Gettin' dirty

Yesterday I smelled like I was at camp. That's a good thing. That means I was outside in the sunshine, enjoying the huge bees and the many birds and the sunshine!

Our strawberry patch, sans baby bunnies, who have moved on:

Irises which came with the house- my favorite kind of plants- the ones I don't have to do anything to, haha! They come up and surprise me with their gloriousness every year all by themselves. Yippie!

Our "pond", as usual, is a disaster zone. We didn't even cover it last fall so I've been attempting to remove the gazillions of drowned leaves, spreading them out to dry, letting them air out all that stink, and then wheelbarrowing them to the compost pile where they'll probably sit until the second coming. But we have a big froggie! He's on the stone in the foreground, to the left of the small sapling. 

Dada and I worked in the garden yesterday. Since he burns pretty easily, we waited until after 5 as it was 90 degrees during the day. I know it doesn't look like much, but we are optimistic for a good showing this year. Unless these four days of storms which start today do everybody in...

This is my Borage Triangle. At least, I think that's what those guys are. I didn't plant them there this year, but that's where some were last year, so I'm hoping they're repeat guests. I can't say offenders as I'm more than happy to have them for the bees and butterflies. My mother insists they look like alien bioscouts, haha. 

Dada, the purist, and I are once again disagreeing about gardening. I planted the cucumbers right along the fence so they could grab hold and go up. He says I'll be fighting a losing battle with the weeds along the fence line. I suppose we're both about to be proved right.

These tomatoes are called Allegheny Sunset. I didn't prop them last year and so they got very sprawly. I think a vole was helping himself as I didn't get a single bite; by the time I found them they were all chewed up from below, so I guess they're tasty but I wouldn't know from personal experience.

The yellow broomsticks mark basil, to the left in the back are pepper plants, and then everybody else is a tomato of some kind. I love the teeny cherry ones so we planted Sungolds, black cherry ones, yellow pear ones, and red currants. Scott likes real sized ones, hence the Allegheny Sunsets, Cherokee Purples, and Brandywines. 

We didn't get around to adding in the carrots yet, though there are some in the back garden with the onions and the peas. I forgot to take pictures of them, hmmm. And we saw on facebook that you can wire old bananas to a post and the butterflies will come enjoy them, so I want to do that, too!