Roses and Birds

 This last weekend we had family come to visit.  One of the things that my mother in law loves to do, is go walking by the lake and bird watch.  It was a beautiful day for a walk.

 We found things other than birds.  It must have been millipede season. We saw lots of them on the trail.

We did see lots of birds.  A Heron.

Lots of Orioles.

 An inquisitive Blue Jay.

We saw and heard lots of other birds also, but it is hard to get pictures of most.
On the gardening front... There is not much change in the side garden.  The Irises and Peonies are almost done.

The part shade garden did not do much this week.

 In the main flower garden the roses are going nuts.

There are also some other flowers that are doing well this week.

It is nice to see bees.

The veggie garden is filling in nicely.  I need to work on it this week.

Other things in pots are doing well.  Creeping Jenny.

How does my garden grow?

Actually it is going pretty well.  Iowa soil is so great, it almost seems a crime not to have a garden.  The issue was that our yard is sloped and not well suited for a conventional garden.  I always thought of doing a raised garden with a couple of beds.  Nathan was able to get some boxes from old shipping crates for free at work and they worked great for the beds. We ended up with nine beds, each approximately 2 X 4 feet.  Enough that I think that I will get enough produce for us and some friends.

 

We have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, various herbs, beans, squash, peppers, eggplant, and brussel sprouts.  We did not plant corn.  We have access to plenty of corn in the summer, living in Iowa and all.

I am also slowly working on planting some flower beds around the yard.  I have great ambition, but limited time. I do not want to start something and then let it get weedy.  We ripped out the barberry bushes along the sidewalk beside the garage and I started planting there.  I am trying to put in as many perennials as possible so these will be more permanent fixtures in the yard.  I originally wanted the bed to be only yellow and green, but saw some nice red and yellow flowers and changed my mind.  

 

It looks a little sparse now but I do not want it to be so large that it interferes with the sidewalk.

There are some nice lilies in bloom that we did not plant.

 I also focused more on the pots on the front porch than the hanging baskets, which have never flowered well on our porch.  I went with some basic ferns.  I got a surprise last week when I took down one fern to water it.  A family of finches had moved in.

When we first discovered them, there was only two in the nest and they had just hatched.  Now they are starting to get some feathers.

 Some parting pictures of veggies that I will be harvesting soon!  Let the zucchini recipes commence!