The July Veggie Garden Update...

Step inside my garden gate...

We have been receiving a good portion of monsoon rain the last few weeks.

My garden has just popped out of control with the moisture. At one point, here in central Utah, we were at 90% humidity. Oh my... I'm not used to that. With this long, long hair, I was a sticky mess~!

It's raining on me~!

(The mountains are hiding amid a monstrous cloud of moisture...)

I need to take you up the 'upper path' in the garden to show you something fabulous.

I need to show you my, "Naked Lady"...

The "Naked Lady Lilly" that came up out of nowhere. 

I did plant some Lilly bulbs from our demo project last October, along with all the roses I transplanted. 

The "Belladonna" bulbs must have been in the mix of things that went in the ground to surprise me?

I have a few more that have sprung in a flower planter by the patio also...

I seem to have "Naked Ladies" popping up everywhere this summer ~

I told you I had "Naked Ladies" in my gardens...

(=

All of the 'row' crops are doing marvelous with this moisture, in fact, I'm having a hard time keeping up with the harvest and the green bell peppers grew so big that they pulled some of my plants over ~ yikes!

The pumpkins and squash are starting to reach the 'out of control' size...

Every day when it rains, I go out and check the garden and I end up with HUGE zucchini.

I swear, they must grow the size of my leg in 2 hours, with the right moisture...

I love this beautiful garden the Man-Child helped me create...

And, I have a lot of people who have offered to help me "Glean" the produce when it's harvest time.

~Imagine that~

Bags and bags of garden fresh goodies have already been given away.

And, heaven help me when it's bean picking time~!

The "Turbo Twins" (my 2, 3-year old grandkids) planted about 16,000 bush and pole bean seeds along the trellis. 

They were putting them in the furrow with '3 year old' handfuls. 

My little Boohoo "Saige" says, "Did we plant them good Grandma?"

Why yes you did Ms. Boo, your beans are everywhere~!

There's a possibility the Turbo Twins bean row  may take over the house...

(=

Would somebody please put that hose away?

~Seriously Jen - put the hoses away!~

(I leave so many laying around, I don't even notice when I'm taking pictures!)

Let's sit down and talk awhile...

How have you been?

It's been a while since I've been blogging, is life treating you well?

Then, we'll take one more walk around the garden...

We'll go pick the tomatoes...

~Oh my word, the tomatoes need a machete!~

The Man-Child brought a couple plastic squirrels from my house to this house about a month ago. 

He tucked them into the tomato forest here...

Apparently, his dog Duke (the heeler) hadn't realized there were plastic squirrels in the tomatoes because one day, there was such a ruckus. For over an hour, he tried to get those squirrels to run out of the tomatoes and well, to much avail, they're still in the same spot.

(Do you think he realized plastic squirrels don't run???)

Double check and ensure the main garden is all locked up to keep the 'Hair-Kids' out.

See that old rusty trough? 

I think that's where I'm going to plant my garlic in October... 

See that ladder on the wall? 

It's not forgotten, honest - it's how I water the horses for efficiency.

The horses on the other side of the block wall right now and every now and then, they peek over the wall and watch me tending the garden.

Oh, this photo parade has been exhausting...

Let's go swing~!

Yay, the Man-Child got the swing from my house hung up in the tree this weekend.
We promised each other that we would grow old together swinging on a porch swing.
Now that we're getting old, it's good we have a swing to keep our promise~!!!

Have a "Wonderful Week~!"

(=

Swimming in Tomatoes~!

We must give more in order to get more...

It is the generous giving of ourselves~

That produces the generous harvest~!

~Orison Swett Marden~

I am 'Swimming" in tomatoes~~

Oh yes, there could be worse things...

I need to buy more bottles this weekend. I have bottled to my bottle capacity this year..

The "Bottled Salsa" is overflowing from my kitchen and bottled chili sauce is next on the list... But, I must do cauliflower over the weekend. "Pickled Cauliflower" to be exact. I do it with the same recipe I use for my "Pickled Carrots" ...

We eat dozens of jars of Salsa, Chili Sauce &  Pickled Veggies throughout the winter and it's an easy way to preserve near anything out of the garden.

"Harvest Time" is definitely upon me and I'm rushing to keep up~!

Always do your best~~

What you plant now, you will Harvest later...

Old, vintage, outdoor faucets + landscape additions...

I got this old, vintage, faucet from a friend last year. I absolutely fell in love with it, but it was cracked, so it was unusable. But, it's awesome yard art...

They cut it down for me yesterday with a cutoff saw and cemented it in the ground. The old pipe it's attached to is about 5' long and I wanted it next to a tree, so digging a 5' hole in tree roots was out of the question. I also had an old, rusty paint can that matched it. The paint can is rusted away on the bottom, so my next project is to till and finish this planter area, plant flowers all around the faucet and plant a flower in that bucket~!

I can't describe how much I love this old faucet. I was just raving about it to a friend yesterday and she said, "wouldn't it be awesome if you could find a spigot for it and hang the bucket on the spigot?"

That was an idea that I was thinking about last night before I fell asleep ~ I know, I'm strange... I think about my gardens even when the sun goes down. I love lanscaping and I love m gardens. A friend asked me if I was going to miss my flower gardens at my other house - NOPE... Well, maybe a little ~ but, I can re-create them here on a bigger scale and I love the challenge of creating them.

So, I ran to town today for spray paint for the soon to be 'patio furniture redo' and I got some plants for the planter box at the back of the house. When I got home there was another faucet, exactly like this one laying in front of my kitchen door. This one isn't cracked and it has a spigot on it. This one can actually be hooked up and it's usable. But, where did it come from? What are the chances of there being 2 of these old faucets in the same County?

It puzzled me for hours...
Where did this other faucet come from?

This evening, the man-child got home and told me he found it in an old shed across the road by the barn...
Seriously - the same shed that had the old, vintage, patio chairs I'm going to redo. That shed is so full of old stuff that we'll be finding treasures in there for years to come!

Did I ever mention there are about 15 old, vintage, wood, 7-up and Pepsi crates in that shed? I was talking about that yesterday too when the man-child told me that the whole attic of his shop is full of old apple and advocato crates - <Yes, I'm smiling while I'm typing this> Now, how do you get in that attic?

I love this old place~!

To read more about the landscaping updates click "Read More," right below this sentence...