After 3 weeks away and our house guests didn't eat much Oct 2025

 

Will the dahlia ever bloom?

Geranium going strong

I need to get zinnia seeds from these

I've given away 5 zucchini and 8 cucumbers as well as peppers but more are coming. I hate to waste anything but it might come to that.

September 2025 Lots of cucumbers, zucchini etc

 As it seems, September is a big month for the harvest.

Lots of tomatoes. Lots of yellow ones that I sent to Durango

 

20 + jars of dill pickles, 2 of bread and butter and 2 zucchini relish

pesto with almonds

Sauce.  Plus I made Carrot, ginger, lemon soup

2 cantaloupe.  Will eat those on Sept 9

Love the pink sedum

The Japanese beetles continue to be a pain, destroying leaves and flowers.  the Governor must have them as he wrote something about them.  

We are leaving for 3 weeks.  I hope that Brian and Hayley will enjoy the harvest and not let it waste.

August 9 Part 2

 I just drown 7  beetles. They were on the petunias.    So 8 jars of pickles.  Not sure what to do with the tomatoes.  

I had some overs ized cucumbers and made a nice cucumber, apple, mint drink.

 

I roasted cauliflower, cooked turkey bacon and pork bacon.  I make canneli bean hummus with all the parsley.  There is the Pico and the basil before I made pesto. I am making it with almonds not pine nuts or walnuts.  I like the taste better. 

July 2025 Garden pictures

 

Love having the Rio.  Sandy Timboe gave me the white one

Neighbor's dahlia. I took a Japanese beetle off of it as I took a walk

Swallow tail butterfly

The first of only 4 zucchini as of Aug 9

Is this something weird or a green pepper (supposed to be bell red)?

August 9, 2025 part 1

Not sure why I have not written.  Maybe because of the discouraging zucchini harvest.   Cucumbers were slow too.  But the cucumbers are coming now.  Only 2 zucchini growing now. I've picked two and Linda Coulson gave me  3. zukes.  I made chocolate zucchini bread, 3 loaves and gave the other two to the new neighbors. 

I've been enjoying killing Japanese Beetles.  I drown them, a few a night.  But the candle by the Pink cone flowers, also called echinechea I think, has been rather funny. I read somewhere but can't remember where to put a candle near the area where they are eating flowers.  When it is really hot, like it has been, the wax melts, they are attracted and fall into the candle. It's gross, yes.

Lots of tomatoes.  I had this huge one and Jodi Hook used it to make Pico.  It was green for a long time. Then what was supposed to be a mini colored pepper plant, Jodi said was jalapeno.  So one night while she was here, we made Pico and it was so good.

She loved having zoodle pesto one night during the class.

July 9, 2025 Will be 100 degrees today.

 Grass is no longer so green.  Lots of brown spots.  

There is a little bug eating the zinnias, very tiny and it is not slugs. Not sure what to do.

The vegetables seem to be okay, lots of male zucchini flowers but Laura said this is normal.  

Peppers and tomatoes seem to be doing well and harvest in another week or so

I did the big cutting/pruning of all the petunias, hard to do but hopefully by the time Ellen and the kids come, the flowers will be back.

July 1, 2025

 It's good to be home.

some notes:

1. 3 male zucchini flowers. where are the females?

2. I've not seen any pests and I have been spraying with the baking soda, white vinegar, gentle soap, water mixture.

3. Since the little zinnia seeds are partially eaten, I bought 4 zinnias at Plum Creek. Love that place

4. The echineachia  that I planted last year as seeds is huge and will soon flower.

5. So thrilled that the Oriental lilies bloomed when I got home.

6. I have to mercilessly prune the petunias again and that is always hard but they look fantastic and I am going away on the 10th.

7.  Peas are gone. I am going to make shepherd's pie with them

8.  Enjoying the parsley, basil and dill!

9.  I am making pesto and basil/oil cubes today or tomorrow

10.  I took a funny gardening towel to Laura F. 

11. Will need Laura to water the coleus while I am gone.

June 27, 2025 Been working a lot in the garden

 Really bummed about the bugs. I used something labeled "kill bugs" and it killed the petunias blooms!  Ugh. Well, I was going to trim them anyways.

I bought two Rios!  This is good news.

Marigolds are growing. Dahlia bulb came up but got partially eaten

Ate one tomato

The drought is on.  Trying to water some of the brown spots.

some good news; some confusing news; some bad news June 25, 2025

 Good

1. Tomatoes look good, very green, not a lot of flowers yet

2.  The clipped petunias grew beautifully

3.  The sod that the water company put down survived

4.  Roses doing well. Was it the weak coffee water?

5. Gladiolas came up

6. Some of the perennials are doing great

7. The day and oriental lilies are doing well. I thought I was going to miss the pink ones.

8. So many peas and lettuce

Bad

1. Some very tiny bug ate my zinnias and the one dahlia

2. Part of "Mama's Garden"  is not doing great, hard soil

June 10, 2025 Things are not really growing

 I am leaving in a couple days. The sprinklers are going for 15 min.  Laura will check on things but I wonder.  I also should have bought more flowers.

I would have trimmed all the petunias today but having guests for dinner so left the blooms.  

Tom replaced a washer so hopefully the bib won't leak.

And then there is the sod.  I've really watered it.  Hopefully this one will do better than the last batch Willow water dropped off.

June 5, 2025. Drip system and all going well. No hail yet

So relieved to have this set up. Thank you, Laura Flanders

All going well. The soil is so good, maybe it was the manure and last year's compost

The lettuce even tastes good

Shocked that one of the allium bulbs actually bloomed this year.

 

May 18, 2025. I've worked 4 days and finished, I think

I found out that Friday morning is the best time to go to Walmart.  But even better, each of these 4 packs were $1.  so I ended up planting 64 petunias

This was Mama's garden on May 16

Yay, zucchini coming up.  I also moved some cucumbers closer to the cuke fence

I am going to plant more lettuce

Not very colorful yet

Planted some impatiens, snapdragon and lavender

Bought a poppy. Such bad luck with poppies

I sure hope I can get this grass green. I was gone when the workers put the sod down.

I ended up with 5 tomatoes because one was a double.  2 peppers and one basil. Getting the dirt in these pots was really hard.  I put an old banana peel piece and Epsom salt in the pot as well as bone meal. My bone meal was no longer white. I am going to buy the tomato tone

All petunias except for the one geranium

I put in a couple small dahlias but planted the two dahlia bulb (did that May 8)

I also planted some gladiolas bulbs in the back by the wall and in a pot and down by the fence.  The back yard grass still does not look good even though Tom put fertilizer on it.  I also plants probably 500 marigold seeds in a pot to see if I can get a pot like Judy's was last fall.