strawberry time

in late may/early june the strawberries came in


strawberry patch




theres a lone milkweed plant growing in the middle of the strawberry patch


still had some caterpillars, but not so many that i had to sit out there and pick and kill them all. some years i have had to do that.


they're destructive little buggers


puppy taught molly how to help herself in the 'volunteer' strawberry section thats outside the fence.


this one has legs!

dogs and plants

damage to the brussels sprouts by the cabbage moth


canterbury bells


they really grew huge


the hostas i planted last year survived!


the velcro 'ball' that i'd momentarily lost, and found stuck to puppys fur. these little strips of velcro were used to attach tomato seedlings to support stakes. when i planted all the tomatoes i ended up with a ball of velcro-like strips. the dark green side feels like velcro, but the light green side is very soft and doesnt harm the seedlings.


molly in the pool


puppy and molly


another day, another rash

baby pears

some of them have this 'rust' looking thing on them that i think is caused by a bug called pear psylla. so i'll have to spray the trees with some kind of insect spray. but one that wont harm bees. and i have to figure out the right time to apply, if it needs multiple applications. ugh. i dont want to spray, but nearly the whole luscious tree has this, and some on the parker tree too.






some of the parker tree leaves have this - which might be pear blister mite, and would also need spraying for.






a wasp was trying to start a hive on the luscious tree. i shooed it away and tore the start of the hive off the tree. it didnt come back.


baby luscious pears

seedlings in the greenhouse, front garden

nasturtiums, butterfly weed, coneflower


the last of the tomatoes, i've run out of room in the garden for more. and the second round of watermelon seedlings after i killed over half of the original lot when i transplanted them to bigger pots.


the few remaining original watermelon seedlings that survived the transplanting


this was supposed to be chinese kale, but this bin keeps sprouting tomato seedlings by the ton. i think either the tortoise pooped out a bunch of tomato seeds that got mixed in the bin, or else ate a lot of tomatoes in this bin and the seeds got scattered. seriously this bin has sprouted three different rounds of excessive tomato seedlings! and i sure as heck didnt plant any in here.


coneflower and black eyed susans


basil, jicama, celeriac


the cantelope vines were getting REALLY long, stretching out everywhere.


this front garden isnt doing so well. the three sedum i had there werent doing well because i kept watering everything else they were interplanted with. the canterbury bells in the middle really took off this year. they're biennials. last year they were just weird little flat green plants. this year they're 2-3 feet tall!


the tulips did well, and of course i forgot to get a picture when they were all in bloom. and the orange daylilies are going gangbusters.


this weird plant popped up next to the canterbury bells. each of those little round leaf looking things, upon closer examination looked a little more like elm tree seeds. i dont know what it was, so i yanked it out.


the canterbury bells in the other front garden. they're huge!


canterbury bells on the left, daylilies (that arent orange) on the right.


see how thick the stalk is on the bells!


close up of the flower buds for the bells


this is what they looked like the first year. (not my photo, silly me didnt take any pictures of it then!)

doggy pools and a doggy ramp

the dogs love their little plastic kiddie pools.

molly likes to bite at the water




and dig in the water


posing nicely


dribbling water after biting at it


the maple tree 'helicopters' stuck in the new garden fencing


so many helicopters


here is the doggy ramp my dad helped me build for molly so she can get up on the bed


view from the back side


painting




i stapled down carpet for extra traction. (i have extra scraps of carpet in the basement)


nothing fancy, just berber carpet


voila! i made it come up to the level of the blanket chest rather than up to the edge of the bed, because the mattress sinks when you're on the edge of it.