And my sunflowers are starting to bloom.  This one is about 10 feet tall, and you can see more flower buds along the stem.  I don't plant them in a straight line;  I plant them willy nilly all over the garden.  Tall ones, short ones, yellow, orange, and red ones.  They are so great!!!

 

The seed catalogs suggest planting sunflowers to attract pollinators to your garden.  That's fine, and they do do that, but mostly we plant them for the fun of it.  And that works for me.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out this contraption.  It peels apples in a jiffy.  It probably cores them too, but I can't figure out how to do that.  So we use that other tool on the counter to core them.  Then I just have to clean them up a bit, chop them coursely and put them in a big pot for an hour or so.  We add a little sugar and a lot of cinnamon and then can it.  

 

We filled the big pot half full, and ended up with 7 pints of apple sauce.  

 

And the deer LOVE the trimmings.  It is hilarious to see them pick up a mouthful of peels;  it looks like they are eating spaghetti.  Anyway, our apple sauce is delicious, and everybody here is happy.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

You know those Hidden Pictures games?  Well, here's my version of it.  Find 6 butternuts squashes in this picture.  Hahaha!!!

 

You can also see one yellow pepper, even though there are really five.  But don't bother looking for eggplants, because there aren't any of those, just the cages. 

 

And that big fluffy pile of green in the bottom right corner:  carrot greens.  

 

The garden is exploding, and I love it!!! 

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Saturday morning we were driving south to Blairsville, and we passed this row of sunflowers.  There was no place to pull over and take a picture, so I took this picture on the fly.  

 

When we got home and I looked at the picture, I noticed that the flower heads are facing east, with their backs to us.  Sunflowers are phototropic, meaning they move in response to their source of light;  and heliotropic, their source of light being the sun.  

 

I guess a better time of day to get a picture of these sunflowers is evening when they are facing west.   Another day...

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I noticed this moth on our front door the other day.  It hung around for a long time.  When I put the Seek app on it, it said Promethea Silk Moth,   So I looked it up, and the picture was the same as this one, except the wings were all the way flat open.  Callosamia promethea, also called Spicebush silk moth, has a wingspan of 3-4 inches, and it is beautiful.

 

These moths use Tulip Poplars, Sassafras, and Spicebush as their host plants, and we have plenty of all those around here.  

 

I love seeing something new, and this was it.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it too.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look at these interesting cherry tomatoes.  They are Indigo Rose.  My friend saved seeds last year, and we planted them this spring.  When they first started fruiting on the bush they were gorgeous green and dark purple.  I wasn't sure when to pick them, but then one day I noticed one turning red on the bottom.  I guess that's what they do.

 

So we are harvesting about ten each day, and they are delicious.  More than a single bite cherry tomato, we have to cut them, but they are great in salads.  And aren't they pretty?

 

I love trying something new every year.  We will probably grow these again.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we had enough cucumbers to make a batch of pickles.  Yay!!!  This bowl full of cucumber and onion slices is enough for seven pints of Refrigerator Dills.  The recipe in the Ball Blue Book is delicious and so simple;  it doesn't require canning, and the pickles stay crisp.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I know I've shown you the Mullein flowers this year, but last month I cut off one tall spike, and this is what has grown back.  There are about 12 more spikes shooting up from the main plant.  

 

OK, I'm going out there today and cut off the rest of the tall ones, because I love this.  They are so pretty!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I usually show you blueberries on the bushes, but this year there are almost as many on the ground!!!  

 

We get out there and pick them almost every day, but we just can't get to them all.  I think the birds get in there, and with their fluttering knock some off the branches, but we also drop a lot when we are picking.  Then there are the ones we just can't reach, and when they get ripe they fall.   

 

So even the ground under the bushes are beautifully blue.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

On my way home from Violet's I saw these two deer.  Appearently they saw me too, and posed for their portrait.  

 

There are lots of youngsters about these days, and they don't know about cars yet, so please go slow around the curves.  They seem to pop up out of nowhere.  

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!