Well, I’ve got some catching up to do, so some of these pictures actually go back a couple of weeks.

Gardening

My husband has finished all of the planting for this year, and most things are coming up. Most of these photos are a week or two old and with the warm summerlike weather and rain that we have had everything seems to be growing in leaps and bounds.

Potato patch

Cabbage patch

Pole Beans. The strings are for them to climb on.

Tomato Patch just a few day after they were planted. Some are now getting blossoms.

The new strawberry patch. Yesterday my husband spent several hours weeding and removing the flowers and berries that were forming. It is best to remove the flowers the first year, so the plants put energy in developing a strong root system. It will make for healthier plants. Next year we will hopefully get a good harvest.

I spent about 12-15 hours over the course of several days weeding our old strawberry bed that had been taken over by weeds. In the photo above I am almost finished. Only another hour or two and I was done.

On Saturday, about a week after I finished weeding, we picked about a quart of berries. My husband picked about another quart on Sunday.

The Prayer Garden

After I finished weeding in the strawberry patch, I went to work taming the prayer garden.

In addition to weeding, I cut down all of the daffodil leaves and stems.

I’m afraid I might have cut them down to soon and that we will have less flowers next year, but it looks so much neater with them out of there.

A few days after I finished, it exploded with color.

The primrose began to blossom. I just love their brilliant color. I am sure I need to thin them because they spread very quickly and will take over everything, but I will wait until they are finished blossoming.

The roses also began blossoming. I love the red roses with the yellow primrose.

In the Wild

Last week the wild roses were in full bloom. We have wild rose bushes scattered throughout the property. I have featured two of the largest. The one above is a least 15 ft (4,57 meters) wide and 8 ft. (2.43 meters) tall. I can’t even begin to guess how deep it goes back among the other trees.

A close up of the rose blossoms. You might notice some wild grape leaves in the photo. Apparently there in a grape vine growing with the rose bush. What you don’t notice in the photo is the wonderful fragrance of the roses, – sweet but a bit spicey. Every now and then I would catch a whiff of it in the breeze. I love this time of year! Definitely worth taking time to smell the roses!

The second one that I am featuring climbs up the oak tree at our picnic area. We do keep it pruned a bit, otherwise it will reach out and grab someone as they are walking by, or in my case riding by on the mower while cutting the grass around the tree.

It probably reaches up 20 ft (6.09 meters) into the tree.

Feathered Friends

I sat quietly in front of the barn and snuck a picture while this blue jay ate chicken scratch near the coop.

We have a pair of ducks that have become regular visitors. Sometimes it’s just the male and other times the male and female are together. Not only do they swim in the pond, but my husband has also seen them eating chicken scratch with the chickens. If Ruby spots them, and she usually does, she is quick to chase them off. We actually encourage her to chase the off because duck dropping in the pond can bring bacteria and parasites that could affect human and aquatic health. we don’t want that.

Thanks for visiting.