Can you tell it’s busy summertime around here? The posts on this little blog are getting farther between while our lives seem to be spiraling out of control. Like I’ve said before, summers in Idaho are short . . . so we cram lots into them.
July gave us two birthdays. My baby got all big on me. He is now five and will begin kindergarten next spring. I will save the sob story for another day. Too busy today! The tears will wait . . .
Terrel is now fifteen and successfully completed his driver’s ed class! Yep. We now have two teenage drivers. And I’m still relatively sane . . . on good days.
This is what they do when I lose that sanity. Just kiddin’. Terrel purchased a hammock and wanted me to try it out. Then they started swinging me in the thing! I was a good girl and kept my supper down.
I miss these two. Something fierce.
They are off in Idaho Wilderness Boys Camp for two weeks and I’m sure it’s been a good thing for them. The two weeks ends this Friday and I will have to say I’ve learned a few things along the way.
- Those heart strings I tied to my babies years ago . . . well, I’m doing my best to untie them or at least loosen them significantly. They are growing up into fine young men and I need to begin letting them go. But what’s good for me isn’t always painless. Funny how that works!
- We are not drinking the huge amount of milk that we go through when these two are home! Plus, cooking has gotten smaller in general. It’s amazing how much teenagers eat.
- It’s been good for the younger children. Somebody has to step in and fill those huge shoes these guys wear! I guess you could say it’s made all of us grow up a bit.
But it will be so good to hug them on Friday.
The temperatures are soaring close to 100 here in Idaho. And this heat, plus no rain, is sapping the grass and soil dry of its moisture. So we water . . . and water . . . and water some more. I need at least one spot of green grass to sit my lawnchair on!
I love these cosmos! This is my first year growing cosmos and I should have started it years and years ago. It’s so easy!
Plus, the garden wouldn’t be quite as lovely without my zinnias. I honestly don’t consider myself anything more than an amateur gardener. But it is so much fun to learn and get my hands dirty in good soil!
Something happened to my corn. It began to tassle when it had barely reached waist high on me! It looks rather dwarf . . . and cute. Hopefully we get to eat a few ears!
My one garden doesn’t have a fence around it. But we have a couple motion detector sprinklers which help keep deer away.
Until I forgot to turn them on one night.
Then the deer came in and had a huge nice salad for midnight snack. But thankfully it has grown back very well!
I’ve had trouble with my green beans sprouting well the last few years. Then someone suggested I put nematodes on the garden soil before planting. I purchased some online and sprayed them all over the gardens and now we have green beans!! The nematodes are an organism within the soil that helps keep pests down, from what I can figure out anyway. (You can get some on Amazon).
I also made sure to begin watering right after planting the seed and have kept it watered regularly since. Between those couple things, perhaps one of them helped!
But either way, I picked the first few beans off our plants today and we are eating them for supper tonight. And I said many “thank You Jesus”‘s while among my green bean bushes today.
I think this is the first time I’ve grown red lettuce. It is so pretty!
Can someone tell me why I’ve had about four plants shrivel up like this and die? Two have completely died, while the other two are in the shriveling stage. They receive the same amount of water as the other plants. However, I did spread chicken manure on the parts of the garden this spring. Perhaps they got too much concentrated manure in their area?? It’s rather sad to me since I need to make lots of salsa this year.
My hollyhocks are just beginning to bloom!
This was the first year I started calibrachoa in the greenhouse. They didn’t germinate very well at all, but the few that made it are gorgeous!
My chickens did this. And I yelled at them. End of story. And end of those poor impatiens.
The summer fires are already starting. And our mountains are starting to fade away behind a blanket of smoky haze. On a good note, the farmer who rents the field has a huge load of hay!
Remember Dutch Blitz? I taught that fun little game to my kiddos yesterday. It brought back memories and I discovered I still had a bit of my fast hand left yet. Only I didn’t want to whip my kids at it too badly!
This guy. He melts my heart.
Have an awesome August!!
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A Joyful Chaos says
I enjoyed seeing all your gardening pictures. I’ve never had the problem with green beans not growing/producing, but I’m filing the info you shared away, in case I ever need it. The last time I planted green beans I had five short rows, canned over 400 quart, gave a lot away, and finally let them go to seed and harvested the last of them that way. I was almost “beaned” out!
I can empathize on the learning how to untie those heart strings. I’m in the process of doing that myself. It’s hard!
Blessings~
Kendra says
400 quarts!!!! Wow! My sister who lives in Indiana, recently told me she had five 5-gallon buckets full and I thought that was great. 🙂 I can see how you would get beaned out . . . but what a blessing, too!
Marylou Hershberger says
The whole nematode thing is a little confusing to me. I think there are numerous kinds of nematodes, some helpful, some harmful. What I do know is that we have nematodes and what’s happening to your tomato plants sounds like what happens to ours, all blamed on nematodes. Ours usually develop little knots on the stems near the ground. Check to see if your plant has these. The bad nematodes stop the plant from absorbing nutrients. My bell peppers are effected as well, but in the same raised garden, my jalapeno plants stay healthy and mostly unaffected. It’s been this way for a number of years.
Kendra says
Now this is very interesting! I will definitely have to go check for those knots and also do more research on nematodes. Thank you for this!
Laura C Graber says
Yes, lovely beans, Kendra, and I glimpsed some of those beautiful Idaho potato plants! I played many a game of Dutch Blitz in days gone by. The red wagons were my favorite.
Kendra says
Yeah, those Idaho potatoes came up a little sporadically this year, but those that made it are doing well!