A Chill in the Evening

The nights are cooling off. It's finally starting to rain occasionally. The kids are back in school.  Fall is creeping up on us. 
I know this to be true because the yard is full of clues.

The sedum next to the front porch is coloring up beautifully.  They are attracting lots of bees and butterflies - much to the fascination of the kitty.

I'm still getting some snap dragons.  They didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but I have had blooms all summer long.  These are some of the flowers I grew from seed this spring.

This tree in the back has berries on it for the first time since we've lived here.  Jeff and I discussed this yesterday.  Neither of us remembers any sort of fruit growing here.

It appears we are going to have another bumper crop of persimmons. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are similar to apricots - although with a totally different flavor. Imagine thousands of little apricots dropping onto your yard and driveway, and you'll have an idea of the sticky mess we are in for. If this tree wasn't so gorgeous, I'd chop it down, use the wood for smoking meat and plant something less messy here!

Jeff's tomato plants are starting to look a bit worn out, but they are still lousy with fruit.  He continues to harvest daily.

I call this shot Still Life with Ragweed and Banana. It is out by the alley.  The honeysuckle vines are dragging the ragweed toward the ground so you can see the banana tree Jeff put out here last spring. No wonder my allergies are out of control!!

And So It Continues

The extreme heat and lack of rain continue unabated. The St Louis area is has been upgraded to an extreme drought status. We continue to water the veggies and some of the flowers religiously. But it is too hot to do much of anything else. A lot of folks yards are starting to look like it's Fall with all the dead leaves piling up under the trees. Even the weeds are starting to  dry up and die off (Yes! there is a silver lining!).

Since it's just too depressing to take photos right now, I thought I'd share some things I found on the web.

Check out these gardens designed for dogs: http://realestate.msn.com/dog-friendly-gardens-think-like-a-canine#scptit

And here's an article about raising veggies and chickens and bees in small spaces: http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20120710-chicken-balcony-tomatoes-roof-france-discovers-urban-agriculture

Hopefully we'll get some rain this week! 

Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies have taken over.  Okay, they're really not zombies, they are just weeds, but they sure have taken over.  

I work nights, so early mornings are reserved for sleeping at our house. The scorching temperatures and lack of rain here in the midwest have taken a real toll on the yard. And, since ninty-five degrees is the upper limit of what I will tolerate for spending time outdoors, not much has been done out there for the last few weeks. All the grass is dead.  Only the plants that we water daily continue to survive.  And, the weeds. Some of them have gotten to be head high. I fail to understand how most green things keel over and yet these insidious invaders seem to thrive - just like zombies rising from the dead.

Can you find Scout hiding in the weeds?

Do you see Ranger?  He's not even trying to hide! He just blends in with the brown grass.

There's quite the oasis around where Jeff waters his tomatoes.

The blue at the bottom of this picture used to be the puppy pool, but the dogs have decided they prefer air conditioning to wading in warm water.

The Results of One Rainstorm

We finally got had a nasty thunderstorm come through just after dark several days ago.   We've been having extreme heat and no moisture for a record breaking length of time. While the rain did nothing for the grass on the lawn, the weeds sprang up almost violently the next day.  And, on the bright side, some of the flowers are making a comeback.  In addition, Jeff's multiple trips to irrigate the veggies have paid off. We're harvesting tomatoes, onions and cucumbers.  The lettuce continues to grow - it is in shade most of the day now. And Jeff says we'll have bell peppers some time next week.  The carrots still need a bit more time, but thier greens have really taken off since the rains came.

Summer Is Here

The long hot days of summer are here.  The spring flowers, my favorites,  have gone. The summer flowers are just getting started. The weeds are totally out of control. And, so I've not taken any photos lately.  Several weeks with no appreciable rain have left the lawn pretty brown. Generally, if it's still green, its a weed.

Temperatures have been in the 100's the last couple of days, and are expected to remain there for several more. Jeff is irrigating morning noon and night trying to keep the veggies from cooking before he can harvest them. He's pulling lots of tomatoes and onions. And, we have been eating our own greens for weeks.

We are already plotting and planning on how best to extend our growing season this year, and how best to get a head start on next year's. We've invested in a small, portable green house to which we'll use to keep things growing a little longer this fall. We haven't assembled it yet. But we hope it will help keep some of our plants warm in the cool fall nights, and keep them producing a little longer. 

We have subscribed to Organic Gardening magazine, and have been getting good ideas froom it. You can find their Facebook page here, https://www.facebook.com/#!/OrganicGardening

We've also been following some gardeners on Twitter.  Since things are slowing down for the summer in our garden, I'll start sharing some of the things our research turns up.

The End of May.

We've got flowers blooming all over the yard.

These are some of the flowers I started from seed.

Jeff's herbs and veggies are doing well also.

These should be carrots when they grow up.

And these will be green peppers and basil if the bunnies let them live that long.

The beginnings of a bumper crop of cucumbers.

We've already started to eat some of the young onions...

...and lettuces.

Jeff picked a handful of berries yesterday morning.

And there are more tomatoes than we know what to do with!

And, in between caring for his house and garden, Jeff is making progress in clearing the bushes out from along the alley.  Next year we hope to grow more veggies back here.  Maybe beans!

And Ranger is hoping to get to taste some of the finished products from the garden...