There’s not a lot going on around here farm wise. It’s been such a hot, dry summer here in Kentucky. We’ve finally been getting rain the last couple of weeks. So everything is starting to grow again.

I haven’t been physically able to get out and work in the gardens, so they are suffering from neglect, too. sigh. I have some lettuce and a couple of cucumbers ready. The cucumbers are from a volunteer plant that grew from the compost. The cucumbers in the garden aren’t ready yet.

As a surprise to me, the Hibiscus plants bounced back after all our storms and high winds. this is our biggest one. I really need to divide it. It’s still blooming for me, too.  🙂

This second Hibiscus is mostly standing and still blooming, too.

This third Hibiscus has taken the brunt of the winds. As you can see, it’s not going to let the wind stop it, and it’s still blooming.

We got a late start on our garden this year. The green beans are getting big, but no blossoms as of a couple of days ago. There is 4 rows, one on each side of the two fences.  We get quite a bit of beans from this. I used to freeze them, but now that I have a pressure canner, I can them.

Can’t wait for fresh green beans!

 

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I thought the Day Lillies in the Bible Garden were finished. I was surprised this week to three more blooms.

The Hibiscus bushes started blooming this week. I just love the beauty of these plants. From the extremely interesting bud, to the cone shaped flower, and finally to the lovely large flower. This is on the bush with white flowers.

We have two bushes with pink flowers. Gorgeous. After last weeks bad weather, these bushes were laying on the ground. I didn’t think they would come back up on their on. I’m happy to say they recovered with out any props from me.

The Butterfly Bushes are still blooming. Although, I started cutting the spent blossoms off this week. The butterflies, of course, love them. So do the hummingbirds, and all kinds of bees.

We still have Gladiolus blooming. They are just about finished, though. It’s always sad to see the last a plants flowers for the year.

All these pictures were taken by my 16 year old daughter, Hannah. I never made it out to take pictures. The plants in the vegetable garden are getting big. I have a nice cucumber almost ready to pick, too. yum!

 

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We had severe storms move through Kentucky on Thursday afternoon. While there were no tornados, the high winds did lots of damage. Here are a few pictures from our yard.

In the side yard, that’s the kids fort.

Can you see the pine tree in the front yard that’s falling over?

This Red Bud Tree by the driveway split in half.

Standing by the driveway looking across the front yard.

 

My poor wind blown Hibiscus, above, and Butterfly Bush, below.

One of our neighbors had 4 very large trees pulled up by the roots.While we lost a lot of branches and small trees, we had no serious damage. None of the trees fell on our house or cars.

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It has been sooooo hot in Kentucky this week! 101, 104, 105 Too hot!! Factor in the humidity, and we haven’t ventured outside for much this week. We’ve had to water every night, as it is so dry here. We haven’t had rain in over a month, and our county (and surrounding counties that I know of) are under a burn ban. There were storms yesterday that went through Ohio, part of Kentucky and West Virginia yesterday, but we didn’t get any rain from it. We had some wind, but it was a hot, straight from the furnace wind, not a cooling wind. Hopefully we get a break from the 100’s and get rain SOON!

Last week I shared pictures of the mystery plants that grew from the compost. I said I thought they were watermelon. Well, I was wrong. For this plant anyway. It appears to be a cucumber. I have Armenian Cucumbers planted in the vegetable garden, so this volunteer will be nice, too.

Here’s Shadow, our Australian Shepard lounging in the driveway. I sure don’t know how he can handle these temperatures with all that fur! He has been enjoying the ice water I’ve given him every afternoon. 🙂

 

I just love the buds on the Hibiscus plant.

The Feverfew is blooming. It’s in a planter by the front porch. I don’t think I’ve been watering it enough, but the flowers are looking pretty.

The Echinacea is in full bloom, with the Peppermint growing on the left, and the Chives on the right. I made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream using the fresh peppermint. It’s so yummy!

This volunteer tomato plant growing through the slats of the compost bin is getting big. No flowers yet, though. There are two more growing on the inside of the bin that is made from pallets.

While I was out taking pictures, I found this strange flowers growing in the pool.

ROFLOL!

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Junk finds second life as yard decor
How to Break a Broody Hen or Not
3 Simple Tips to Growing a Bigger Garden Once You’ve Planted

Get Your Red Clover Before the Seasons Over
Feeding Angora Rabbits Organically
Home Herbology: Calendula Officialis

Wild Carrots, Queen Annes Lace and Deadly Hemlock – has excellent pics and information on identifying hemlock
The Best Homegrown Culinary Herbs Growing Tips and Facts
Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose Dresser as a Planter – I love this!

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We’ve been picking red raspberries, black raspberries and blackberries just about every day. We found this:

in a black raspberry bush. There are three babies in this picture, and the two eggs have hatched since this picture was taken. Co cute!

 

The Glads are blooming!

Now, for the view from my front porch rocking chair:

The White Butterfly Bush is in full bloom! So beautiful. So relaxing to sit on the front porch rocking, watching the butterflies on the bush.

The smaller Purple Butterfly Bush is in full bloom, also.

Little green bean seedlings!

 

And our new addition:

A water spigot!  It’s out near the barn and the vegetable garden. No more running 4 hoses from the house to the garden! They were still working on filling in the hold when I took this picture.

The mystery plants in my lettuce and spinach raised bed are blooming. I’m pretty sure they are watermelons. Whatever they are, they came from the compost pile. They both of lots of blossoms.

The Jewelweed is blooming! I’ve had poison ivy for a couple of weeks now, just small spots, but still. So now I have to look up (again) how to preserve it to use the next time one of us has poison ivy. We have this all over the property. This one is in the back yard by the creek. It’s really shady there, that’s why the picture is so dark. I could have used the flash……..but because I was out in the SUN taking pictures, it never occurred to me to turn the flash on. lol

 

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

How to Make Your Own Liquid Stevia
Brick Herb Markers
Comfrey – Homegrown Fertilizer
Grow Your Own Bee Garden
How to Infuse Herbs

Using Ragweed and Wingstem as Mulch
Prickly Wild Lettuce
Calendula Chamomile Salve – video
New Plant Markers from Old Items

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The Butterfly Bush is blooming!

I just love this flowers. I can’t wait until this bush and the White Butterfly Bush are in full bloom. Here’s the whole Purple Butterfly Bush.

My daughter planted flowers in this planter.

The Rose Bud from last week is now fully opened and beautiful.

I thought the Day Lilies were done blooming but found a couple of small ones.

We sold all our goats last December. Now the field and barn are showing how much work the goats really did. We’re thinking of getting sheep next.

Here are some pots I’m trying to start herbs in. I’m having an awful time this year getting herbs to grow. Hopefully these take off!

To the right of those pots, in the herb garden behind the house, is the Peppermint. It’s spreading, of course, and I’ve been enjoying putting leaves in my iced tea. I’m planning on trying homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream soon. yum!

To the right of the mint, are the Purple Cone Flowers, and Chives.

To the right of those, are Wild Strawberries, and Plantain. Yes, I have Plantain all over the yard, but I like having some in the Herb Garden, too.

And wasn’t it nice of the Wild Strawberries to start growing in the Herb Garden?

My daughter picking Red and Black Raspberries.

We’ve been getting about a half a cup the past few pickings. A few have been eaten, and we’re putting the rest in the freezer. When I get enough, I’ll make jam.

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Chocolate Mint
Comfrey as garden fertilizer
Lambs Quarters
Soothing Calendula Chamomile Salve – video

Simple Chamomile Healing Salve
How to Make a Rain Barrel
How to Make an Herb Infused Medicinal Oil
Confessions of a Messy Gardener
Garden tips

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The  Hostas are blooming!

My little, one and only Celosia.

The Day Lillies are still blooming.

And I have a new Rose bud.

I’m so excited, the Echinacea is finally blooming.

These are such fun flowers to take pictures of. I never get tired of taking their picture.

Here’s the lettuce that survived the kitten attack. The netting has kept them from digging up the rest of them. You can see the celery we’re growing from the bottom of store bought celery. I didn’t get more lettuce and spinach planted this week, but will definitely do it this coming week.

The Raspberries are ripening. These are plants that come up on their own. About 10-15 feet away from where we have the rest of them. We have a LOT of new plants this year. A big section of volunteers. I’ll try and get a picture of all of them next week.

This is some of the Raspberries on the fence. We’ve been getting a few Raspberries every day. I’m freezing them, and when I get enough I’ll make jam. yum!

I took a picture of the yard on the way back from the raspberries. To the right of the dog, Shadow, is the driveway. The garden on the end of the house is the Bible Garden. It has been sorely neglected since I’ve been sick. So it’s just the perennials. And the weeds. Weeds are mentioned in the Bible, too. So they are appropriate plants for the Bible Garden. haha I seriously need to get some annuals planted, though.

That’s a big Mimosa tree started from two little twigs 9 or so years ago. And, yes, that’s one of my crazy kids in the front yard! lol

 

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

How to Grow Big Leaf Maple Trees from Cuttings
Using Epsom Salt in the Garden
Chickweed
Shed Chicken Coop
3 Wild Edibles That are Good to Know

Honeysuckle for a Good Cause
DIY Herbal Salves
Heavy Metals Cilantro Detox
30 Most Popular Herbs for Natural Medicine
14 Reason to Have Compost Worms

 

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