Garden Friday

 

 

 

Welcome to a stormy Garden Friday!

We were blessed with a couple of inches of rain this week.

It was much needed.

The ground here gets saturated so quickly

with an abundance of rain,

that trees are uprooted.

Our apple tree didn't make it through the storm,

so the squirrels will have a little less food this summer.

It was planted in the wrong spot from the beginning,

and had been leaning for some time.

 

This is the earliest I can recall having a sunflower bloom

since we moved to North Carolina.

This beauty popped up early.

We usually don't see sunflowers until later in the summertime.

 

 

Our corn patch is doing fine,

and certainly relished the extra moisture.

This spot is not irrigated,

so I need to be vigilant to keep it happy.

 

Earlier in the season,

these two different varieties of carrots showed much different growth.

Looks like they are about even now,

and will be harvested in a few more weeks.

 

The carrots that were planted much earlier 

are being harvested a few at a time.

This allows the remaining carrots to continue growing.

They share space with potatoes in this bed.

 

The kale seems to have awakened,

as it has been doing a lot of nothing for months.

Kale is one crop that I can't get enough of.

Two of the straw bales are shrinking before my eyes.

I'm not sure if they were oversaturated or what,

but I'm hoping they stay intact for another two months

until we can harvest our squash.

A good project for the fall would be to create

bins in which the bales can sit.

Should be easy enough to build.
 

The butterfly bed is getting filled in 

with various plants I'm finding at the nursery or hardware store.

It's amazing the difference that the rain makes 

with regard to the greening and flowering of plants.

 

 Although we have three trees planted in this bed,

most of these plants will tolerate some shade,

and all are drought tolerant.

Attracting butterflies is just a bonus!

 

The lettuce that was planted as a border 

finally decided to pop up!

I'm so excited to be incorporating food in my flower beds.

 

 

Some of the yarrow and poppies were cut back drastically.

They were basically spilling over on top of the Gerbera daisies in front.

It looks a bit tidier and I will work on finding a support for them.

What a gift the rain is!

I hope you're getting just what you need

to make your garden grow!