I love seeing Morning Glories, especially when they are in somebody else's garden.  I really do love them, but I don't want them in my garden.  They tend to take over when I'm not looking.

 

My friends have a special place in their garden where they can let them grow and be beautiful, and not invade their tomatoes or squashes.  

 

This way we all get to enjoy seeing them, and nobody has to weed them out.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Now here is a blast from the past!!!  This was Granby High School, in Norfolk, VA, about 1961 or 1962.  We were cheerleaders.  My big sister Linda is the cute one all the way to the top left.  And I am the other cute one down front.

 

She is still my biggest cheerleader, and I am hers.

 

 

LOVE RUNS DEEP!!!

 

 

Jon cored and sliced and dehydrated apple rings from OUR apples.  That was cool.  This much filled a quart jar.  

 

This is such a great way to preserve all the apples that are coming from our apple trees.  We can only eat so much apple cake, and we still have lots of apple sauce from years past.  So this year our plan is to dehydrate them.  Now we can store them in mason jars in the pantry.

 

I am happy to be learning a new way to preserve our garden abundance.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We haven't seen the butterflies, but we know they have been here.  

 

Cabbage whites are very noticeable flittering around in the garden, so I don't know how we missed them.  But they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of all the Brassicas.  I noticed all the caterpillar poop in the kale, so I started looking for the feeding caterpillars.  And here they are:  GROSS!!!

 

You really can't see any damage yet, but as they get bigger, they eat more, and leave huge holes in the kale leaves.  We have to get rid of them SOON!!!  

 

We use a biological insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis, we just call it Bt, that disrupts the digestive system of the worms.  It doesn't kill the butterflies, or any other critters, including us, just worms.  Worms have an enzyme in their stomachs that reacts with these bacteria, and they stop eating our kale.  Really, that's a nice way of saying that Bt causes paralysis.  

 

Anyway, Bt is approved for organic gardening.  So we use it.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

It was early in the day, so you can't really see the gorgeous color, but this Crape Myrtle is lavender!!!

 

Crape Myrtles are so beautiful in the summer.  I hope you get to see them in your travels.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Before we picked the pears, I took this picture.  I took one at the beginning of the season, and there were lots of baby pears.  Well, in July, there were lots of bigger pears.  When we went out the other day to pick them, there were only about ten pears.  That's ok, we picked them ALL.  

 

I read in the Food Lovers Companion book that it is best to pick pears when they are hard, and let them ripen at room temperature.  So that's what we did.  We picked what was left, and we will let them sit until they're done.  

 

So the critters got some, and we got some too.   

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

When we brought in the cabbages I saw all these snails on this one.  I thought you would like to see them, showing their tentacles.  Did you know that their eyes are on the ends of their tentacles?   Interesting.  

 

Good news, they are so little, I don't think they ate too much of the cabbage.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

This was my only red cabbage this year.  That's ok.  I think she is beautiful!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

As I was walking in the garden yesterday, I noticed a humming sound.  At first I thought it was the electric transformer in our neighbors' yard.  Then I looked up and the Sumac tree was absolutely abuzz with bees.  There were bumblers and honeybees all over the flowers.  They were collecting as much pollen as they could hold, then flying off.

 

It was amazing to watch;  I am so glad I got to see it. 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

All the rain lately has really brought out the mushrooms.  We have seen these in the park two weeks in a row, growing on a pile of mulch.  You can see their different ages.

 

Seek told me they are Fringed sawgill mushrooms,  Lentinus crinitus.  When I looked that up in my Audubon mushroom field guide, I found no such thing.  So then I looked on the Internet, and found some pictures that look kinda like these.  

 

But, you remember the rule, right?  Don't touch until you are POSITIVE of their identity.  I don't feel too secure in the identity of these mushrooms.  I think I will call them fungi.  Not too inviting, when you look at it that way.  

 

Interesting, though.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!