Tuesday

Hi all~I know, I've been AWOL for a while--just busy with revisions on a book and the usual summer time rush of mowing, gardening, etc.

Our garden has not been very successful this year. I am not ready to chalk it up to the square foot gardening that we are experimenting with, since I can't find anyone in our area that has a good garden this year. Maybe next year.

This is a fairly 'new' vintage addition to my kitchen. This is a Ransburg bread box that I bought off of Ebay a couple of months ago. I really love Mr. Chanticleer. I've also purchased a set of canisters that have Chanticleer on them~so my kitchen is getting very chicken-y!

Hope you are all having a fun summer.

Fourth of July!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!!!!

I hope all of you have a wonderful day with friends and family. Please be sure to take time to remember what our forefathers sacrificed to make our lives in this wonderful country possible.

Dog Days

The heat is returning~we are on our way back to the dog days of summer. Even so, the brief cool spell was greatly appreciated.

I'm still fighting blossom end rot on some of my tomato plants. I've added lime and even powdered milk (a suggestion on a gardening site), but they've still got it. Have any of you ever cured your tomatoes of this problem?

I'm sorry that it's almost time to cut back my petunias. I always do it on July 5. It keeps them blooming until the first frost, but I always dread doing it. They are one of my favorites, and I miss them the two weeks or so they take to start blooming again. I also need to cut back my Bee Balm, so I'll get another blooming period out of them.

So, how is your garden growing?

Sleepy Saturday Afternoon

It is 103 degrees out there~a good time to stay indoors and take a nap or watch a movie. Or blog!

Last year I started a small flower garden just outside our living room windows. My idea was to have lots of bright, pretty flowers to look at. Turns out, it is a little bit too shady a spot for petunias and daises, etc. So, I turned it into a shade garden, using rose campion, impatiens, lemon balm, mint, lavendar. The lavendar was part of the original 'sunny' flower garden, I wasn't so sure that it would work in the shade, but this is its second year and it's doing great. I hope to add more shade loving plants next year.

I've had the old sink for over 20 years. I had hoped to have it in my house, but hubby thought it was too impractical, so now it is a yard ornament. I'd love to make it a little birdbath/fountain, but our big Lab/Airedale mix would just jump up there to take a drink and topple the whole thing. Instead, I planted lemon balm in it. I love the smell of lemon balm! It is finally starting to spread out in the sink and I'm going to divide it later and 'spread it around' to some other pots.

I hope you're all having a 'cool' Saturday!!