Why can't we just have July all year round? I ponder that as I take many short breaks in between the endless outdoor tasks while resting in my Adirondack chair. I look out over all of the lush green trees and grasses amazed at how all of this life can somehow be able to survive dormant in our harsh winter months. July is when all kinds of garden flowers wild flowers appear. My Maximilian Sunflowers (pictured above) began flowering on July 3rd.
My Northern Catalpa tree appears to be happy. I was worried about it earlier in the spring because it looked like it didn't make it through the harsh winter. The small bloom was a nice surprise (see June's entry) but I don't see any of the "beans" on it this year.
I'm very careful when I mow the lawn. I have about 4 of these "islands" of St. John's Wort that I spotted growing wild. I always harvest some in mid July to make "good mood" tinctures for the winter.
The corn, yellow squash and beans have doubled in size since this picture was taken on July 4th. However, the beans have had a tragic setback...
Yup, I'm saddened to say that the whistle pig is back. Woodchucks are basically country rats that love to burrow under fences and target tender green leaves in the garden. This year, IT got in and ate most of the 4 varieties of beans. All hope isn't lost because when it happened last season, I saw that the beans grew back.
Activity was very high July 10th through the 13th, (Full moon was on the 15th) with 3 of the four fenced gardens breached.
Then, nothing. I haven't seen the furry bastard since. Let's just say the next time I shoot, it won't be with a camera.
There used to be four, 3 ft. tall African Marigolds in bloom, but the Guinea Pig on steroids chomped them off with his smelly teeth. Behind them, the tomatoes are doing well with my new method of compost then a top layer of straw. A few of the plants were eaten by the wood pig chuck, but they have since re-sprouted new leaves.
The firewood in placed around the fence base to help keep the fur pig out, but he has managed to move them in a couple of spots and burrow under anyway. Apparently, woodchucks do chuck wood. If anything, I hope he got splinters. I ended up replacing the firewood with a cinder block at one of his favorite spots. This seems to be working for now.
Meanwhile, after fortifying my fences, I actually got my peppers planted. They look pretty sad a week after I planted them. Most of them are shedding their leaves under stress from the hot sun we've had all week. I'm hoping for a thunder shower tonight since there's a slight chance in the forecast.
Finally, I v'e got a lot going on in the window boxes in front of the greenhouse. The pole beans are getting big, but no tendrils for climbing as of yet. The tomatoes are deep green and full of blossoms and the lettuce is ready to be picked. I spent some time making a nice support net out of garden twine for the pole beans to climb. It would be cool to see bean plants cover the windows of the greenhouse - literally, as they would cool the greenhouse by shading the windows!
We'll see...
:)
