Gardening, anyone?

Flaviarose - that's hysterical!

I planted my squash late this year in order to avoid squash borers and squash bugs. They're a dreadful problem every year for me. If it works and I finally get lots of squash, I'm planning on canning.

Gardennerd and Coachvicky - although I don't pray in my garden, my daughter is always singing when she is helping me weed.

Gardennerd, I know what you mean. I hate to leave my plants during the growing season because I know they won't get the love I give them. :-)

That's good news about your dad. My mom is 90 and lives alone too. Her significant other lives next door and she takes care of him, making sure he takes his meds correctly and cooks dinner for the both of them almost each day. He has mild dementia and recently broke his arm and has been in a rehab /nursing home for 2 months. I know eventually he will need to go into the VA center as a full time resident but for now, Mom wants to try and care for him. The hard part is when she ends up in the hospital with congestive heart failure because she refuses to not eat the things she should stay away from. She tells me, "I am 90" and lets that sit right there.

Thunderstorm came through and dumped a good amount of rain

More like my water bill is loving it. Got more rain this morning.

So much rain past month and two weeks I'm gone. Lost entire tomato plants. Managed to get alot of maters off plants. So the garden tending while I was gone was more of Mother nature's doings. Have some birdhouse and basket gourds that are happy. Can't seem to upload from phone. Will try later on computer (okay, finally got pic loaded)

Gardens are still in pitiful shape due to hot summer and lack of rain, but here are some pretty gladiolas from the farmers market today!

Nan, I LOVED your pics. Whimsical and relaxing at the same time. What area are you located? As you know, we have members from all over. I see rocks and so you can't be from my area (Gulf coast) a rock is hard to come by.. . but we have sand. Keep posting pics. I've learned so much from this forum.

Jazzygirl, love the glads. Isn't it strange how the weather has been? Not sure of the month of July, but for us the month of June was a record breaker for amount of rain. If I could, I would send to all that need it. So love how you improvised and purchased the glads. Love the colors.

I made pickles and we got a bunch of stuff from the garden.

Coach Vicky

Mmmm, CoachV the produce looks delicious. I wish my cukes would produce or I will be forced to buy them to make some pickles. I also drop some of my super hot peppers into store bought pickle jars and after a couple of weeks have very hhhhhhot pickles to enjoy.

MOmmy, I made 3 loaves of it Sunday. One was a yummy chocolate wave recipe and the other two were lemon zucchini bread. I intend to make at least 2 more loaves tonight. I found a chocolate and advocado recipe I want to try. Then I will only have about 8 zucchinis left to use. LOL Of course I still need to check the plants. tonight. I just wish my cucu7mber plants would take a tip from the zukes and produce like crazy.

~Heidi

I make refrigerator pickles, SummerRain.

Here is the basic recipe: http://thecreeksidecook.com/refrigerator-garlic-di...

I don't use mustard seed.

Coach Vicky

Mommy- I have not seen rain since May

Mmm, I like to make refrigerator pickles too. I have a glass top stove and I don't think they work well for canning. So I was afraid I might poison someone!

We are hitting 100 now and no rain in sight or for the past 12 days. DH doesn't like for me to be out in the heat when I get home and water the garden. But I can't stand to see my plants starting to shrivel. Between bad AC at work ( I sit in 80-82 temps all day) and going to the garden afterwards I notice I am exhausted even more. UGH I dislike the feeling of not having the energy I had a little over a year ago. I am not used to walking so slowly either. People used to tell me to slow down.

Jazzy, I hope ya'll get rain soon. My biggest fear is fire and while we were in the drought there were so many of them.

Speaking of fears, I really really don't like snakes. I may have mentioned that once or twice. So why do they keep finding me???? LOL

Finally - green beans and the sweetest yellow cherry tomatoes. An one zucchini! Been too sick to be in garden due to lupus complications so Hubby is picking and watering. Breathing better today so hope to get out early one morning this week.

Love all the photos and stories. First place I visit when on site.

So the story here in the southwest is that the monsoons are getting started and there are some big storms around (the east side of town here got 2 inches in 30 min the other night). The west side of town where I live has had no rain in a good 6 weeks. The news says we may be dry again until the weekend.