What's Blooming?

For reasons beyond my control, I forgot about Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th (see last post). When I realized this omission, I went out and took some garden photos. [That's ChoCho visiting the veggie garden with Zinnias and mini Pumpkins in front, Patty Pan Squash, Zuchinni, Eggplants, Peppers, and Tomatoes behind him] The perennials are pretty well shredded and battered from the hail storm, but the annuals in the new vegetable garden bed are doing well; they were too small to be ruined by the hail and have recuperated well. The Pumpkins and squash leaves were beaten into the soil, but sent up new leaves, blossoms and fruit. Does anyone want some Zuchinni; we have tons from just one hill of plants. I've made one big batch of zuchinni bread and plan to make and freeze more bread as well as casseroles, from my Granny's recipe, for winter holiday meals. There are still ripening tomatoes on the vines that look awful but kept on producing. I don't grow huge amounts of vegetables for canning and freezing; just enough to keep us in fresh produce and some to give away.

Overall photo of the new garden bed, with annual flowers, herbs, mini pumpkins, and corn. Although shredded, the corn was young enough to continue growing, set tassels and now the kernels are beginning to develop on the ears. This bed wasn't built until late in spring so I knew the corn was a gamble, but since I had never grown any I wanted to try and see what would develop. This year's crop will probably be for the raccoons, squirrels, and birds rather than people.

I love these sky blue Borage blossoms and grow them for that reason rather than to use as food seasoning. What does one flavor with Borage? I guess I need to taste it and see what it would enhance.

Closeups of the Borage, Zinnias, Cosmos, and Marigolds in the new veggie garden bed.

These Bells of Ireland were seeded in front of the Sugar Snap Peas that didn't survive the hail. I have a thing for green flowers, I also have green Zinnias.

Zinnias and Violas (Johnny Jump Ups) in the Dooryard Patio Garden. The California Poppies are mostly through blooming now, and the Lavender, Gaillardias, and Ornamental Oregano plants were beaten down by the hail.

To see what was blooming around the world on the 15th check out May Dreams Gardens. In October, I'll try not to get distracted and post on the 15th. As far as I know, we have no other great grandchildren expected to take my attention from garden blogging.

What's New?

A new great grandchild.

Olivia

daughter of Brooke and Donnie

sister of Miles

Olivia and her loving family live in Denver. Dad is a musician from New Orleans, now making music in Denver. Mom has been going to college and taking care of the family.

I have only seen her online. Will probably get to hold her when we visit Denver at the beginning of October.

I am so wondrously blessed!

Not so blessed that Blogger cooperates with me, however. I am not allowed to arrange the photos the way I want to this evening. What you sees is what you gets.

California Wildfire Smoke

Would you believe that it is again in the 90s here, yesterday and today, and the sky is so hazy we cannot see the mountains clearly. The reason is smoke from the horrendous California wildfires. The Health Department has issued an alert for people with lung problems, which includes me. Do you realize that the smoke has had to cross over 2 huge mountain ranges, the Sierras and Rocky Mountains, to get here, 1000 miles away?!

But here is the blessing in a tragedy; a brilliant sunset last evening. My heart goes out to all those suffering from these fires. I wish they could have come out of the drought this year, like we did.

Goodbye and Hello

Ditto aka Buster Keaton

Once upon a time a lynx point Siamese kitty showed up at Toad Haven, kept moving closer to the house, and then moved in and adopted Joe, me and ChoCho as his family. Since he looked like a smaller version of ChoCho, we named him Ditto. Where ChoCho is big, energetic and adventurous, and hunted in the vacant land back of the house, Ditto was small, low key and snuggly and didn't wander very far from the house. When we took him to visit the vet, we discovered that he was at least 9 years old and had badly abcessed teeth, which had to be removed. Even toothless he refused the soft catfood and insisted on eating the dry Iams cat food and drinking lots of water. Over the years the cats became friends and brothers; with Ditto living up to his name when he invariably shadowed ChoCho around the house.

ChoCho and Ditto sparring

A week ago on Tuesday, when we came home from dinner with DIL Jennie, Ditto was not there with ChoCho to greet us at the back door. He didn't show up all evening nor during the night. Joe looked everywhere he could think of and found no trace of him. Noone turned him in to the Humane Society. Of course, both cats had collars with name and phone number tags. I kept checking the back sliding glass door to see if he had appeared; I missed him terribly. ChoCho kept looking for him and sticking closer to us than usual, needing extra attention and petting.

This afternoon after an appointment with my eye doctor, on a whim, I stopped by the Humane Society to look at the cats. I looked at them, murmured sweet nothings to them, and seeing nothing to interest me, I went to ask the guy at the desk if they ever got any Siamese cats. He said they had a 5 month old one and led me to the proper cage. There was a gorgeous little lynx point Siamese cross kitty curled up in the litter box. They handed her to me, and I was hooked. So I brought her home for a weekend test, to see if she was the one for us.

Little Kiddo staying close to under the bed


As soon as she was let out of her carry home kitty box, she hid under the couch. Joe got down on his tummy and managed to convince her to come out. She checked out the house, I showed her the location of the litter box, and she headed under my bed. Ditto had been shy and spent a lot of time under that bed, also, especially when we had visitors. I fixed her food and water dishes and her new box bed in the corner of the bedroom and went in the living room to read and watch TV. Eventually she came out from under the bed and started exploring. I put a smidge of the kitty tuna on her nose and she dived into the dish to eat it. In addition to their Iams dry food the cats also share a small container of kitty tuna each evening.

Little Kiddo discovers she likes tuna

Later she came into the living room and did more exploring and finally checked out my recliner and climbed up and made herself at home on my lap. I think we have bonded. She and ChoCho are curious about each other but still in the hissing at each other stage. For a while I had them both on my lap, back to back. I'm sure they will become friends in the near future.


Joe was right when he said that I had already made up my mind to keep her before I brought her home on a trial visit. Monday I will take her back to the Humane Society for the formal adoption, they will send her to be spayed at the vet clinic we use, and she will be able to come home to live with us.


I know what happened to Ditto. He showed up unexpectedly and he left unexpectedly. He was a guardian angel sent from heaven to help ChoCho look after me and when the time was right he went back to heaven, over the Rainbow Bridge. Now ChoCho has the help of little Kiddo (a cross between kitty and Ditto).

Home Grown Tomatoes

Here is my latest harvest, in spite of the hail. Note the hail damage to some of the tomatoes, and the yellow crookneck squash. The zucchini, patty pan squash, and pumpkins are growing new small leaves at their centers and the corn seems to be standing straighter. If frost waits long enough I might have more garden goodies. The will to live and procreate is amazing at times.

Hail, Hail, It All Fell Here!

This afternoon, as I was preparing to go out to pull bindweed and cut down elm seedlings the clouds got dark gray and threatening, wind began to blow, rain to fall, and hail began to clatter on the roof. I started watching it from the front door and then hurried to get my camera. It kept me running from frontdoor to backdoor, taking photos and videos, as the rain and hail got heavier and heavier. The noise was deafening. ChoCho sat up from his nap on my bed and looked with alarm toward the window. Oh no! My poor garden!





Please check these photos against those I just posted earlier today.

Scene from the sliding glass door of the sunporch.

My corn and pumpkin patch, taken 4 hours later; the hail still hasn't all melted.

Joe came in and told me that the raccoons wouldn't eat the corn this year.

These were going to grow baby pumpkins for the kids for Halloween.
The Black Eyed Susans survived the falling limb but not the hail.

This is almost more than a poor old Granny's heart can take; what's left of Evan's beautiful sunflower.

But, as I told Joe, it's not as if we had to make our living from these plants, like the farmers do. [As a kid I saw what hail did to farmers and that is why I refused to date the farm boys and end up watching each storm with fear that there would be no harvest that year. I didn't realize that you can take the girl off the farm, but you can't keep her from loving to dig in the dirt.] We can clean up the mess and enjoy what remains. Our cars and house survived because these were not the golf ball or baseball sized hail stones that have fallen recently in other parts of Colorado. This is part of the gamble that every tiller of the soil makes each year. Some years you win and some you lose, but the rewards to being a tiller of soil are worth the risk.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 2009

Our cable internet server was out of service for over 24 hours [ oh, internet fits!] and this is the first day I have been able to get back online. This has been frustrating because I had lots to blog about. I'll go ahead and post August blooms, which were due on the 15th, because it is germaine to what happened today.

Jupiter's Beard in front of Russian Sage in the Prairie Border. These are both great plants for our hot, dry climate. They make a beautiful show without requiring much water.

The Butterfly Bushes are putting on a good display and drawing many butterflies; I've seen Monarchs and Mourning Cloaks partaking of the nectar, not to mention the Broadtailed Hummingbirds.

I purchased my first small Blue Mist Spirea bush from Brady's Nursery years ago when I was roof gardening downtown and it began reseeding itself in other pots and even in the dirt in the rain gutter; which I proceeded to transplant into another pot. I brought them with me when me moved to Toad Haven and they also do very well in our climate.

These Black Eyed Susans brighten the Prairie Border and survived having half of the Russian Olive Tree blown down over them on July 31, my 71st birthday.

The year I began creating this garden, 6 years ago, I planted seeds of these red sunflowers and each summer I have had a few volunteer in the prairie border.

I do not limit my flowers to flower beds and borders. Here is the newest raised bed in the vegetable garden, which was built and planted late this summer. I have marigolds and cosmos planted with the corn and pumpkins. The large leaves at right front are Borage, which I plant for the gorgeous blue blossoms; come on Borage blossoms.

This is the first zinnia to bloom from seeds also planted in the above vegetable bed.

These Bells of Ireland were seeded in front of the Sugar Snap Peas in the vegtable border bed behind the raised beds.

These are Tomatilla blooms and fruit in one of the old raised beds to the south of the new bed. Tomatillas along with Cilantro, tomatoes, and chili peppers make a best salsa. I grow them all. I grew up with Gramma Hernandez's Mexican food and still love it. I can still see her patting out tortillas and cooking them on the pristine top of her old fashioned wood burning range.

In addition to pots of red Geraniums (Pelargoniums) I like to grow Scented Geraniums; this is Citrus Scented Geranium in a pot on the back dooryard patio.

This Dill plant in the bed with Chili Pepper and Eggplants has absolutely glorious blossoms, in addition to being a great herb for cooking.

I finish off with the most treasured flower in the whole of Toad Haven this summer. My grandson, Evan, gave me this plant, that he started in Kindergarten last spring, when it had only 2 leaves in a decorated styrofoam coffee cup. I transplanted it into a large pot and moved it to the garden to Become. This is what it Became, isn't it gorgeous?

To see what is blooming this month all over the world check out May Dreams Gardens.