatoes and little new potatoes. 

I peaked in the Blue Bird house  last week and there  were 3-4 little blue birds, it was hard to tell as  they were packed in.  Today I checked  when we got home and they have fledged.  I hope that there will be another  brood this summer. 

Slowly we are getting come control of this yard, but it will be  a  work in progress for  a long time. There is always  something that needs to be mowed, or cut down, weeded or hauled away. But it is giving us things to do. 

We have had plenty of rain, Thurs. we had 1.07 in. in about 14 hours. Things  are really wet. Then Fri. it had been warm and quite humid.  The weeds are loving this.    But  I  did plant Brussel Sprouts today.   I also checked  and found that  the potatoes  are popping up. I found  4 little bumps  of green leaves.  So everything I have planted is growing. Pretty amazing to me.

And my new hoe  makes  weeding the garden  very easy and quick.

I am still getting asparagus to eat.  Not much, a couple of spears each day and they are  mostly very thin.  Most have gone to seed already. There  could be wild raspberries. There are bushes all over the yard, pastures that   have little buds of  fruit starting.   I am hoping that  I can walk all over  the  fields and by the creek and  pick raspberries.

Mars and I did our daily walk to the garden and guess what we found today?    The sweet corn has popped up and so have the pumpkins! It is amazing what 1/2 in. of rain and  warm temps  will do for a  garden, because they were not there yesterday.  But  on that note the weeds are also growing so I will get to use my new garden Hoe again.  Which is a  totally awesome garden hoe.  It is " U" shaped and has blades on both sides , so that it will cut the weeds when you push and pull it through the dirt. 

This past weekend Brad and Nikole came down,and we had  a really busy weekend.  Mars,Honey and Indiana were good and sat waiting for the action to start.   They did go off and explore later, Nikole took them for a  " swim" in the creek. 

We put in fencing for my garden in hopes it will keep the deer out or at least  make them think about jumping the fence. I think it went up pretty quickly with all of us working on it. 

 Here is the finished project, it just needs a  gate, but that will be another day. 

And  here are my green beans  just starting to pop up,  so at least I know I can do beans.

This was the second  project, to put  large rock along the edge of flower beds from the drive way down to the bottom of steps, and it blended right in with the rocks I had put in several weeks ago to keep mulch from washing away. 

The Vampires in the neighborhood  won't have a chance !!!  I just planted  two rows of garlic ,   also planted  my potatoes.  It is to rain late Sat.and  then rain every day till Thurs., plus  temps are to be in the 70's.  So  I think that is just what a new little garden needs, rain, sun, and warm temps.  The only thing that has started to appear are the onion sets.  I had hoped  more would be up by now ,guess I am being impatient.  The only thing left to plant  are the tomatoes, green pepper.
My sister and I have ordered tomatoes from the Garden Collection, which boosts  " giant  tomatoes and bushels per vine" !!  Those are some pretty amazing claims, if only that would happen. So we will see.  Those plants  should arrive  mid May.  I will also buy tomato plants at the garden center in Boone just in case .

  I also checked Blue Bird house and I could feel eggs in the nest. It is to high up for me  to see into the nest ,  will need to get a ladder or mirror.

Another  beautiful day here, the rock edging I did seems to be staying in place, is keeping the wood mulch in place and the Sedum and Hosta I transplanted looks ok.  So  this weekend the plan will be to do rock edging from the driveway down to the steps to the patio/ fire pit area.

There is asparagus growing by the fence, Mars  was helping me pick it tonight, should be enough for 2 small servings tomorrow ( I hope ) . If not I will just  keep picking until we do have enough.