How Does My Garden Grow.

The heat wave is almost over! Last week was like running a marathon. Every day was hotter than the last.The petals of this poor sunflower got a tad sun-burned. Today, 103 will feel like a nice spring day. The garden liked it, better than I did. 

I love looking out the secret gate to the garden. When I walk out that gate, it is always like my own magic garden. I love being out here in the early morning, in the twilight and yes, even when my game cam says its 125.

The first zinnia.

Ron put More Bloom on everything yesterday. I don't know what is in that stuff but it makes everything bloom so much faster. When I went out to the pumpkins this morning blooms were every where.

Pumpkin blossom

pumpkin vines.

Three tiny cucumbers

As I was taking pictures of these tiny cucumbers this morning, my thought was, "Oh yes, you are cute now, but when I am drowning in cucumbers, I doubt if I will be so excited." I am going to make lots of pickles this year.

Dill

 I hope my dill continues to grow like crazy. I am going to make fermented pickles this year. I wish I could find my grand mothers recipe. Every year she would make hundreds of jars of pickles. I have never been able to find any recipe like hers. She would pack her jars. Then she would pour the brine over the dill and the cucumbers. She wouldn't tighten the lids real tight but put them in this dark cupboard she had. The pickles would ferment and get cloudy for about a month. As soon as they cleared, they would be ready to eat. They were always crunchy and perfect. I wish I had paid better attention.

Blackberries

  We moved our blackberry vines this year. I have a few blackberries. I don't know why, but these taste like hair spray to me. I don't think I am going to keep these vines. They are pretty though.

My lovely tomato vines

Green Tomatoes

A perfect tomato this morning!

Standing at the end of the garden. It continues to surprise me. I planted two more beds of pumpkins and they are coming up and I planted more sunflowers. I hope by staggering the planting of sunflowers it will keep sunflowers growing out here much longer.

The zinnias did pretty well in the heat. They are such a durable little flower. I can't wait until this bed is filled with fireworks of color.

I planted some Jack Be Little pumpkins with some of my sunflowers to see if I can get them to climb up the sunflowers. I did that year before last and it was so nice to get those tiny pumpkins off the ground. Now that I finished planting this morning, I can watch it grow.

 Ron put in such nice hoses for watering this year. Each plant has its own little hose. I have kept every thing mulched and because there isn't water every where, I don't have the weeds. When we have a heat wave, things get away from me. When I was out working this morning, I had a few weeds to pull, not chop mind you. I did a little raking and it was so clean and nice. Trying to have a garden in the land of drought is always about learning to conserve water and make better use of what we have. 

I hope you have a lovely week, and thank you so much for stopping by to watch my garden grow.

~Kim~

Nectarines

"All in all, it was a never to be forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world."

—L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams