A Peek At The Garden

I am WAY behind this year. I bought some tomato and bean starts right before I went to Chicago but didn't actually get them into the ground until this past week. They are looking mighty pitiful. We'll see how they do. But first here is a picture of Singha and "his" catnip plant. This plant was a volunteer. Singha found it and likes to nibble and roll on it. I finally took pity on the poor thing and gave it a cage. Singha can still nibble the sides but the plant has a fighting chance.

I have another caged catnip, in my herb bed, and harvested some branches yesterday. They are now tied together and hanging in a closet to dry. I wanted to get it cut before it bloomed. I did leave a couple of branches for the bees.

Speaking of bees, they are doing great. I will be painting a bunch of new hive boxes and preparing to split my bee population in half, theoretically making two hives from one. Here is my established colony.

I let my chives bloom because the bees love it. I'll need to chop it back soon, before it goes to seed. Chive spreads like a weed. I'm still pulling it out of my strawberry patch.

Click on the picture and try to spot the 4 bee girls.

The bees also go ga-ga over the strawberries and raspberries. I am going to get an insane amount of raspberries this year.

One of the field bees hard at work.

Here are my spindly Early Girl tomatoes.

And my pole beans.

We'll check back next month to see if they make progress. I almost forgot, it looks like I'll get a good crop of apples this year. Last year I think I got 4 apples, total. Not even enough to make a pie.

Finally, let's check in on my resident serial killer goldfish, Mr. Squiggy. Having offed his mate, Lenni, and all subsequent pond mates, he is now a confirmed bachelor. He should grow to a good size since he insists on having the pond all to himself. I love him even though he is a murderer.