How is your garden looking today?

BBB
A hummingbird was kissing my Glorisa Lily Vine next to my front entry walk.

http://www.flowersbulbs.com/gloriosa_lily.cfm

BBB

beans are ready to be picked tomorrow !!!
we planted green and yellow beans and also purple - my favourite.
the hot weather and plenty of water - and a good dose of cow manure - really made a difference, big, fat pods !
lots of beans, mini-potatoes, plenty of butter - can't wait for tomorrow's lunch. hbg

The purple beans turn green when they're cooked, right?

My hydrangeas are in full bloom. I have two lace caps -- one is a very dark purple and one is a hot, hot pink, plus two puffballs in the same two colors. I planted a lace cap right next to one of the puffballs and their stems have intertwined in a nice display. I also have a puffball that used to be have those oval-shaped whitish green flowers. Something has happened and now it is a common puffball in pale blue. After three years I've decided that next year (or do I do this in the fall??) I'm going to add lime to the dirt around that one and at least get a brighter shade of blue. I've never done that before. The other hydrangeas are true to color without soil amendments.

I bought a couple of large pots of dark red carnations so that I could have their nice fragrance near the front door. The begonias are looking swell. I also have some amazing coleus... these have brilliant colors this year.

We've had so much rain that we've gone from what was being called the worst drought of the decade to plenty of water reserves. It was beautiful today with a high of 72F and a nice 6 mph breeze along the waterfront. Everyone was smiling!

hi, piffka : we just had lunch and the fresh beans with - plenty of - butter were ... mmmmm !
yes , the purple beans turn green when cooked.
we planted some new green beans this year and they are "absolutely" 1st class. they are bush beans but the pods are the size of pole beans - they are about 6 to 7 inches long and slightly flat.
i threw out the empty package after planting !
i'll check with the store were we bought them to see if i can find out what specific type they are . more beans tomorrow ! (with small potatoes and a nice cut of westphalian ham - canadian style). hbg

Yummy, ham, beans & potatoes are a good combination. Today I bought some fresh "baby" green beans, very slender and not very long. They were delicious last time -- quite tender after being steamed slightly. We also serve them with butter.

I no longer plant a vegetable garden. All our best sunny spots were turned into horse pasture. Perhaps you didn't hear my sad story of the vegetable garden that cost $200 in water per month? I'm sure I was doing something wrong, but Mr.P convinced me that I could buy as many vegies as I want and we'd still be saving money.

My garden is looking pretty dang parched. I'd like to water, but it just seems wrong when areas all around me are on water rationing.

Everything should bounce back.

I hope.

<sigh>

Drying up here, too. All that rain seems to have soaked well in.

piffka : we figure that a "homegrown" bean costs us about one dollar each (but that's only a canadian dollar !), but it's nice to go out, pick some beans, pick some fresh herbs and have the fresh veggies on the table within an hour.
we have cut back on our fruit and vegetable garden considerably. all we have this year are beans, carrots, tomatoes, a few kohlrabis and plenty of herbs and some raspberry and currant bushes (no currants this year, last year we had a bumber crop). twenty years ago we had cucumbers, strawberries, peas, melons ... but it was getting too much.this year stopped growing snowpeas and zuccini; next year will probably stop growing kohlrabi - even though we really like the tiny , sweet ones - and tomatoes - pretty cheap on the farmers' market. who knows what we'll plant next year; maybe will plant potatoes again. i noticed that the farm store now has "fingerling" seed potatoes - they are $2.50 a quart on the market.
GREEN THUMBS UP ! hbg

Haha... one loonie per bean. That is about how much my garden was costing. Funny about the currants... the tiny native blackberries here had a similar showing -- a huge crop last year and this year next to nothing. I heard one friend took two hours this weekend and found less than two cups.

I do have a small herb garden, hamburger, so I still have the small joy of stepping outside with scissors for parsley or chives. I also grow mint, rosemary, oregano, cilantro & sage, but I don't use them so much. I adore basil, but I can't grow it.

This has beens my happiest fruity week... a week ago I made a wondeful raspberry pie, a couple of days ago I ate the sweetest, most perfect peaches and yesterday, I made a blackberry pie. I buy the berries from a woman who drives to a place on the side of the road near me... and has for several years. She picks from 7-10am then drives here & sells out by noon or so. The best raspberries & the best peaches only overlap by a few days... they are my most favorite fruit and that's why it is my happiest week. We've got three sorts of blackberries here, Kubota (which I buy from the raspberry lady), the tiny native bramble, and the seedy gone-wild Himalyan varieties. That let's us have fresh blackberries through mid-September, though it depends on the amount of sun and rain. At least our little corner is no longer in a drought... our water conservation advisory was called off after the last few weeks of heavy rain. We are ready for summer!

That's wonderful about the rain, Piffka!

I've always loved thunderboomers, but it's only this year that I've started being thrilled with a good long steady rain. Happy garden!!

I have hydrangeas going, too, and an arbor of trumpet vines! Love 'em.

How are your million bells doing, Piffka? Mine have pretty much petered out -- the plants are healthy but there aren't many blooms anymore. I put osmacote in the soil and they've had plenty of water. I see million bells in bloom around town, but don't know how old the plant is.

had a bit of a thunderstorm during the night ... slept right through it ! with it came some much needed rain. it's hot and muggy, but the overnight rain made everything look so much greener.
we'll have to pick raspberries and beans again, they seem to just love the hot and humid weather. long-range forecast - to the end of august - does not promise any relief ... we may have to go to the pool twice a day (sure beats the snow, ice and cold ... so far anyhow). hbg

I've got alot of cleanup this weekend, if the rain holds off, after Dennis scurried through here last weekend. He was only a tropical storm by the time he got here but limbs came down and it's pretty messy. All of the flowers and veggies survived but my big problem now, with all of the rain we've had, is blossom-end rot. I've had to toss about three or four big, beautiful, severely damaged tomatoes. Boo hoo.

Picture of our "before" and "after" pictures of our front yard.
BEFORE:

AFTER: This picture was taken today.

As you can see, I have much work to do - to plant flowers. I'm planning to use potted flowers for the front yard.

we still need a good soaking. we manage to water the flowers and veggies every other day, but it's been so dry that we need at least 24 hours of steady rain to green things up.
tomatoes are turning pink !!! time to give them a dose of epsom salt (one tablespoon to a pail of water - makes the tomatoes really sweet - i understand the epsom salt reduces the acid). hbg

hbg, That's good information on adding epsom salt to tomato plants. If I want to grow vegetables, I have to use a planter box, because there's too much chemicals in our soil.

Yummy yummy. Grown in a whiskey barrel.

Beautiful tomatoes!

I just planted 5 pulmonarias - 2 lemon-leaved raspberry flowering varieties and thre dark-leaved coral flowering vars.

Yes beautiful eoe! Mine are still green...won't be red until the end of July.