Right now in my garden...

my little birdies

This is the second year in a row that a mama finch has built a nest in one of my ferns on the front porch. It's so fun to watch from my window, I can see every happening! She is funny. You can tell that she is very cautious about making sure no one is watching when she enters the fern. She doesn't want anyone to know that she will be laying her precious eggs in there. It was so special to finally see the eggs hatch and five little featherless birdies all snug in their nest. They were there for about 2 weeks, growing bigger and getting more feathers each day. One day, I was doing my usual daily peek into the nest and I only saw one bird left. I could just tell that he was about to take flight so Chris and I pulled up a chair and waited. After 15 minutes, we were just about ready to give up, and off he flew. It was such a cool experience. I'm hoping that this family of birds has permanently made my ferns their nesting place and we will get to see this special happening every year.

Growing out of control!

Things are growing out of control around here! It's been a little crazy the past few weeks. I've been out of town for 4 days at a time for the past two weeks. It's been tough being away from my garden because it brings me so much joy to watch the progress of my plants, to see them develop buds and bloom into flowers. The upper garden is beautiful. It's easy to weed and everything is growing as it should. Now, the lower garden is not in the condition I would like it to be in. I'll be the first to admit that I've neglected it a bit. The grass has taken over and the arugula and lettuce are done. Yesterday I spent a few hours getting down and dirty (and getting a sunburn) with the lower garden. It was tough work and there is still work to do in there but it's looking a lot better. There has been so much rain lately, pretty much daily. We even had to unhook the rain barrel because we weren't having to use any of the water and the mosquitos love it in there. It'll be nice when we can hook it back up and use it. But in the meantime, I'll take the rain. My garden and I love it.

Please excuse the quality of these pics. My fancy camera is broken so the old one will have to do for a while.

The perennial flower garden on the side of the house. The echinacea is from last year but everything else we planted this summer.

Yarrow. One of my personal favorites and a very useful medicinal plant. Great for fevers and for staunching wounds.

Echinacea. A classic Kansas prairie plant and wonderful medicinal.

Before shot of the lower garden.

After shots of the lower garden.

Upper garden.

I decided to splurge and get 3 of those collapsible tomato cages.

Chamomile. Great for sleepy-time teas.

Chris and I bought this love-seat for $20 at a yard sale. It was covered in rust and falling apart. My handy dandy mandy brought it back to life. I love it! Check out his blog if you want to see his process.

Cosmos.

Verbena. For the butterflies and the bees.

Sweet Caroline. Duh duh duh.

This is the third year that The Merc has sent me to the Medicines From The Earth conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I'm so lucky. It's a 3 day series of lectures given by a selection of the top herbalists and Naturopathic doctors in the country. It's held at Blue Ridge Assembly, which is a 100 year old YMCA camp nestled in the mountains. There are hiking trails and creeks and an incredible view of the mountains from the rocking chairs on the porch of the main lodge. This year I took Chris with me and he played in Asheville while I attended the lectures. I'm really glad that he got to see this wonderful place and experience the positive vibes of everyone attending. This conference is so inspiring and always leaves me feeling refreshed and excited to come back and share what I learned with my coworkers and customers.

The main lodge, Lee Hall.

There are literally over 100 green rocking chairs on the porch.

A wild mushroom of sorts.

A rhododendron cave. There might be moonshiners back there!

We went to the top of Chimney Rock for a stunning view of the valley.

My first beaver sighting in my life!

They grow up so fast.

Chris and I went to North Carolina last weekend. It was astonishing to come back after only 5 days to see how much the garden had grown. These photos were taken right before we left. I will post in a couple of days to show you what stage it is in now. Everything is filling in nicely and I am starting to use fresh herbs in my cooking. Fresh basil is so yummy!

My box of annuals to plant in a strip alongside the garden. I bought them at Pines Family Nursery.

My herb garden.

Carrots in the back. Basil in the front.

Butterfly bush.

Nasturtium--edible flowers!

I read somewhere to punch some holes in a can and put it by your tomato plant. When you want to water, you just fill up the can. This helps get water to the roots where it really likes it.