In the Olden Days

Came across this old picture of my mom and her cousin Grant, taken ca 1919. How things have changed in the last 90 years...this was a real thrill for Mom who was town girl, no biggie for Grant who owned the pony and lived on the farm.

third garden

View of the 3rd garden a couple of weeks ago, now half again as full, shoulda made it bigger I guess.

The Third Veggie Spot

This year we did our gardens a bit differently. First, I did NOT plant anything we probably wouldn't eat. Secondly, I did NOT plant anything I can buy as good or nearly so at the local farm market stand. Thirdly, [is there such a word???] everything we planted is enclosed in some sort of fencing except for a couple of extra broccoli plants in 5 gallon pails that were left from the 3rd garden and some green stuff in the patio planters.. The deer here eat everything they can get to, hence the name of our place, "Deerfields" and we always have a woodchuck or two and whatever rabbits escape the foxes and coyotes.

So far as of July 29, we have picked 1 broccoli , 2 tomatoes, about a dozen cucmbers and 1 zucchini., in addition to several kinds of lettuce, mesculun, basil and parsley. Gardens are late where we live because we still get frosts in June some years.

We used to have gardens 100 feet long and 50 feet wide but now that none of the kids are home, we just plant small gardens altho' with these terrible food prices, I do think next year we will add to the ones we made this year.

Another beautiful day, a new Waterlily opened, I cut back the orange mint and the blue mint that is taking over the kitchen patio garden, and deadheaded roses and marigolds.

Just finished reading Julie Andrew's book "Home"., and hope she writes another one which brings her into the middle and later years of her life. This one was well done, she had a not very nice childhood but turned into a very classy and talented lady...no Hollywood "sleaze" in this biography!

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary..our kids held a wonderful family Picnic/Party for us on Saturday and they and our in-law kids and grandchildren [and 2 gr grandaughters] are the joy of our lives. We are so blessed to have a family that all love AND like each other and are delightful, kind and caring people that it makes even the tough times all worthwhile!
A toast to my sweetie, the only man I ever I want to be married to.

Froggy By His Pool

Look in the upper center to see our "Bug Zapper". I used to have water lilies in here, maybe will do it again next year. Still hot and humid and worse is on the way.

Tiny Gardens

Because our soil is so terrible and so hard to deal with, I have gotten in the habit of making tiny gardens wherever I find a good spot for one. This is one of them near the kitchen patio which is just beginning to look like something, hopefully it will continue to progress as the Summer goes on. It is mostly made up of a couple of inches of soil and mowed down weeds, covered with newspaper and then mulch. The mint just grows and I have used containers planted with geraniums, miniature roses, foliage plants and herbs to fill in. To the right [not shown here] is an old square metal tub, painted blue where our mosquito control lives...his name of course is "Froggy".

The Roses Are Back!

After all my worry, most of the roses came through our upstate NY winter with only a couple of losses and one of them resulted in my DH's weed whacking it off right to the ground! Above left is Linda Campbell which produces huge masses of gorgeous red blooms in large clusters, on the right is my old fashioned climbing New Dawn which has taken 3 or 4 years to attain this size, it's really too cold on this hill for it but I love it enough to keep trying!

I did lose a couple over the winter but the worst loss was one that lived over until DH decided to help me by weed whacking around the edges of the bed across the road, somehow it just disappeared. He came in and said "I don't think you want to hear this, but I just cut off one of your roses".

Well, I didn't want to hear it but I know he meant well and I have got several that need more sun so I will move one of them over there as the hole has already been dug.

Honestly, since it has the same type leaves as the other 14 in that bed, you would think that he might have noticed that it wasn't quackgrass, dock or burdock but his mind must have been elsewhere. Then the deer browsed off most of the first flush of buds so they are a bit sparse but still beautiful.

I took a few pictures but most of them were disappointing. the New Dawn finally bloomed over the old shed window [a la English Cottage Garden] but some unknown critter turned the foliage into lace curtains, and the rain ruined most of the others.

"Faint heart ne'er won fair lady" and I will keep going with them as well as the other flowers and green stuff as they are such an important part of our little Shangri La.