episode 130: where my hand is used for scale

As it goes, the Giant Marconi pepper is aptly named. This one is still going and hasn’t even started turning red. This will be an awesome stuffing pepper! Blauhilde beans: They’ve gotten bigger faster than last year. We only have a few stalks that volunteered from last year’s crop. I plan to just save the […]

good fences make better neighbors…

…than bad fences do anyway. Our pseudo-neighbor is flipping the house on the other side of our extra lot. He informed me some time back that he would be taking out the chain-link between us and putting in a privacy fence. He was neighborly enough to check in about the property line and where the […]

maters

We might be seeing the start of our best tomato crop yet. Many large fruit varieties are doing well in the original bed. The from-seed starts are behind but are budding prolifically. The plant above (and below) is a volunteer. At this point I would say it was a red beefsteak, and it already has […]

this week in the gardens

The daylilies are pushing their dazzling display. While the basic orange “ditch lily” has mostly bloomed out, the special varieties are just hitting their peak. Also, the crazy orange triple bloom just made its first appearance yesterday. The spring radishes and baby bok choy totally got away from me this spring and have gone to […]

returning to queue

Our street has been ripped up for over a month while the gas company runs a new line and connections. Such luck that the main line runs under the sidewalk on our side of the street. (Yay!) Last week, the storms passed long enough for the cement contractor to pour the sidewalks along our double […]

little visitor

I sowed three different parsley patches this year, mostly for swallowtail caterpillars. I mean, we might use parsley once or twice through the summer, and the roots are pretty tasty in the fall… but the patches are for them. So, today I find this guy munching away in our garden. On my freakin’ dill. LOL Okay, […]

we say tomato

oh, that’s why they call it that…

The bees are out and on it. It is a sensible name. So many bees about the bee balm today. We are happy. If, through the course of living our wabi-sabi life in our wabi-sabi cottage, we can build a sanctuary for pollinators and birds and small reptiles and mammals, then so bee it.

oh, look! it’s raining…

Again. This morning was off and on torrential downpours. I caught a bit of the one that followed the storm that woke me: I am glad that we live on a hill in an elevated neighborhood. There are reports of flooding about town. Also, not-orange daylilies are starting to make their appearances: Below is my […]

not-red no.5

We already have not-red purple, and not-red violet, and not-red lilac, and not-red lavender. Now, I give to you not-red no.5: not-red mauve. (See below for not-red soft pink.) To be clear and certain, lavender is my spirit animal. I mean, if a color could be a spirit animal, that would be mine… I am […]