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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

July Garden

I'm not sure if I've mentioned lately that in spite of intense heat, we have had a break in terms of rain this summer. Meaning we've been getting intermittent rain throughout the summer. Wooohooo! That is worthy of celebration, particularly after almost a solid year's drought before it ended with significant rain this spring.
I've managed to keep my vegetable garden going with a little extra hand watering. I am only watering with a watering can. Even though some of the restrictions on watering have been lifted I'm glad that permanent ones are also in place so people can't go back to the waste of years gone by.
I can hardly wait to pick my first tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. The macro of the cucumber below is a bit on the abstract side because it's really tiny but some of the tomatoes are close to being ready to pick.
I wish I knew how to tell the difference between poisonous and edible mushrooms but I guess I won't chance accidentally killing myself.
You will probably have to click inside the next shot, which will enlarge it, to find the three birds. I was trying to photograph one and didn't even see the other two until I got the picture on my computer and looked at an enlargement. It's not a great shot but I like the way the different birds are hanging out together.I can't stop photographing my crepe myrtle. It's changing daily. Just when I think the blossoms are at their peak they seemed to get even more dramatic.
I am getting a lot of pleasure out of my garden in spite of the heat. Early mornings and evenings are the best time to be outside, where I live, this time of year.

15 comments:

maryt/theteach said...

All the shots are so lovely, Carver! And I see 4 birds! And the veggies will be ready in August! :)

Michele said...

Wow, your garden looks wonderful... so full of life and yummy things to eat! It's a good thing I don't live too close or I'd be one of those neighbours raiding it in the middle of the night... LOL

Theresa said...

Great vibrant colors in your pictures. Always love fresh veggies from the garden- as a kid we alsways had tomatoe sandwiches all the time in the summer witht the tomatoes from the garden.

Smalltown RN said...

your photos are wonderful...bright and crisp.....yes it has been a warm summer but I am not complaining especially after the summer we had last year.....

Lori said...

What beautiful pics. Happy WW and thanks for stopping by:)

jmb said...

Your July garden is more interesting than mine, that's for sure. I seem to feature spring more in mine.

MaR said...

Your garden is beautiful and full of life!! I am not sure about the mushroom either :)

Carver said...

Hi Mary (the teach), After you mentioned 4 birds I looked again. You were right and more observant than me.

Hi Michele, I wish we were close enough for me to share my veges. I will have way too many when they start getting ready to pick.

Hi Theresa, I love tomato sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches too.

Thanks Mary Anne (small town RN), We've had record breaking heat this summer but I feel so grateful for the rain. That has made all the difference.

Thanks Lori.

Hi JMB, My spring flowers were a lot more abundant than summer ones too.

Thanks Mar, I wish I did know about mushrooms but I'm afraid even with a guide I'd mess it up and the consequences could be so extreme that I don't chance it.

escape said...

we used to plant tomatoes in our backyard. looking at your pictures reminds me of that time.

AscenderRisesAbove said...

I was telling my daughters that next year it veggies; not flowers that I will be planting - your post reinforces that decision.

SabineM said...

Lovely shots. My garden is a disaster....
I also cannot tell a good vs a bad mushroom! ;-(
And your previous post: I LOVE TO COLOR! Especially the mandalas! ;-)

Sienna said...

It is amazing how lush and green and colorful your summer is..I think on a semi regular basis through the glory of cyberspace it is dawning on me the extent to which climates are so contrasting to my bit of rural Australia.

Even though I've travelled plenty, it is still an eye opener the sheer lushness that is around ..with the drought and wild weather we haven't been able to grow a vegie garden for years.

The few people around the district that did get tomato plants to survive never had any fruit set??

It is odd times here.

Enjoy those tomatoes!

Pam

Napaboaniya.Elaine Ling said...

The vegetables especially those tomatoes are looking good :) Nothing fresher than coming from your own garden.

p/s: May I know which program you're using to make those mandalas? I'll like to make some for my daughter :)

Carver said...

Hi Don,

It is a treat to have back yard tomato plants. I've stopped having a big vegetable garden but I'm glad that I did plant some vegetables this year because they taste so good straight off the vine.

Hi J(Ascender), Maybe you can mix up the veges and the flowers too. I didn't do it this year but I usually have nastursiums and marigolds in with my veges as they help with insects and are pretty too. Also you can eat the nastursium blossoms.

Hi Sabine, I'm sorry your garden hasn't recovered from your vacation, that's hard.

Hi Pam, I'm sorry that your drought conditions have been so bad. In comparison ours seems mild (now that it's over). Being in town the big issue here was our water supply got to where we didn't have but a few months left but then the rains boosted it back to capacity. I have a new appreciation for what people in your situation go through although I realize that I also don't really know what it would be like to have it year after year. I wonder if the fruit didn't set on the person who did grow tomatoes because the weather affected the bees or whatever pollinators were needed.

Hi Elaine (Napab...), As you know I already emailed you but in case anyone else is interested, the mandalas I designed myself were done using MS Word and also some with Corel Draw. In the meantime I found a site with very complex free mandalas at http://www.free-mandala.com/

AscenderRisesAbove said...

i had to drop down here and leave a comment; I couldn't take the buggies; I thought I could handle the "what's this" post (so clever) but even it contained buggies. It is a wonder that I can do bees knees at all!. regardless; lovely photos of your veggies. next year i am planting veggies. I bet there will be a big boom of people doing that from now on with the prices and the gi issues in the stores these days