I keep wanting to tell you about my sweet little garden, the
plants I planted this spring, but I keep forgetting to until I walk in or out
of my house. I made a mental note this morning to make sure I did. They are so
beautiful. The little yellow and pink flowers have exploded and bloomed all
summer long. The petunias and marigolds have doubled in size. The African Daisy’s
though are what I’m most tickled about right now. They have tripled in size
over the summer. They only bloomed in the spring, and then it got too hot, but
they kept growing. They are blooming again right now, I think the yellow with
the purple center is very pretty, but the white one with the purple middle is
my favorite. It just makes me happy to look at it. I also got 2 new blooms for
the fall on my Columbine plant, and by blooms I mean stocks that have 5-6
flowers blooming on them. It’s so very pretty. The Day Lilly bloomed again last
week too, it sat kind of dormant over the summer. I feel so lucky to have them
blooming in both the spring and the fall. I mean technically it is still kind
of summer, but I’m leaning more toward autumn. I kind of wish I’d just planted
more of the little yellow and pink flowers and not planted the Mixed color alyssum,
but the alyssum is pretty too, it just doesn't stand out as much as the others
do.
My little lavender plant has struggled a bit. I’m thinking
about moving it on the other side of the condenser unit there, but I also want
to plan a butterfly bush, so I’m not sure if I will or not at this time. It is
doing okay, just not as well as I would have thought.
The Russian Sage has taken off and bloomed multiple times.
It’s probably tripled in size as well. The other flowers planted by it (Cone
Flower, Lily, and Foxglove) are all spent for the year. They are definitely just
spring plants. I say that but thinking back, the Foxglove did bloom twice, once
in the spring and once in the summer. The purple Salvia is doing well still
though. I planted quite a bit of purple when it comes to bushes and plants. I
think its okay, because I can make them stand out with the other color pops I
put in. I’ll put a few more in next year over there, or I may move them too and
use that as garden space.
The 5 little tomato plants planted turned into 4, then 3. 2
of them merged together and you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
They are quite full of tomatos but none of them are ripe yet. There are lots of
them, but they remain green. There are a couple of them that are as big as my
fist, but they remain green. I know I can pick them green if I have to, but
every morning I look out my window hoping I’ll see just a little red or pink
spot starting. I know it will happen, especially with the cooler nights now,
and I have to keep remembering that I planted them kind of late, so they are
still trying to catch up.
The Bluebeard bushes that I planted by my bedroom window are
beautiful and their tops are full of little blue flowers. The bees love them!
There are always quite a few bees in the garden, which makes me happy and I
know that I haven’t put anything on the flowers or plants that would hurt them,
so I hope whomever they belong to are using the honey. I kind of hope they
belong to the people up on 1200 north that sell honey. I’ve wanted to stop and
get some for a while now. Maybe I’ll do that this weekend. I love the bees. The
cute little neighbor girl upstairs was a little scared of them when I was
showing the garden to her, but I told her not to worry, that they wouldn’t hurt
her. They are just doing their job, and as long as we are calm and don’t act
scared they will ignore us.
I think the name of the little girl that lives upstairs is
Destiny. She is sweet, and when I get home, if she’s out on the balcony
playing, she makes this little yip sound, like a puppy or small dog, at me till
I notice her and say hello. Now I know what the sound is, I’m quicker to look
up to see and visit with her. I think maybe she gets a little lonely for people
to speak to or play with. I can’t wait for the tomatoes to ripen so I can let
her help me pick the ripe ones.
We canned 68 bottles of Spaghetti sauce on Monday. It was
quite the feat, but we got all 5 cases done. It made me so happy that we got
them all done. We set up Steve’s camp chef out on the back patio and steamed
them out there while we blanched, peeled, prepped, bottled and so forth inside.
It was so smooth. I can’t believe we hadn't thought of doing that before. I
started on Monday morning, I was just puttering about at first making sure we had
everything we needed to start, and then I just started doing it. I have to say,
it was an awesome feeling of accomplishment, to know that I know how to do it
by myself. I've always relied on my mom to help me. I've never taken the lead like
that before. I was by myself doing it from about 8:30-10. I started to get just
a little bit lonely, and then Carol and Jess showed up. I could have called my
Gram to come over and help too, but I knew she had stuff she wanted to get done
that morning and would be there to help in the afternoon. I called Jill but she
was planning on afternoon too. I was so grateful when Carol and Jess showed up.
They helped me get two batches of Spaghetti sauce on the stove to cook down
before my mom got home. We were just cleaning up when my mom walked in the
door. The sauce turned out nice and thick and delicious. I’m so happy with it.
I kept bragging. I think they are all tired of hearing about it.
