Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July? Let's just forget that ever happened...


Well, this past month has gone by fast.  Possibly because it was so horribly hot I did very little.  Our area had a severe drought and burning bans for most of the end of June through second week of July. The 4th just wasn't 'the 4th' without fireworks, so...of course the city set some off, and promptly started a fire in the woods.  Wonderful.

Eating something that's not
in our garden, bird seed! 
Besides the heat, we've had a few families of bunnies in camping under our pine trees this Summer.  With the drought, they were ravenous when it came to our gardens.  We had created a new garden butterfly garden this year, which originally was not going to be fenced.  Then the bunnies came.  So we put up some plastic netting.  Right...like that stopped them.  The mowed down the garden.  So, finally we purchased more metal fencing (similar to what we fence in our veggie patches) and installed it last week, just as the heat wave and drought were ending.  Here's some pictures of our work.
Bare spots from the Bunny family

Fenced in Butterfly Garden
My lettuce has bolted! : (  
We're officially done with lettuce in the garden for the season now, especially when it looks like this.  I think perhaps I went a bit overboard with lettuce this year, so next year...I have to let some die--I can't try to save every little plant, like this year. ; )   Here's one of my prize pictures this year.  Yes, that's rain...in our new rain gage.  It was like a little miracle when it rained, after almost a month of no rain, so I felt it was blog-worthy.   

 




Heres our Egg plant!  It's our first year growing eggplant and I made sure to buy a small, bushy variety.  I didn't know if it was going to make it.  Early on, something was eating small holes in the leaves.  One Google search later and Bam!  Egg plant is susceptible to just about every pest under the Sun.  I thought...I'm not going to win with this.  Ta'da!  Nice little Egg plants!  Egg plant parmesan is on the menu this weekend.  ; )  



Black Beauty Egg plant!  
  


Compass plant

My Compass plant.  The first year I've
seenit bloom and the rabbits didn't get to
 it.  It's +7' tall!







Rose/Dahlia/Veggie Garden



Our Christmas Cactus.  Recovering nicely from
my trimming it in half around January


Pretty variegated Canna from Mike and Kathy


Latest project...Shh!!! 
It's a gift!  

9781600595813.jpgAnd here's a little bit on the crafting front.  I've finished another quilt, this one will be a gift for my friends baby shower this coming Saturday.  Better pictures to come, but here's a sample of the colors and shape.  Also, I stitched a new key chain holder for my Mom's birthday.  Not bad for a first attempt. I'm hoping to do some more patterns from the book I bought, Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray.
Mom's Birthday present