The veggie garden

 This really is the best vegetable garden we've ever had.

Gloria walking past the corn with a handful of daylilies we're potting up. Pumpkins are climbing vertically on the left.

Evania demonstrating how tall the corn is getting!

The pumpkins - already halfway up their trellis!

The basil is taking off

We're going to be sharing lots of potatoes at this rate!

We have sunflowers growing up in the center of each of our pole bean cages. The sunflowers are doing better than the beans so far!

Japanese beetles and cabbage

We saw our first Japanese beetles today. On the raspberries and the small apple tree...where they always start. Next will be the pole beans. So out came the old yogurt containers with soapy water and plastic forks, and my vigilant troops began their patrol...

Ain't no beetles getting past these toughies!

And on a more encouraging note, look at how lovely the cabbages are, photos courtesy of Rinnah.

First black raspberry of the year

But you can't actually see it, because it's already inside that sweet little face! She so excitedly called me over to see one that was a different color - not just red! And sure enough - one berry was ripe enough to eat. There's some good weeks ahead!

Mid-June flowers

These from Grandpa Walter Friedemann are bigger and more beautiful every year, I think!

Gorgeous Menards' marigolds. They sure looked scrawny when we put them in, but a few weeks does wonders!

I think I like the hosta better before it opens on this variety!

I'm partial to the plain old clover that grows in our yard.

The mock orange bush. Really hoping this one makes it through building the new garage!

A new addition to the perennial family last year - here in bud form...

...and here almost fully blooming.

The veggie garden halfway through June

Matt and I agree this has got to be one of the best vegetable gardens we've ever had:

From left to right and back to front...

• tomatoes on a new trellis (including some purple ones from our neighbors!)
• the rhubarb 
• (back) pumpkins and squashes on the three vertical trellis
• (also back) two dozen tomato plants on the new this year trellises
• corn
• (back) pepper plants (hot and sweet) and cylindrical pole bean trellises (eight of them) with a sunflower in the center of each one, and two late-planted rounds of cucumber with the apple tree in the middle of it all
• potatoes - three varieties
• (back) four zucchini plants
• fenced area #1 with two cabbage, beets, parsnips, lettuce and carrots...and a rogue hydrangea that we're not sure where to put for real yet
• (back) the "sun" section of our potted perennial nursery for next year's plant sale, partially shaded under the crabapple tree
• a dozen roma-type tomatoes
• (back) cucumbers on a trellis that's a *little* too shaded (thus the late planted ones mentioned earlier)
• onions (white, red, and yellow)
• fenced area #2 with brussels sprouts, radishes, two different kinds of bush beans (one for fresh, one for drying), kale, broccoli, and eleven very happy red and green cabbage plants. And a few more carrots and parsnips
• (back) one row of potatoes that didn't fit in the main section, next to thirty gladiolus
• two trellises (the old ones) with a dozen tomato plants each
• three more zucchini and some garlic
• and on the shed, which you can't see, more pole beans and a row of bush beans in front.
• You can just see the edge of the blueberry patch on the lower left of the photo, and some of the raspberries on the lower right.

It's a good garden.

Hosta bud

Beautiful even before it blooms...

Plant sale at the neighbors'

The little girls helped me dig, split, and pot up a variety of plants from around the yard to add to our neighbors' plant sale, and over the course of two days, they made more than $400!!! And that's just our plants! Sylv and Sam did just as well, if not better.

They worked really hard with the digging and keeping everything watered and bringing it all over...and they were out there on the driveway for every hour the sale was on...and then they helped me load it all back into Owen's truck to bring back home this afternoon! We also got to keep the things that Sylv and Sam don't want to take up space keeping for next year, so here's looking at even bigger profits in 2021! My budding small business owners!

Even Ebenezer is tall enough to help load the littler pots into the back of the truck. We have ALL appreciated Owen's truck!

June is the best

This is easily the best time of year in the garden. Everything is fully up and running, the weeds haven't had time to take over, and the weather is still usually pleasant enough to be out long hours of the day. And THIS is what I get to see when I'm out in the yard!

The runnel, Matt's office, and the peonies by the big rock

A better view of the peonies and the rock.

My grandpa's lupines with the giant alium heads in the background. We have aphid issues on the lupines this year.

My favorite peony in the whole yard - cream center with a pop of deep pink, surrounded by a ring of pale pink petals.

The above peony resides in the rain garden, which has been surprisingly effective since the week we put it in.

We've only ever had the deep indigo lupines, but this year there's a two-tone red and pink one!

This is my favorite iris - we moved it from the front hill into the back garden below the blueberry wall.

The wisteria keeps growing.

These are a delight every year.

That ugly shed is the perfect backdrop for the boisterous peonies, and Rinnah's garden on the far left.

The clematis is by far the best it's ever looked this year, too. For once, it didn't die down to the ground, but stayed where it had climbed last year, so was ready to go with the blooming!

This garden around the cottonwood has settled in so nicely - hardly needs any maintenance.

Star flowers that planted themselves by the slide.

 And that's it for the night. More photos, but I'm not going to take the time to comment on them tonight! Or maybe ever, knowing the way my time comes!

Containing the mint

Everything I've read about mint says it spreads and takes over and you should always always always plant it in a metal container to contain it if you have mint. I bought mint last fall (a variety called "chocolate mint"), and planted it on the top side of the garden wall by the blueberries, figuring at least it's contained on one side, which should give me a good head start.

This spring I thought it didn't come back at all. So I bought another pack and planted it on the far southeast corner of our yard where it's enclosed by concrete on two sides (the curb and the path) and as far away from neighbors as I can get.

And then I noticed that the chocolate mint was back up. And it was spreading.

Enter craigslist. I found a SUPER cool copper washbasin for $10 within five miles or so of home. I inquired, and not only was it still there, but the size was just what I had been wanting. They were selling it cheap because it leaks, and they figured it wasn't good for anything other than recycling. But since I WANTED it to leak, I happily picked up the ragged old thing, dug a nice oval hole in the garden near the wall and the blueberries, and proceeded to punch about two dozen more holes in the bottom. A layer of rock, some soil, and...voila!...the mint is contained!

Because of where it's located on the slope, the two-inch lip at the top side means that there's a good 6-8 inches showing on the downhill side. I am just thrilled!!