Yard Update 5-23-2011

Ahhhh ... it's nice to be back in the world of blogging. *stupid publish button* Even though about all I post anymore is things from the garden!


Today is Monday, but this was a sad weekend in the midwest. Saturday night, Reading, KS was hit by a tornado, and one man died. Then, Yesterday evening (Sunday), Joplin, MO got hit by a big tornado. It really devastated things, and many, many people lost their lives. So it is a horrifying, sad, difficult day in many places. This is on top of all the tornado damage and deaths in the southeast part of the country in April. So ... my heart goes out to these folks who have suffered.


Here, we had a busy day yesterday with Sunday school, a church dinner, and a wedding shower for a young couple. We have 3 young couples in the church getting married this summer - a lot of work and a lot of excitement!


Meanwhile, here's an update of various things around our yard. I know it probably seems a little rustic and sparse compared to some yards, but hey, ya deal with what you have and according to your endurance limits. :) So, I'm just happy to see anything grow! If I had my druthers, I'd have lilac bushes and irises all over the place. But, in lieu of that, here's what we DO have going on around our little homestead:


It's another "weather-breeder" day, but I'm putting clothes out as long as a storm's not threatening yet. We're in the west edge of a "possible tornado/severe weather" area. So the laundry's flappin' in the breeze. Finally got another section of water hose, so now we can reach the whole garden with it. :)




Artistic photo rendering: "Clothesline with obnoxious, rustic yellow house." LOL




I finally got the morning glories planted. I put "blue" ones here by the west pole, and I assume that's what this is coming up in a bunch! But the leaves sure look interesting. So we'll see.




Then there are assorted colors of morning glories by the east clothesline pole.




Our struggling wheat patch.




The wheat's been turning, but now some of it's looking shriveled, some of the stalks are broken over, etc. Where I'm from in Kansas, the hometown newspaper just had an article on the effects of heat stress on wheat, including turning white and sterile florets. I didn't start watering our little plot until early April, and then we did have a few days awhile back that were up in the high-90's-hundred range. Many farmers around here are baling their wheat for feed. Some just kept their cattle on wheat to graze it out. Many fields look pretty sad.




For comparison, this is a field of wheat two years ago, one of our friend's fields south of town.




A closeup of some of our broken stalks, not sure if it's drought, heat, wind or all three. Mom talked about the wheat crop out in Hugoton, KS during the Dirty '30's, how the heads would ripen and be full, then this hot wind would come at the worst time, and would "cook" the kernels in the head, ruining the crop. She always said wheat had "9 lives," like a cat. This crop goes through so much! Freeze damage, drought, heat, wind, storms, hail, etc., etc.




The south end of our little wheat plot that, despite the drought/bad year, has been very interesting to watch grow through the different stages.




The yellow flower I keep forgetting the name of, but is blooming wonderfully now! I think it had transplant shock there for awhile. I think that's my problem for the last several years and even yet - TRANSPLANT SHOCK.




Carrots sort of coming along. I tried to thin them a little. Maybe need to a little more in that thick part.




In all that one patch where I transplanted flowers, herbs, tomatoes, jalapenos, etc., it all suffered a little transplant shock. Some didn't make it, but a few things are coming around, and may do good with time. Here are the marigolds, coming along a little bit better.




Two kinds of basil kind of coming out of it, though it looks like something's been eating the leaves!




The "assorted sunflowers" are doing great!




The peas are really doing good - younger Son has to go out and check them SEVERAL, SEVERAL times a day! I don't care, he's excited and learning, and that's what my goal was. We've not picked a "mess" yet, because every time he finds a pod or two, he picks them, then we guess how many peas are inside, then we shell them to see, then we eat them raw! (Sweet!)




Some of the peas are getting really tall, younger Son put up a fourth row of twine. I'm also going to put some more short stakes in.




This pumpkin vine is coming along great.




This pumpkin vine had a slow start, including the shell being "stuck" to its leaves as it sprouted. I flicked that off finally at one point, and now it's taking off.




Corn is growing. PLEASE DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO OUR LACK OF WEEDING! LOL We'll do something eventually, including wanting to add newspaper/straw mulch.




Mamoth sunflowers in back, Lemon Queen sunflowers in front. This area got tromped by stray dogs right after I planted these sunflowers, and some sweet peas, so it's all been struggling.




Recently-planted green beans starting to sprout. I have a patch with eight "spots" planted, these are two. I'm going to have a couple of "teepee"-type stake arrangements over these beans, for them to climb up. One stake for each spot of beans coming up. Note the nice, big dog paw print, of which there are SEVERAL in this bean patch!




Tomatoes now have cages! Had to pull a runt Roma, so now we have one Beefsteak, and three Romas.




The broomcorn is coming along.




Blooms about to burst forth on the trumpet vine.




Will the rose bush do anything? I do see some faint things starting to grow on it! Maybe I should not prune it for awhile?




I think this is a sunflower growing by the birdfeeder, so I'm leaving it to see. I throw out both sunflower seed and regular bird seed. I had stopped putting feed in the feeder, as the blackbirds were being such a nuisance and hogging it all. Now that they seem to be gone, I'll have to put some in the feeder again. But the birds have been eating off the ground O.K. We have sparrows, finches, Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, bluejay, and even a pair of PIGEONS. They look like aircraft carriers compared to the other little birds. Plus, younger Son said he saw a hummingbird in the backyard, so he's after me to get a hummingbird feeder, too. Birdwatching has really been fun around here. I also laugh, because if the seed's all gone, Mr. Cardinal will be out there chirping at me for more seed. So I wonder if I've got him trained to chirp for more seed, or he's got me trained to bring seed out when I hear him chirp!




Hubby said this morning that it was "weathery" outside. Sunny but with a humid-looking sky, with clouds forming here and there. Supposed to be pretty warm. As I took pictures, it was WARM ENOUGH out, so of course a nice, icy glass of *Pepsi hits the spot while I blog. A glass of *Pepsi with an iceberg in it! Don't know if you can see the condensation on the glass, but it's prolific. Lots of humidity in the air. So we will see if it rains today. We got a GOOD rain last week, and that surely helped, and we are thankful.