A New Summer "Do" & A Bursting Garden

Good morning.  I was going to do this post last night, but I think I would have fallen asleep half way through.  Yesterday, I had an appointment with my daughter to get my hair done.  I decided I had had enough of the long hair.  It was hot, and unruly, and I wound up wearing it twisted up in a clip most of the time.  So when I got there I told her to cut it off!

Pretty much how I wore my hair before.  Short, choppy, and EASY!
After I got my hair cut, I ran over to the Goodwill Bookstore.  If you live in Corona or Norco, and you are a reader, I highly recommend you visit this fabulous place!  They have a very good children's selection, from toddler to youth.  And a good variety of everything else.  They run a buy one, get one deal too.  Paper backs are 1.99 and hard backs are 2.99.  But you get two for that price.  I got these two books for my next read.

I can't wait to dive in!  I recently finished a great read that my friend Meredith suggested, called The Last Summer.  By Judith Kinghorn.  If you are a fan of Downton Abbey, you will love this book!  Thanks Mer!!
I have been on a huge blueberry kick lately.  They are so good this summer!  I put them in my yogurt, on cereal, eat them plain like candy, and can't get enough.  Sprouts had them on sale in their Wednesday ad for 99 cents a pack.  So Greg and I had to run out to stock up last night.  I made another one of those delectable Buttermilk Blueberry cakes that my Canadian friend Linda  featured on her blog a while back.  I think this was the 4th or 5th time I have made this cake.  DIvine!!

My son and I have already put a big dent in it!  This is a moist cake, not too terribly sweet, and just loaded with blueberry goodness!  If you type it into my search browser, you can find the previously posted recipe for it.
Yesterday evening, on my garden tour, I brought my camera, so that I can document how my garden has progressed, week to week.  I walked out there, just as the sun was heading down, and the light was so pretty at that time.

Oh how I love this time alone in my garden.  I water, dead head, harvest, and weed.  It is my favorite time of the day.  The sweet peas are going like gangbusters, reaching the top of the chain link fence behind the planter.

The corn is standing tall, and will deliver a special gift for us come Fourth of July.

I staggered the planting in three stages, so that I would have fresh corn at various time throughout the summer.  I planted 14 stalks.  Each stalk will yield 3 ears of corn.  That should do just fine for us!

Some of the ears are nearly ready  now.

When I planted my garden, I put in a packet of broccoli for the first time.  I have broccoli all over the place!

A also put a packet of Arugula in.  But that turned out to be broccoli as well!!

So we shall be eating a lot of broccoli this summer!
My cabbage  heads are absolutely enormous!  I have always wanted to plant this, just because I think it is so pretty.

Last night, I picked my first tomatoes.  They are much smaller than last year, but I think I will be having plenty to keep us in maters throughout the summer.  I have 5 plants in. Some are heirloom, and I am not thrilled with those.  Too small!!

Upon getting down on my  hands and knees, to search through the dense leaves, I found that there were several clusters of tomatoes ripening, that were hidden amidst the foliage of the plant.

I'm glad I looked, because I don't want to miss a single tomato sandwich opportunity!
My very first watermelon, not quite ready for slicing!

Off to a late start, but hopefully they will be worth the wait!
Loads of fuzzy cantaloup are forming now.

And I am picking cucumbers like crazy!   They are so crisp and delicious!  I love to dip them in hummus!

I am already planning my garden for next season in my head.  I will be doubling my space, and planting way more variety!
I am thrilled with the way my pumpkins are thriving!  I have planted them before, and never had any luck!  Not this time!!!!

There are dozens of basketball sized, still green pumpkins hiding amidst the giant elephant ears of the vines.  Short and fat ones.

Tall and skinny.

And even a set of conjoined twins!

This weekend, I want to have all of the grandkids choose their very own, and scratch their names on the surface of the pumpkin, and then they can watch it grow until Halloween.
The pumpkin patch in the evening glow.

I had these two large clay pots that my brother gave me a long time ago.  They are so huge and  heavy, that they can't be moved.  I intended to plant trees.  I still plan to do this, but in the mean time, I planted more pumpkins, and cantaloupe.  They have just begun to come up.

As the vines begin to grow, I will guide them toward the rest of the pumpkin patch, and hopefully fill in that empty spot between the big clay pots, and the existing pumpkin patch.  After picking my evening haul, I bid the garden goodnight.

The nasturtiums that my chickens love to dine on every evening, are fighting their way back, despite the constant nibbling.

The washed goods of the day.

Actually, I had picked a bunch of squash earlier that morning.  This is just the evening haul.
A little off subject  here....I wanted to show you my star cubes.  I had used the zest of off a couple of large lemons for my blueberry cake, and didn't want to waste the juice of the lemon.  So I froze the juice in my star ice cube tray.

I popped the lemon cubes out and into a ziplock baggie, and they can be added to water, or tea, or used when lemon juice is needed in something.
Well, that's it from the farm.
Go plant something, water it, and watch it grow!
XO  Kris