SLOW is the one word that comes to mind when I describe my garden this year.  I even had most of it planted by the end of April.  I’m chalkin’ it up to our wonky weather this year, too much rain!! 

Everything is small too, therefore, I feed it to the ducks.  At least they are dining well!

Lots of blossoms, but barely any squash.

I’ve got a teeny tiny watermelon that doesn’t seem to want to grow up.  He’s been this way for a few days!

Green tomatoes that don’t want to get red.  Even my Big Boy’s are not very big.

But my salvation is the cucumbers.  I’m starting to see cucs with those blossoms.  There is hope!

But the most fun for me while I garden is watching the waiting girls.  They sit, they watch, they wait, for any fresh morsel I will throw over the fence. 

How does your garden grow this summer?

….make for fabulous landscaping!  Last year when I needed some quick and cheap bushes for the front of our house, I chose currant bushes.  Mostly because when I priced the ordinary boxwood, they were $25 each for a 2 gallon, really small plant!  I wanted something fast, don’t we all?!!  Plus, I’d rather grow something that’s edible.

After just a couple months of planting these last year, they doubled in size.  And this year they came back in full force and loaded with currants, red and black.  Might I add that each bush was a whopping $12 each!  That’s more like my kinda price.

The currants started to ripen last week and man are they beautiful!

The first batch was small, but I smashed them with my grandma’s old berry masher…..

And then I froze the juice from that batch that I’ll add to this week.  I found a great jelly combination last year…..mulberry and currant berry jelly!  Both ripen at the same time.  They are tedious to pick because of their small size, but so worth it in the end!

I’ll end with what I saw while smashing berries.  The “girls” always give me a smile no matter what they are doing.  I added a new drinking tub to the yard.  Guess it’s a “bath” tub now!

Live in the country? Do you or someone you know have lots of those rusty discs laying around the farm? I borrowed this one from my dad’s junk pile last year and recently created a sedum planter.

It sits on some other kinda piece from the tractor that I’m calling my planter stand.

Try that when you’re looking for a free planting container/garden art! 

Believe it or not this is my 99th post!  So, in honor of my 100th post later this week and whenever I can get to the next post, I’m giving away a full yard of Kaffe Fassett fabric.  Maybe only my internet quilter friends will be giddy about this one.  I wish I could give away a dozen duck eggs to my duck followers, but I’m not so sure how to send those in the mail!  So make sure to check back later this week if you love fabric cuz this one is fabulous!!

Last night I picked the first lettuce and spinach from my garden, woo hoo!!

Isn’t it beautiful?!!  I put this bit of lettuce in a planter on my deck.  It’s SO easy to pick right outside the door, especially on a rainy day.

I try to plant as many things from seed as possible.  I’ve got flowers going in this tray.  See those teeny tiny geraniums?  Believe it or not they will grow into large flowers quickly because I use the hell outta Miracle Gro ;-)  Love that stuff for immediate gratification!

The ducks have a favorite nest right now in the midst of my hollyhocks.  I don’t mind them in the large, established flowers unless they start to “drill” and dig up everything in their path! 

And what’s a garden without Irises?  I hope your garden is growing!