Outside the back door...

I'm happy to say, after a slow start, the garden seems to be thriving.  After a gorgeous, if very wet, spring we're now consistently in the 80's and 90's (mostly 90's), but rain happens every few days.  In recent years, we've had drought conditions by this time of year (lasting into August), so the rain is welcome.

With no tomatoes, it feels like a much less ambitious garden than last year's.  This summer, it's green beans, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, sunflowers, watermelon, pumpkin, and mini pumpkins.

I've had to replant green beans a few times, but I think the bunnies are done munching on the fresh young leaves.  Blood meal appeared to help early on with deterring the freeloaders.  And I have bone meal waiting in the wings to use (if needed) once the flowering starts.   

Recently, on a whim, I bought some new-to-me Goldrush yellow (bush) beans, and planted some in planters yesterday. I'm curious if anyone reading has experience with these.  I'm looking forward to trying them.

I'm not sure why I planted so many sunflowers, but hopefully they'll put on a show soon and remind me.  

Garlic was harvested last week, and are drying in the detached garage.

 

Twenty-two heads of garlic don't look like that many - especially considering I'm making plans to plant this many and more come late autumn from what I've harvested above.    

Growing garlic is a new experience for me.  So far, it's been the simplest thing I've ever grown. In my zone, hardneck grows best, from what I've read.  Instructions online say to dry for 3-4 weeks before using.  Waiting patiently to cut into these cloves is the most challenging part of growing garlic, from what I can tell.

And the first sign of produce planted in the spring has presented itself this week. 

Hopefully this prickly little cucumber will soon grow big enough to find its way into a dinner salad. 

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In the challenge category, the last two summers, sedum along the back of the house has succumbed to what appears to be powdery mildew.

This plant isn't in a spot where I even notice it much before this happens. I'm thinking of cutting it down and disposing of it this year, and just hope to catch the blight earlier next summer and apply some homemade treatment to see if that can keep it at bay.

And, to our surprise, and probably the most interesting thing in this post, a couple of nights ago we discovered we have a family of racoons that are attracted to our birdfeeders.  I had heard a little noise out there for a couple of nights before, but figured it was a stray cat and didn't bother to look. This time, I turned on the security light and took a peek.

Yikes!  There were five in total.  We assume it was a mama and her four cubs rooting around in the day lilies searching for any scraps of sunflower seeds that had fallen from the feeders.  

Tapping on the window didn't faze this one. 

So, the birdfeeders are removed and our bird watching is on pause while we hope these varmints move on and find something more substantial out in the wild, or in the farm fields that back up to some of our neighbors. 

Meanwhile, we suspect we've discovered the culprit to one of our neighbors' recently missing koi fish.

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