What A Difference A Few Days Make!!

Boy, we all prayed for some sunny, warm weather for so long, and then it happened!  A heat wave that started in the Eastern States and spread all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  For those of us with gardens, we are really happy because it makes everything grow so well.  At least certain plants, tomatoes, peppers, squash of every variety and so on.

Here are our winter squash, peas and beans in June a few weeks after we planted them.  We were so happy they had grown so well in just a couple of weeks, but unlike the middle of the country to the Atlantic Seaboard, we were only seeing occasional 'hot' days and remained in the 70's and 80's for the most part.

We planted 3 Butternut and 2 Spaghetti Squash plants, and in between the beans and peas. Yes, everyone has asked the same question - "Why so many plants?"  Well, because one year one plant gave us so much we had to give them to everyone we knew and the following two years, well one of them?  Not a squash to be found.  They would shrivel up and die before they could grow!  The following year, could not buy a Spaghetti Squash plant anywhere because the weather was cold too late in the season, and the Butternut Squash was barely enough to get through the winter, eating one squash every two weeks or so.

This year however, we will be giving them away once again!  We have literally hundreds of squash, both Spaghetti, already the size of footballs, and Butternut, which are growing a bit slower, thank goodness.  What we are afraid of now is the Spaghetti squash splitting before it has a chance to dry on the vine.  So if anyone out there knows how to hasten the process, please email me!

Here are the plants now, and this is after several trimmings.  We keep trimming it every time it grows in to the lawn, or out under the fence!  What a difference 4 weeks and 20 to 30 degrees hotter makes!  We go out and push the plants towards the middle away from the lawn at night, and every morning it's crept back out.  Like it's got little legs!  But, we'll have plenty of winter squash this year, basically all winter long!

Tomorrow I'll show you one of our Zucchinis - we're really excited about growing some of our own veggies!  When we lived in the Monterey/Salinas area, there wasn't enough heat or sun to grow much of anything but herbs.  So we are still learning!

Is anyone else growing a garden this year?  What did you plant, and how is it doing?  We'd really like to know, "How does your garden grow?"  You knew that was coming, right!?

Blessings,
Donna

Grandma, Grandma - Let's Go Harvest!!

Oh my goodness, I can hear her now!  My grandchildren and daughter in law are coming next week to help me celebrate and when she sees the 'fruit on the vine' my little Leila will be grabbing the vegetable basket.  I'll need to get a small one.  Last year she was so disappointed when we took the big garden basket and had two squash and a tomato or two.  She looked up at me, pointed to the basket, and said, "How do we fill it up?  Is there more plants somewhere? This is not a harvest!"

Now - I'm going to show what we have today - and no laughing - it's still a young garden!  And, the plants were itty bitty or seeds - so we've come a long way, baby!

 3 Butternut Squash in the middle, 2 Spaghetti Squash - 1 on each end.



We took out over half of this side lawn to use for garden and trees.  In the background are our 4 Citrus Trees.  We have babied them for over 4 years, and this is their first time out in the elements.

Fruit almost ready on all 4 and new blossoms!  Good signs of being happy!






I know it looks like I may have gone overboard with the squash plants, but last year we had some that just didn't make it.  The weather again this year is crazy!  Near 100 last week - barely  80 tomorrow!  Here are the 2 Zucchini and 2 Yellow Crookneck!  So, I over planted - a little.




Lookie, lookie!!  Our first Zucchini!











And Yellow Squash!

3 Pepper plants - Red, Orange, Yellow.  And, a must, Tomatoes!

The Peach Tree is growing and getting very sturdy.  The new Blueberry looks great, too!  And it even has several of these.  Not enough for a pie, not even for a tart, but enough for Grandpa and Wee One to see if they are tasty!

And the favorite part of our yard ~ ~

Yep!  My Humming Birds!  You know how we love these little guys.  Papa and Mama birds!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - be safe, be happy and have lots of fun!!

Blessings,
Donna

Guess Who Came For Dinner???

That's what we wondered, too!  We bought way too many plants to try to get done in a short period of time, but ladies, honestly, do we ever admit we bit off more than we could chew?  Sure we do - but we just want to keep it between us - don't tell the guys, OK?  Tell you what, I won't tell yours, if you don't tell mine!  Deal?  Deal!!

In case you forgot what these little sticks with the leaves on top are, they are our apple trees - this one is a Fugi Apples - mmmm - so crisp and tasty!

The on to the right is a Honey Crisp Apple - also pretty sweet and crisp and both will bear fruit at different times of the year! Apples almost all year!

Here the are together - yep, pretty small!  The gentleman helping us at the store must have thought we were much younger than we are, because it will take years - many of them - for these guys to give us a couple of sweet crisp apples!  Already made the mistake and we were ready to live with it!  We had our gardener come out and plant it a week ago and they seemed to be doing well, until Saturday morning.  My Sweetie gets up every morning and checks on all of the plants - just in case a water line has blown off and we need to do some hand watering and this is what he found on the left tree ~

Yes, you see it correctly!!!  Every leaf is gone!!  What the heck!!??  I mistakenly called OSH who told me, 'Oh ~ it's Grasshoppers. Buy Malathion and spray both trees and any other plants you have.' We try like the dickens to do everything organically without a lot of poisons and I really didn't want to put this stuff on it (I'm sure it's great, but we have lots of wild life around and we just don't want to hurt any of them needlessly.)  When our gardener came later that day, one of his guys said it was ants.

Oh now what to do??  Sweetie reminded me we didn't buy them at OSH, we bought them at Lowe's.  They are the best and our store is fairly new, so I forgot ~ and when I called the gal there said, 'well, bring it back and let's have a look!'  So we did - everyone in Lowe's said the same thing - 'Oh you have deer!'  Great!!  They were really busy in the store and the Manager and staff said it had happened to many in our neighborhood! So now we are rethinking our front yard!!

It makes perfect sense though, as their habitat is being disturbed just below us, and it is the beginning of fire season and all weeds and brush must be cut down.  The river bed runs behind us about 1/2 mile, as the crow flies, or as the deer roam.   So for now, no apples unless I find room in the back for two!

We did get our Lavender, and Breath of Heaven planted and those look lovely - and the deer should stay away from both.

Oh, we're also getting some of the rocks rearranged, too.

This one really looks grand here, and the four in the background I have to think about.

Right outside my office/craft room window are these blooming Star Jasmine plants.  Oh my gosh, the odor is like Heaven here on earth!  I just love it and feel so blessed after it being 100 degrees today, it has cooled off to the low 70's, high 60's and I have opened my window to smell these beautiful citrus like blooms!  Love it!

It's time for a brand new week to start in a few hours!  I hope everyone was able to do what they wanted this weekend and this new week is blessed and productive for all!  

Blessings,
Donna

A Whirl Wind Week!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's almost dinner time on Thursday already!  Where in the world did this week go?  I mean, my Heavens, one would think I'm still raising wee ones and working full time outside the home!  Blink, blink and the week is gone!   I've had lots of appointments, meetings and house guests this week (special friends we adore!) and haven't even had time to visit my blogging friends.

I would love to mention June over at Dezinaworld again because she's doing something new I thought some of you creators might just want to partake in!  If you make cards or create art work using her images (a couple of posts back I wrote about all of her wonderful sites she has where you can both buy and get free images June has put together!) you may unload them to her, and she just might select yours to highlight on her new blog!  How fun would that be - to see your creation being praised and singled out as something special!? June, what a wonderful way to show off other people and their work! See, didn't I tell you she was a great gal!?

Well, after looking at the current creations listed, I saw the most beautiful card you ladies simply must go and see!  This card is one of the most beautiful cards I have ever seen!!  I would love for you to take a look at Sassy's Secrets who has incredible blog candy available, too - but you'll need to go visit to find out more.  She's an exquisite artist!

See!  I told you this was beautiful!  The image is from Dezinaworld, the card is Sassy's Secrets!

The weekend is coming - yea!!  What are you all planning to do?  I'm finishing up my garden - yes, I'm still working on it!  I have tons of crafts to get finished, cards to make!  What ever we do, let's all have a great time, get lots of projects completed, see our friends or loved ones, see the beautiful flowers blooming!

Blessings to all!
Hugs,

Donna

Help With Wicker Repair!!

Almost the weekend ladies!!  I hope everyone has something fun and productive they will be doing, whether doing things around the house, garden, crafts, creating - - - we all do so many things!!

This morning I'm coming to ask you for your expertise!  I have tried looking all over this world wide web and you wouldn't believe some of the answers I get to this question.  I guess my computer just cannot compute what my brain really wants to say (oh, now that's a scary thing to think about!!) so here I am!  Why didn't I come to you first?? My goodness, YOU ALL are the EXPERTS in all things fixable!!  If it is fixable.  I think it is - so here it is - - -

See how the wicker is breaking off and unweaving around the bottom of the legs? .

 

I have a lovely three piece set - Loveseat, and two large chair.  OK - maybe not so lovely right now, but I think if I can re cane these and paint them, they would be!!!  

So - I need help from my fixing up friends - they either get fixed and get used - or in 2 weeks it's yard clean up week and they get kicked to the curb!  (By the way, I picked these up second hand as a gal who I was yard sale hunting with said they'd be easy to fix.  Don't see her enough right now to get any questions answered!) 

Any suggestions??  Ideas??  Secrets??  Help??!!  

Thank you, my friends!!  I know if there is a way, you'll know.  

Have a great weekend!!

Hugs,

Donna 

Feeling Better And Back To Gardening!!

First, thank you to all of my well wishers who sent me such nice little notes of concern.  This last bit of Oral Surgery knocked me on my hieny!  Until today, I couldn't bend over without my jaw throbbing (the old keep the wound higher than your heart) or blink without falling fast asleep.  I guess our bodies know what we need and if we don't listen, it just takes charge!  Can't even remember how many naps I took in front of my computer this week!  This afternoon, I actually got a burst of energy!

This week, between naps, my Sweetie took me to Lowe's and I picked out some additional plants.  Three Hydrangeas, which are already planted, and 4 English Lavender plants.  They already smell heavenly!  We also ordered some additional plants.  This is what I have to plant, along with my veggies and seeds!

So, why are these still in the pots and not planted?  Well, last week when I had the gardener plant all of the other 40 something plants, I always have who ever works on the yard use my hose, nipples and connectors, that way I don't have 20 brands all over the place.  And, we buy the ones that are ergonomic and easy to change out.  Costs a bit more, but we can at least handle the repairs if need be.  I forgot to check my supply, and I don't have enough to plant anything until tomorrow when we run down to the supply yard for them.  So I painted a couple of planter stands!

This green one has 3 shelves that fold down and it closes flat!  I needed a fresh coat of paint.  I bought it at an Estate Sale a few weeks ago for $5.

I stayed conservative on color on this one.














Oh, but my other corner stand.  This was a hand me down (or up - my daughter gave it to me many years ago) and it had been painted black. We - yes my Sweetie and I, picked out this beautiful grape color.  I can hardly wait to place it this week!


I also found I will probably need to freshen up the paint on my other yard art.  Funny, the stuff I painted myself, with my grandson, Jeff, about 12 years ago, still looks pretty darned good.  The white on his hat and treasure chest is from my flash!

I bought these guys last year and throughout the summer, I'll paint them.

   

This is one of my favorite pieces in my garden.  This stepping stone was given to me by my daughter several years back for Mother's Day.  The artist used stained glass for the hummingbird and the flower.  It's much prettier than the picture shows.

Thanks for taking a look my friends.  Tomorrow, I will at the very least get my herb seeds planted, purchase all of the items needed to keep all of the new plantings and seedlings watered, move the planters into place - and ... maybe I should get this part of the list done before I run it around the block!

Have a happy and wonderful week my friends!  And, thank you for mentioning Google Chrome.  I love, love, love using it!  It has so far been the easiest program to run.  Knocking on wood quickly!!! Photos go where I place them, don't disappear, text is where I type it. Several suggested it, and I thank you all!!!

Blessings, and gentle hugs,
Donna 

Front Yard Re~Do

Last Summer, we had about half of our front lawn ripped out.  With our constant drought situations here on the Central Coastal Region of California, it made better sense to go with some plants that take less water, and trees that will produce fruit.

I'm sure our neighbors thought we were nuts - but we've never let what they think govern what we do!

It's actually quite a large area.  Just on the side of this hill, we had planted 40 Star Jasmine, which I love, and seems to do well with our weather extremes - blistering hot summers and freezing cold winters.

I think one more needs to go in the upper corner here.

And, I left 4' from the edge of the lawn to the first row of plants to keep the Jasmine from intruding into the lawn.

Since the edge of the lawn is about the same length as the first row, we decided to taper down to the fifth row, adding one to each, yet leaving a good 8' from the trunk of the fruit trees.

My two little Apple Trees!  Sorry about my hand but I needed to shade the sun a bit, and it's late - not going to edit tonight!  They are the leafy twigs in front of the fence!  We placed them 12' from the fence, 12' from the lawn. 

Tomorrow I will show you my new Herb Garden area, and where all of the beds for our veggies will be this year.   We're very excited to finally get out garden started!  Like everyone else, Spring has taken it's sweet time getting here.  But the weather guesser has promised there won't be any more frosts or freezes for our area!

Blessings for a wonderful Sunday!

Hugs,

Donna