Phlox just starting
Mini Pearl for the second time.This is a spring bloomer

Blue Paradise,planted in May

Sherbert Blend,planted May

Mystique Black.Buds are more eggplant color

Junior Dance ,also an early bloomer

I love your pphlox..I have minnie pearl..maybe a 2nd round of blooms coming my way ??

KL,Ididnt even think about drying them ...Hmm ,dehydrator...Is it a pain or is it fairly easy ? I DO NOT CAN...ANYMORE...i bag an freeze tomato`s...cause Im lazy..LOL..not really...gave all my canning stuff away..even the big pressure canner...Guess i need ripe tomato`s first...Mine are always late,no early morning sun

So Chelle,did you Love Cedar Point ?? Have you ever been there before..I love the History of it..Oh not to mention the Absolute Beauty of it ..being on the Lake...We need to go ..Its been years..we used to takeour daughter and her cousin,every year..sadly her cousin was murdered by her husband several years ago now..but we have wonderful memories of Missy and Brandi having a ball..as we went camping for a few nights also,when we went..

it has been wonderful Not having to water for few days now...but thats over now ..back to watering and big temps again..Its July tho...

Tamara, I find it super easy. Its a little noisy, and I have to let the tomatoes go for about 18hrs I think... so by the time I turn it off I'm so relieved to hear the lack of a fan going! The trays are dishwasher safe, so If I plan right and have an empty dishwasher at the right time I just throw them in there and run it. If not, they're not hard to wash, I'm just lazy Soaking always helps if they're very dirty (making Jerky usually requires a little soaking). Mine is a Nesco professional food and jerky dehydrator. Had a temperature dial to change temps for everything from herbs at about 95 degrees on up to meats at 160. A little bit of a splurge a couple years ago, and I dont use it constantly or anything, but I wouldn't give it up if DH decided to purge the kitchen or anything

My minipearl is 4 years old.I think I cut it back after the first bloom or at least by mid June then it reblooms. This might be the habit of all phlox I just dont know for sure.
I also Have Junior Dance which will rebloom.

Mostly daylilies today. And my portulacas.

lovely

Jo Ann, Blue Paradise is just beautiful. I don't have any Phlox in that color tone.

I just mulched the cucumber row with fresh staw as I saw some weeds starting. Pulled up the weeds and mulched. As I was working I could see there are soooooo many baby cukes coming along that I will be swimming in them when those are big enough to pick. I already picked cukes this morning and as I saw one of my neighbors outside gave them fresh cucumbers. Literally just picked off the vine.

Well, now heading back out as I have to finish the fertilizing of the tomatoes with the Neptunes Seaweed Fertizer. Most already done, only those tomatoes by the porch still to go. Have to get it finished today.

That big storm we had last Wednesday took down lots of trees in the park and really opened up my views.

Looking from my front porch.


zooming in so one can just see the fence across the street in the forground


This is an inlet of Long Island Sound on the north shore were I live.


I could always see the water. Now I can see the fishing jetty and the old bathing pavalion much better.

Nice job "mother nature"

Great views, Rita.



Baby cukes forming here! More tomatoes, too! Oh, boy!

I'm sure glad that I didn't let our awful growing conditions change my mind about starting some. The veggie patch is certainly a scaled-down version of what it usually is, but at least we should have some homegrown food...other than perennial mints and other herbs. One can only eat just so much catnip and chocolate mint salad, ya know ...need cucumbers and tomatoes to go with it.

Have you ever had a bit of chocolate mint in your cucumber and tomato salad? It's so good! It doesn't sound like it would be yummy, but the flavors really compliment each other.



Jo Ann,

Is your Mystique Black open yet? I think I have that one, too. The groundhog is pruning mine for me, however, so I won't have pictures of it this year, I'll bet.

chelle: Mystic Black has the reputation for staying in bud for a long time. My plants are only this years and they were small to begin with. The photo I posted left out the blues,no telling what my camera is up to.

Here is how the blacks look in 2 places in the garden.I tweeked them and aurocolored to correct the blue.


the above are in the Treepeony garden
this one is at the end of the deck and get nearly all day sun

Chelle, hurray for baby cukes and more tomatoes.

Humm, can't immagine chocolate in my salad.


I have baby cukes on my chinese cucumbers. Wow, are these strange looking things. They stay skinny and grow long.


Meanwhile the cucumber vines are growing like mad. Setting lots and lots and lots of cucumbers.


I even have SALAD BUSH cucumbers in a planter bowl.



Picked my first ever CHEROKEE PURPLE tomato. Never had these before.



First ripe fruits off my BEEFMASTER tomatoes.


There are so many beefmaster still green and looks like some will be really big ones.



VIVIA ITALIA are a Roma type paste tomato and they are all still green.

Lunch today was tomato sandwiches. I just love tomato sandwiches. Taste test on BEEFMASTER was definately A plus or ten out of ten or 5 stars (out of five). Yes I will be planting these again next year. I have been trying various beefsteak types out the past few years looking for the perfect one. Well, this is it. I found it. YUMM, Yumm, Yumm.

Tomatoe sandwich with Salad Dressing and lettuce.
Not to mention the Bacon Lettuce and Tom

I picked cucumbers today-




burpless


salad bush


straight eight that should have been picked long ago and I missed. too big now to be good eating.


I also picked tomatoes-


Juliets


early girls and whoppers


patio and better bush



porch tomatoes have recoved nicely from last weeks bad weather



here is the area that used to be a rose garden and is now tomatoes


path in back of the tomatoes pictured above



green beefmasters on the vine



another done this spring tomato bed. this one has the sungolf, cherokee purple and big boys.



and last is this garden with the early girls and whoppers

Yummy!


I didn't pick anything today but I did start some more veggies, and a few more flowers for fall color.

I'd dearly love to start a fall crop of sugar snap peas, but my track record is so bad with pea family plants!...

Really? Peas are very easy. My peas that I recently planted for fall are already breaking ground. I have different varieties of Sugar Snaps and Snowpeas.

your crops look great Rita