The Garden - Pre Frost

We had our first frost last night. The remaining flowers in the garden are now frostbitten. Here's the last photo of the garden pre-frost.

The last tomato

The veggie garden is sort of pitiful these days. Most everything is finished for the year. I picked several tomatoes tonight and enjoyed a BLT sandwich for the second time this week.

Soon we'll be harvesting the cayenne peppers to dry them out and grind them up. And, I think we'll have enough green peppers for one more stuffed pepper dinner. There are two cukes on the vines and they should be ready for eating this weekend. Then it will be time to clean out the vines and tidy everything up to wait for next year's plantings. I might have time for one more crop of radishes before frost.

I'm Not The Only One Enjoying My Garden

I'm not sure who or what I'm sharing my veggies with, but the green beans are totally gone. That's what I get for not taking my morning garden stroll this weekend.

The tomatoes are disappearing one bite at a time.

All of the cucumbers laying on the ground were stripped off of the vines. Those left in the raised beds were left for me to enjoy.

Zucchini is done for the season

After I harvested, peeled, grated 30 zucchinis, I made eight loaves of zucchini bread and froze the rest so I can make more bread this fall and winter.

During my next visit to the garden I noticed the zucchini leaves were all dying off. Closer examination revealed squash bugs -- both eggs and newly hatched.

Although the bugs are pretty disgusting, the way the eggs are perfectly lined up is fascinating.

Tomato Hornworm Being Eaten Alive

My relaxing stroll through the garden came to an abrupt halt when I happened upon the dreaded tomato hornworm. My very first vegetable garden, more than 20 years ago, yielded a giant tomato hornworm and not only did I have to call Grandma over to pluck the monster from my tomato plant, but I didn't step foot in that garden for the rest of the season.

This is only the second one I've seen in my life and, for some reason, this one didn't scare me as much as the first one did. I calmly broke the branch off of the plant, tossed it, along with the hornworm, into the fire pit and ran into the house to do a Google search to see why this one was covered with white protrusions.

The answer, courtesy of Kansas State University: "The tomato hornworm is parasitized by a number of insects. One of the most common is a small braconid wasp. Larva that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworm's body. If such projections are seen, leave the infected hornworms in the garden. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize."

GROSS! Although I appreciate their advice, there's no way I'm going to put that thing back in my garden.

Today's Garden Tour

~~~ Bruce caught me putzing in the garden, so I'll use this photo to lead you on today's garden tour. ~~~

~~~ Bee enjoying the sunflower. ~~~

~~~ Zenias Rock! ~~~

~~~ Tomato plants are around six foot high. ~~~

~~~ Butterfly Bushes finally in bloom. ~~~

~~~ Purple Rose of Sharon ~~~

~~~ Testimonial for Miracle Grow. ~~~

~~~ Perfect Coneflower ~~~

~~~ Odd bug on Queen Anne's Lace. ~~~

Tiny Things Hiding in My Veggie Garden

I didn't realize that there were big-headded grasshoppers in Indiana. I thought they were only out west in the prairies. But, among over 500 different species, I may have misidentified him. This micro critter is only about a half-inch long.

~~~ Right now I might look like a sweet gherkin, but just give me some time. ~~~

A Splash of Color

I get so excited each time I visit the garden and find another Zenia has bloomed. No purple yet, but this orange flower adds a nice touch of color among the zucchinis.

Monday's Garden Tour

~~~ Tomato leaves lean into the bird bath for a drink. ~~~

~~~ Come on in birds, the buffet is open. ~~~

~~~ Bright yellow Zenia brightens the garden today ~~~

Today's Garden Tour

I admired these ceramic plant markers at the Master Gardeners' plant show yesterday so Judy bought them both and gave them to me as a gift.

I spoke with the artist who created them and got her email address as I'm considering placing a custom order for several more.

The zenias are starting to bloom. The first few are fairly pale so I'm hoping I see more brilliant colors as the summer progresses.

This sunflower started to unfold today. It's a volunteer, as I didn't plant any sunflowers this year. I guess the birds missed a seed last fall.

One of my garden staples is the purple coneflower.

This lightning bug (look closely at the daisy) is resting up from a hard night of illuminating our back yard.


I only use zucchini to make bread so I let them grow really large before I break them free from the vines. Today we peeled and shredded this zucchini and put it into a plastic bag in the freezer. The next time I go to the grocery store, I'll pick up some brown sugar, raisins and a few other ingredients and whip up a few loaves of zucchini bread.

Miracle Grow Finally Kicking In

My vegetable garden has sure changed over the years. I designed this version and Bruce helped me build the boxes last summer and it's everything I imagined. And, nearly weed free.

Next year I'd like to add a permanent, and much taller, fence across the back for the green beans to climb. My two little 4' panels are not nearly large enough and last year the beans ended up climbing the sunflowers.

The tomato plants are getting so large they're crowding the peppers. I have two varieties of tomatoes and three of peppers: cayenne , jalapeno and bell.


The zucchini plants are huge. They've completely filled in their 4' x 4' raised garden box and are now spilling over the edge. Zucchini bread is one of my favorite summer treats. I always freeze some and give it out at Christmas. I just found out this weekend that my brother hates it. Guess I'll make him some banana bread this year.

New Home For Old Sign

This old welcome sign has been in my garden for several years... just sitting there minding its own business, not bothering anyone.

But, after we had the new sprinklers installed, it kept getting knocked over by the water spray.

So, I moved it a bit closer to the shed. But then, we couldn't open the shed door all the way. So I shifted it a bit to the right. Then, it was too hard to get around it to hook and unhook the latch that keeps the shed door open when we use the tractor.

Now, it's right smack dab in the front of the garden. Not sure why I didn't put it here last year. It's actually the perfect spot.

If I could find something that looks similar to this, but in a burnished or dark brass type of finish, with splashes of green and brown, it would look perfect on the wall above my bed. I've held that spot on the wall open for three years now, looking for the perfect wall art. I know what I want is very specific and I'll probably never find it so maybe I'll have to make it myself somehow.

But, I'm sort of holding out hope because it took me five years to find the exact sofa I had imagined for my living room. You wouldn't guess that by looking at my sofa because its so nondescript, but it's exactly what I wanted.

I Rock!

Nothing new happening in the garden tonight. I finally pulled the giant daisy weeds and a few of those big weeds with the huge tap roots. Not sure what they really are, but I call them milk weeds. The stalks are large and hollow and when you break them, a milky juice comes out.

After the weed pulling fun, I visited a bit with neighbor Todd.
I had been worried about him because we haven't seen him around much and he never did get his veggie garden in.

I saved my extra tomato plants for him, but ended up giving them to my Master Gardener neighbor Kay after Todd disappeared.

Turns out he's moved in with his girlfriend and they're getting married on 08-08-08. Congrats, Todd! Good to see you so happy.


After the sun went down, I played Guitar Hero. Yea, I Rock!

Can't wait until Aerosmith Guitar Hero gets here. It comes out on June 29 and I've already pre-ordered it. But, with the Amazon super saver shipping, it may be a week after that before it arrives.

Tragedy in the Veggie Garden

Tonight's stroll through the veggie garden turned very sad when I was poking around the strawberries looking four our furry little chipmunk friend and saw him laying on his back, with flies coming out of his mouth.

I did some Googling on probably causes of death for cute little chipmunks, but apparently it's not a common enough occurrence to rank on the first few pages of Google search results.

Although I felt bad that the chipmunk's body was being defiled by flies and the miniature slugs, I wasn't about to pick him up to move him to a more appropriate final resting place.

That's the job of the man in our house. He gets to do all of the gross stuff:

• dead animal removal
• pumpkin goop grabbing
• dog poo cleanup

In exchange, I'm in charge of spider removal. So, I guess I owe him one.

RIP cute little chipmunk. I hope you enjoyed the strawberries.















The pink spot on Bruce's shirt isn't a defect. It's from the flashlight I was pointing at him.

Hilltop Strawberries on Dragoon Trail

I took Dragoon Trail from home today and saw several people picking strawberries at Hilltop near Blackberry Road.

Although their hours aren't posted, I think they're open from 7am until 7pm. Maybe it's 6 until 6, but it was 6:15 when I went by tonight and there were at least six cars in the lot.

We have so many strawberries in our garden that we've decided to share them with the slugs and the chipmunks.



When I picked some strawberries yesterday, I noticed little bite marks out of a few of them.

One tiny slug was still connected to one of the strawberries.

But, the bite marks are most likely the work of the cute little chipmunk that now lives in our veggie garden.




His house is right next to the whiskey barrel planter.

New Sprinklers in the Veggie Garden

I had to work from home on Monday so the sprinkler guys could get in and out of the garage and basement. It was a beautiful day so I certainly didn't mind the change of scenery. And, with high-speed WiFi, I was able to work on the patio and enjoy the sunshine.

We hired Sunrise Sprinkler Systems after meeting with both them and Wissco. I was impressed that Sunrise's owner came out to do the estimate and he was a very friendly guy. When it comes time to close down the system for the winter, we'll be sure to call Sunrise.


The owner's son-in-law and another employee worked from 8:30 am until 4:30pm installing the new sprinkler zone for the veggie garden area. They also installed additional sprinkler in the front yard, in the nearly-cleared, formerly wooded area. And, they replaced 16 old sprinkler heads with new and very quiet Hunter sprinklers.

We're very impressed with their work! And, the veggies are very happy.

Oddities in the Garden

In the raised veggie garden bed that was home to the cherry tomatoes last year, I noticed hundreds of tiny weeds. I thought they would be easier to pull if I let them grow a bit. Now that they've grown for a couple of weeks, I can tell they are tiny cherry tomato plants. All of the cherry tomatoes that were left to rot on the ground last year were returning this year. Not so fast... I pulled them all up.
Two years after I dug up all of the climbing rose bushes, one has returned. I wonder if it inched its way under the grass, the half acre between here and the area he was transplanted, to make it back home. That would explain why it took two years to return.



Intruder Alert -- Intruder Alert!
A reddish flower is intruding in my purple and yellow flower garden. The really odd thing about this is that I went back to look at it today and, in addition to this reddish flower, the same plant also has a light purple bloom.



Two of our butterfly bushes now have green and yellow variegated leaves. My guess is they were exposed to a bit of the weed killer the True Green guy sprayed on our grass.

Upside Down Tomato Reaching for the Sky

Obviously the tomato plant knows it's not supposed to be growing upside down.

It's nearly bent itself in half trying to turn right side up.

I love my veggie garden

I absolutely love this time of year -- from May to September.

Every morning I walk out to the garden to see what's new.




Every evening I walk out to the garden to see what's changed.

Tonight I noticed the radish spouts have broken through the soil and one of the strawberries is red.