We've got tomatoes! A diary of a gardener....

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope that you are having a great week! Man, it's hot here! I'm not sure why, but we are in the middle of a heat wave in the midwest and it's just too hot to be outside. Hopefully, these 100 degree temperatures won't last too much longer because it will wreak havoc in my garden. The good news is that right now, my tomato plants are starting to produce and we are starting to try a few different varieties of tomato. The picture below is one of my Black Krim varieties. As you can see from the picture, it is darker in color, but what you can't tell in the picture is that it's VERY TASTY!

I'm also very excited about how lovely both the butterfly garden and main garden are looking.

We are starting to see a few sunflowers and zinnias blooming. Zinnias are perfect with a little one because she likes to go out with her little scissors and cut a few flowers to arrange for the house. We have a special place in the entry way where she likes to display them - it's super cute!

For this picture (thanks Jake!), I just wanted to display how tall the tomato plants are starting to get - crazy, huh!?!

For anyone who is looking for a good summer read and who think they might be interested in gardening, I definitely recommend the following book...

It's a funny story about this man who is addicted to gardening and to finding new and interesting varieties of vegetables to grow in his garden. He's also prone to pests, and other issues and it's just very funny and easy to relate to if you are interested in that kind of thing.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day - be sure to stop by later this week - I am going to have an update and lots of cute pictures for Casey Wright Photography.  :)
 

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My growing garden...A diary of a gardener

Happy Wednesday everyone! As a gardener, I am happy to say that there is a 70% chance for rain this evening - which we desperately need. As a photographer, I'm not so happy - I'm supposed to have a maternity session this evening and the rain is likely going to force us to reschedule... Oh well, you can't win them all!

I do have a funny story to share.. I've been feeling a bit under the weather with a summer cold and honestly, it's been so retched hot outside that I haven't really wanted to spend very much time in the garden...however, yesterday, I went out to water and found that 3 of my large (and when I say large, I mean taller than me)   lemon tree tomato plants were completely tipped over! ACK! Part of the problem was that I had NO IDEA how big these heirloom varieties were supposed to be, so I was happy when I found these $1 tomato cages on sale on Mother's Day at my local Ace Hardware Store. Little did I know that within a month, I would be unable to actually see the cage because the plants were so big! So here we are, Peyton and I, in the garden in the middle of a 100 degree day... I'm asking her to hold up the plants, which by the way, are about 2 feet taller than her while I sprint over and grab some of my older (yet more trusty) tomato cages to prop up the beasts.

So, I have deduced a couple of thoughts from experience...

1. DON'T BUY CHEAP TOMATO CAGES

2. Even if it's hot and you think you don't need to, go visit the garden at least once a day to make sure it's all in order - ESPECIALLY if it's windy...

So there you have it folks...real life lessons from an actual crazy person gardener.

Let's move forward... I took some fun shots of the garden a few days ago...here goes...

Here is a look at a growing birdhouse gourd... Peyton love these! She wants to pick them now and has a hard time understanding why we have to wait... More to come on that...

Here is a shot of my growing brandywine tomatoes... I CANNOT wait to start eating these... NOM, NOM, NOM!

Here is a shot of my lovely marigolds... At first I wasn't too worried about their aesthetic beauty, more about their ability to detour bad bugs from the garden, but as it turns out, they are truly lovely and add some much needed color to my garden of green... I'm thinking I will start these from seeds for next summer...

And here is a look at the beastly plants... As you can kind of see, there are some other brownish tomato cage fence helping to hold up the larger tomato plants...

Here is a closer look at the lovely groupings of the lemon tree tomato variety... Right now, on each plant, I would say there are at least 80 tomatoes growing and I think I have 4 of this variety planted in my garden :).

And from my butterfly garden, I noticed that the beautiful common milkweed was starting to bloom... So pretty!

And last but not least... here is a shot of the lovely canopy from the lemon cukes. I've never grown this variety before, so I'm really excited to try them out... They are very prolific in the garden right now...

So there you have it folks, thanks for taking a stroll through the garden with me... It's always an adventure :) Have a good day!

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My growing garden... A diary of a gardener...

Happy Thursday, everyone! What a busy week! How is it already Thursday?!?! I feel like the first four days of this week have just slipped right through my fingers. Between studying for the Praxis II (education certification test), taking pictures and just everyday life, I have managed to make this week more busy than expected. However, I am really looking forward to an extended weekend with the family, so that will be good. In the meantime, I am sharing some fun gardening stuff today... The weather has been hot here, so I've been doing a lot of early morning watering of the garden...Doesn't it look perty with all of the hay down around the plants!?!?! I checked this morning and I have about 30 tomatoes growing right now! So exciting!

We received this lovely sign in the mail for our Monarch Waystation - we are now official!

Here is our official certificate commemorating all of our hard work - so fun!

I have a ton of stuff to share tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see what I've been up to this week! Have a Happy Thursday!
 

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A Monarch Way Station...A diary of a gardener...

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope that everyone had a great weekend! We had a great time going to a Royals game, I had an early morning photo session on Saturday, found a great garage sale for a teacher that was retiring, and then went to a few family type events. Pretty busy! I also found some time to work in the garden - yay! Lucky for you, I had a few extra minutes this morning before I left for work, so I could take a few Instagram Pics of our butterfly garden :)...

In today's post, I will be introducing you to our Monarch Way Station that we created. There is a great program at the University of Kansas where you can actually create a Monarch Butterfly Habitat and register it nationally. Monarch butterflies are special in that they travel to Mexico during the winter months and then fly north during the summer months to lay reproduce. Because of the overpopulation and growth, their habitats are decreasing at an alarming rate. Therefore, we are doing our part to create an environment full of their favorite plants so that they can find a home at our house. Here is a look at our Monarch Waystation Area...a.k.a. the Wright's Rainbow Butterfly Garden (we let the little one name it :)......

Because all of our plants are starting to get bigger, I was able to mulch around them to keep the moisture in. I love that red mulch! ....And this is a picture of our Verbena that we picked up. Butterflies love them because they are a succulent plant which means they retain water. They also bloom all summer long, which the butterflies love...

We also planted some flowers from seed - 4 flats to be exact. We planted 4 different varieties of zinnias and sunflowers. The exciting part is that I didn't label them, so it will be a surprise once they bloom - we can't wait to see their vibrant colors...

A butterfly milkweed...

A butterfly bush...

Marigolds... I think I might plant these from seed next year since they are good in both the flower and vegetable garden...

And a beautiful Lavendar... so pretty!

And while I'm attracting butterflies to the garden, I might as well attract hummingbirds :). This is one of the fun Mother's Day presents that Peyton and Jake gave me. Isn't it pretty?!?

As the summer rolls in, I will continue to update on the growth and progress of our butterfly garden. If you are interested in starting your own Monarch Way Station, you can find the details at the Monarch Watch Website...just click here....

In other news... I'm excited to see these gems starting to grown in the garden... These are from the Hillbilly potato leaf tomato plant. So exciting!!!

Last weekend, I planted some butternut squash plants and they are starting to emerge... so exciting!!!

As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy Gardening!  Be sure to stop back by tomorrow, I have some project life stuff to share!

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