August 19, 2013
This morning, the kids and I decided to eat breakfast out on the patio. It's a beautiful crisp cool morning. The ground is still damp from the night's rain. It was a great idea to sit outside.
Cory moved the chocolate mint out of the ground and into a large container as it was taking over one of the beds. It seems to be doing great. We took out the pansy's from the smaller pots as they were dried up already and looked peaked.
Then I walked over to the beds, and ran my fingers through the cucumber leaves and stopped in my tracks!!! There, was our very first home grown cucumber!!!! I'm so excited! But I'm not sure when to pick it. I'm going to give it another day!
Then I saw this one hanging off the side of the beds!
Scarily, there was a huge, and yes HUGE, spider on the side of it. I knocked it off and killed it. It was brownish with stripes, I don't think a brown recluse, but yuck!!!
And there is another one in the middle of the bed! So we have 3 good sized cucumbers and a few babies growing. I am so proud and so happy!!!!
Elaine picked some of our tomatoes. They don't seem to be doing well this year. They're barely orange and the split. So we've been picking them a little early, and then putting them in the window to ripen.
One of our pepper plants has blooms again. I think our problem is birds. We're going to have to get some netting!!
We're learning, well have BEEN learning for some time, if you want something done, quit looking for someone experienced to hire to do it. You can rarely find someone available, competent, reliable, or fair priced. The past couple of years, Cory would drag some lumbar wrapped in chains behind the riding lawnmower to turn up the gravel in the drive and patio area and to pull it back into the center. Well this year he decided to take the wheels off his sulky and attach a piece of lumbar. That way he could pull himself behind his commercial mower. It worked well, although his bones got quite a shaking.
Fresh drive! We certainly need more gravel, but this sure looks good!
Our crepe myrtles are doing well. The red one (on left) seems to have leaves turning red.
The front of the house is a cornucopia of different flowers. Cory had to thin out the zennias - they were getting so big and thick they were smothering themselves. The piñata rose, in the center, is so beautiful!
Clearly I need to get in and prune the roses. I love doing this - always makes me think of Legends of the fall where she's out front in her nightgown.
Such a good day on the homestead - growing and learning!
