Garden Tour - June 10, 2015

I grow and harvest the shelling peas.

The Little Tyrant shells and eats them all by herself.

I am not sure why I grew beets.  I never know when to harvest them.

Whenever I think it's time, they wind up being the size of a gumball.

By the way, those are not clover, those are wood sorrel.

I also swore off bush beans, because the mosquitoes love to live in them.

Yet again, I planted string beans.  I have the seeds!  I don't want to waste them...

I started everything late, so the tomatoes are only now starting to look like real plants.

I had a handful of random tomato seedlings pop up around the garden.  

I think we're up to about twenty now.  I stopped keeping track of what is where, 

so I have no clue what types I have growing where.

The watermelon seems to be doing better than the cantaloupe. 

We are finally out of pickles, so I can't wait for the cucumbers to come in.

Mmm...zucchini bread...

Speaking of things I don't know when to harvest...the onions are still here.

And now they have flowers.

This is either broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage...

As you might have guessed, the overwintered kale I was excited about, it bolted.

Then, the flowers came and now it's all seeds.  I read that I have to wait for them to start

to dry, then I have to cut them, let them fully dry and harvest the seeds.

 I noticed either aphids or maybe they were white flies on the kale seed pods.  I don't know.

What I do know is a ladybug has found its way to my kale and is (knock on wood)

eating all of them.  I hope to have a ladybug house built soon.

We got a toad house on freecycle.  I'm pretty sure our toad is not living in it.

The Little Tyrant is happy to keep filling his dish with water, so I'll leave it for now.

This a picture of our toad being camera shy.  We named him Everett.

We also named the baby bunny Munchie, because he's always munching on grass.

I forgot to take a picture, maybe next time.

I am growing Mammoth Dill, because it allegedly lures beneficial bugs

to your garden.  I'm mostly growing it so I can make more lox.

The strawberry patch is being supervised by the Little Tyrant.

At least this year she is actually sharing her strawberry harvest with us.

The sugar snap peas haven't made it inside either.

We usually pick and eat them as we work in the garden.

I started the artichokes too late again this year, but I am hopeful.

My whole yard smells like honey suckle.  Beehives next year for sure.

This was a raspberry bush.  It is now a tree.  It is getting out of control and blocking

the sun from the garden, so we'll have to trim it in the fall.

We usually don't get to eat any of the berries, because there is always a bird nest in that tree.

Those birds eat the berries.  I'm okay with that.

I noticed each year the berries are getting darker.  No more bright red raspberries.

Now they are a dark purple color and insanely sweet.

As I was picking these, I realized the real reason I don't mind the birds

eating all of the berries...picking raspberries takes forever.  I gave up pretty quickly.

This is Big Head Pete.  He says, "Be nice to animals.  Give us more cookies."

He also says, "Adopt from shelters and save a life.  And you stupid politicians

should start doing more to protect animals.  Make punishments for dog fighting

and animal abuse fit the crime, it shouldn't be a slap on the wrist."

But most importantly, "More cookies.  Real cookies.  Not the ones

with a million weird ingredients.  Mmmm, cookies."