Haven’t we had some beautiful days lately? I’m taking time to appreciate the beauty of the flowers and the activity of the birds these days. Time is passing and I don’t want to miss a thing.
The second brood of robins that live over the garage have fledged and moved away from the house. So too, the phoebe family that nests every year under the eaves.
The perennial garden is revived after just holding on through the drought. The lance-leaf coreopsis are in full bloom and the black-eyed-Susans are soon to follow.
Lavender interjects a pop of violet into all the sunshine yellow and adds its scent to the breeze. Six foot tall cup plants cover the berm with their square stalks and bright blooms. These will be abuzz in bumble bees and other insects as more flowers open.
Then there’s that other garden. The one with all the veggies. Things are looking up there too. Plants that were just barely hanging on are looking healthy and vibrant. What a welcome change.
Even though we are nearing midway through summer, it’s not too late to start more seedlings. Trays of baby broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are sprouting under grow lights in the house. Likewise lettuce and Swiss chard for late autumn harvests are just germinating. The second sowing of green beans went in the ground today as did some late season snow peas. Fingers crossed for a long balmy autumn!
Here we see Peter working on the Mother of All Composters.
You can just never have enough compost in a system like ours. Here he is layering ground up dry leaves with freshly cut hay from the meadow for just the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen.