Still raining in the Garden State

Alert the butterflies...we have flowers on their bush! We also have some lovely plums...

Farmer Dad and I both thought we would get up to our Community Garden plots today to

weed and mulch some more, but it is not to be. It is raining again in the Garden State.

In case you are all concerned, we are safe and sound inside today, the Ark is coming along

just fine, but we are still waiting for the two Zebra, and two Ostrich to show up.

All the other animals have arrived, but sad to say we took a vote, and the Ground Hogs

will be turned away on this voyage. Please don't cry too long over their fate, there is far too much water here already, and we are leaving them with plenty of provisions.

Before the rain started up again this morning, we were out picking more peas, and

golden raspberries, and a bit of lettuce, and we even weeded a bit and planted two new

raspberry plants my sister picked up on Freecycle for me (Thanks Shell). The bees were making sure we will soon have blackberries as well.

We also re-planted a baby blueberry bush that something had pulled out of the ground, and re-filled the bird feeders. Then we watched the birds from the dry kitchen.

This little gal was watching me watch the other birds at the feeder.


Here's hoping the rain doesn't wash out all the crops, and the sun returns someday soon.

Return of the Pollinators

Caught in the act!

We have melted

There is no more pretty white snow here in

our corner of the Garden State.

Bits of green are coming up everywhere, although I could not

find a snowdrop anywhere. Farmer Dad and I took a long walk

out about the yard on Sunday after his Birthday Celebration

on Saturday. Did you hear the guys jamming out in our basement

where you live? I took Princess and vacated the premises for a few hours.

I came home to quiet and the house was still clean.

Men do grow up! Who knew? ;-)

We also spent some time trying to figure out what seeds we may need to order

for this year.There is a lot of activity on the fruit trees and my forsythia is wakingMy beloved Fig tree is growing up towards the sun and looking happy.

Fruit Meme

I was tagged on my homeschool blog,
growinginthegardenstate
to do a Fruit Meme, and I thought
I'd post it here too, in case anyone wants to play along.


Wendy over at Zoom Times
tagged me for this garden themed Fruit Meme.....

1 How much space do you have?
maybe a quarter acre (?)

2 What fruit do you grow?
grapes
golden and red raspberries
figs
gooseberries
cranberries
blackberries
strawberries
2 plums
3 pears
black and red cherries
red currants
In the annual garden:
cantaloupe
watermelon
In the house...
pineapple although I have never been able to get fruit

3 Which is your favorite?
FIGS!

4 What do you most want to grow, but can't?
blueberries
We are going to try it up at the community garden plot next year.
Be sure to let me know in the comments if you played along.
I will tag ,outerbanksmom
hopefully she'll play when she's feeling better.

FIGS!!

This is the view over my kitchen sink.

Don't they look great?

I can't wait for harvest time...the smell of them ripe on
the tree...with a little goat cheese on some good bread.
It amazes me every year that we get more, this big old tree filled with figs began as a small
twig from my neighbor's tree as they were getting ready to sell their house.
There were about three of them on the back of their house before they moved in, the
old man who lived there before them had let them be and when he died at 103,
his nieces came and each took one of the smaller ones growing under the older big ones.
He was an interesting old man who lived simply off his piece of land, he took care of himself
right up to the end. Hanging his clothes on the line in the backyard to dry every other day.
With each new owner, we worry that they will not understand what they have and ruin it.
Each one has, just a bit. But we feel better knowing that a little bit of the gardening
Mr Bartholomew did is alive and well in our yard today.
Our tree is now bigger than what was is left in his old yard,
and I think of him often while I do my dishes.

Technical Difficulties

I have been having trouble getting my latest pics to post,
so I will just tell you, it has been getting hot around here
again. I know it's shocking..being July in New Jersey and all
that...and most evenings we have had some rain if not thunderstorms.
Some areas quite near us have had serious storms, including tornado sightings,
but we keep missing the worst of it..for which we are grateful.
The Groundhog is still trying to get into the garden every day as far as I can tell,
but he has not breeched it yet...he is smarter than some critters, so I expect it
any day.
Things are blooming and growing and looking lovely early in the morning and tired and hot
in some spots in the heat of the day. Summer is here and we are enjoying it as much as we can.
Hope you are as well.

How things look after a night of thunderstorms

Lovely plums...

Temps are climbing high again and everything is growing.
There is a squash growing out of the compost pile and
the squash are growing inside the garden.
The lettuce and peppers are rebounding from the Groundhog attack.
Lots of things are blooming right outside the garden fence as well.
Swiss chard, tomatoes,green beans and corn are growing like..well weeds.

Pickin' Peas

Princess and I have been picking a lot of peas.
If we are very good, we even get some inside the house
to cook gently. Most of the time we just eat them as we go.
There are a lot of fruits getting ready in our yard right now.
The squirrels removed my strawberries this year (next year they'll go in at the c.g. plot),
but we'll still have gooseberries,blackberries,raspberriesgrapes, currants and several fruit trees, like this pear,and plums,cherries,and a fig
This weekend was busy with working in our garden here at home,
and doing a bit more planting up at our community garden plot.
Ok, we tried to make some shade with a rain umbrella from
the back of my truck, and complained about all the heat and humidity,
while Farmer Dad planted and weeded and spread compost up at
the community garden plot.It was a beautiful day at the community garden
and all the plots look active and well maintained. Our plants are doing well there,
having full sun makes such a nice difference.You can see all the shade on our garden plot
at home and the time difference was about half an hour between shots.
This is our second year being involved in the community garden, and our first of really
making a plot of our own. We are actually sharing a plot this year as well, next year we made need
an entire plot for ourselves.