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 I realize it isn't news to anyone but...summer is here and my flowers are in bloom. Not just flowers, but vegetables, berries and herbs! I showed the new raised beds my hubby and I built earlier in the season, so it's only right to show you those same beds filled to the brim and overflowing. In the first bed, I planted 5 pepper plants, 2 tomatoes, 6 squash (3 summer, 3 zucchini), and kohlrabi. The plants are nearly full grown and have thoroughly filled the bed...with on exception. The beds were built early enough for the kohlrabi to get the head-start they needed to compete with the tomato plants so they're buried beneath the tomato's leaves. I'm not to worried about it, because I anticipated this possibility and was prepared for the loss. I might get one or two kohlrabi out of it, but it's no biggie.
In the first bed we bought young plants (except for the squash which I germinated from seed). In the second bed, we germinated the pepper seedlings quite late so that bed is filled with small plants (except for the 3 acorn squash that I'd grown from seed, and the 1 pepper we bought). I also germinated 8 spagetti squash, but had terrible luck with them. The first 6 were promptly eaten by rabbits after I planted them along a cow fence I'd erected in the garden, so I had to germinate 3 more--of which 1 died. I put a cut-out milk jug around them to protect against critters, but left it on to long into the season and they started to wilt from the sun. I managed to salvage them with a lot of water and fertilizer, but it was a close call. They are only now starting to thrive.
 The flower gardens in to the right front of house are flourishing with the little bit of attention I gave them this year. I did major weeding and mulching in April and a a follow-up weeding in May and again in June, but that was all. I probably would have done more, but I've been working my way through the larger shrub/flower bed directly in front of the house, plus a few new plantings. If I actually manage to weed the entire front shrub bed, it'll be the first time I've ever made it through all the landscaping.
We e e e l l l l...I guess that won't be true. I might get all the front landscaping done, but I've completely neglected the side of the property along the treeline. Other than spraying weeds, I've let those areas grow wild because I'm only one person and it's simply too much. The tree line needs pruned, weeded, and simply cleaned-up. In the back, I've been using weed killer to control the areas around the barn so at least I don' t have too much of an eyesore there.
Hmmm. That'll have to be on my list of things to tackle sometime....
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