Olympic Gardening?

Friday was a wonderful day, I went to the local fair with my mum and some friends. It was a lot of fun. I learned how to trim a goat's hooves. I got to see and pet an oxen pair. They were HUGE!!!! The piglets were adorable and the chickens always make me want to raise my own. I always love to see the Budweiser Clydesdales and I got to see them pull the wagon a bit later in the day.

 They really protect those horses, you can't get anywhere near to touch them. Kinda sad actually as I am sure they'd love some face scratchin'.

Well, one of the best parts of the fair was the gardening section where they had a TON of plants. And when I saw the veggies entered in the competition and realized that the ones that I have grown half-heartedly were way, way bigger and probably tastier. So I got the bug in me to get my garden up in to full swing.

So, I got home and looked at the seed packets I own at the moment and realized that many of them said I could plant them in July and/or August. Now I realize that July is past, but I figure that I'm close enough to that month to plant the stuff that had a July cut-off date.

I also decided to keep track on a calendar of when my plants should be germinating and when I should be harvesting them. That was one of the problems I had last year with my corn (that and not watering enough). So I wrote them down so I know when to pick things. I also picked up a nice oscillating sprinkler to water my stuff. It should make this year's crop a lot better.

Aren't my little rows so cute?

 Now, if you recall a couple of earlier posts about my veggie garden it looked somewhat like this and this. Well, yesterday it was a mix between the two. My broccoli had sat there not producing anything for two years now, so it was time to come out. I had plenty of carrots intertwined in there as well. They were leftovers from the crop that went to seed two years ago. They weren't looking all that great as I have not watered them at all, so they had to go. Now look at how clean my veggie bed is :D

How do you like my red and yellow mole chaser windmill? And my temporary watering solution is in the foreview. It will go away (sometime in the very far future). So, what did I plant? Corn, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, and Lettuce.

Well, it's a sideways picture, but this is my dwarf orange tree. I just bought it a month ago and it had a TON of oranges on it. Then my German Shepherd decided they were fun to chew and he tore all but three off of my baby. Now my chicken wire stands guard so that sometime I will get my three oranges. They had better be good.






This is one of the two pansy plants that I have left (at least I think it is a pansy, it could be a johnny jump up). I used to have five, but the something ATE them ALL!!! Grr.... I need more of them. I want to have a little bed full of them in all color varieties as well as plenty of multicolored johnny jump ups. I do hope this one is the pansy though as it is supposed to be a jet black one.

I talked in an earlier post about my little succulent patch. I'm sorry I didn't catch one of the pink flowers on the miniature cactus looking thing. I really like the rose bud looking ones.

This is the wildflower bed. I am more than a little disappointed with it. The flat bladed plants are baby wild fairy irises that I have been trying to get out of that area. The other, more prolific plant is one I like, but not one I want a whole lot of. Here is a close up of that flower:

My grandmother had these in her yard. My mum doesn't like them, but I do. They smell like honey to me. I don't know what they are, but my mind wants to call them clover. Anyways, the smell brings back good memories, so I don't mind that these are the hardiest of the wildflower mix, I just would have liked more of other things.

I did get one other type of plant. I don't know what it is yet as it refuses to flower. In fact, in kind of refuses to grow any more. Here it is:

And lastly, my nemeses. The above two pictures are descriptive of my summers. You see that fern looking thing? That invades all of my rose beds and every other gardening bed. They have spikes and they have berries and are persistent and pervasive little buggers. A friend of mine had these suckers get into his sewer pipes. I'm doing pretty well at ridding my yard of them. But the seeds and nuts in the picture above, these are the most annoying part of summer. At least it's not ficus tree droppings or jacaranda flowers. But everyday I clear my sidewalk and in less than an hour my sidewalk is covered in these babies. I mean no white space left whatsoever. *sigh* At least it is winding down for the year. Until next time :D

I almost forgot, I mentioned the Olympics in the title. I have been getting more than my fill of them every day. In fact, I'm pretty much tired of them, but since they only come around once every four years I figure I'll just give in to the glut and then ignore sports for a good long time afterwards. Mkay, now I am signing off.