Orange sky

no, this is not a picture of a sunset

this is what the sky looks like

its orange

there are fires south of us and the wind is just "right" to bring all of the smoke to us

we had originally planned to do some outdoor work today, but with this much smoke in the air, probably not -- breathing it is not a healthy thing for anyone


yesterday we planted the last of the seeds for this year's garden -- another try at beets (and if this one doesn't work we will officially give up, having failed twice before to get anything worthwhile) plus sunflowers and some gourds that I want to try some crafting projects with




this is one of the hills of zucchini we planted about 3 weeks ago

all three of the seeds in this hill came up and there is one in the other hill that is up too

this should mean enough zucchini to eat and share and to let a few get big enough make into pickle relish





we have a lot of tomatoes and peppers planted

some tomatoes for just eating and some that were selected because they can well

and an assortment of peppers too including some that make into great green chili

and there is a tomatillo plant out there too






last spring when we cleared the area up to the back fence we found this rhubarb plant

I hadn't even known it was there and I was amazed that it was still alive after years of neglect

we did get enough from it last year to make one strawberry rhubarb pie

I'm hoping for at least one this summer too






I like salads

so this year we decided to give a try at growing lettuce

those little plants in the left hand picture are romaine that after a rocky start are starting to perk up and look like they are going to actually survive and flourish

and in the center of the other picture is a row of butter lettuce





this is the very first potato to come up

we tried this last year, but got to impatient and dug them up too soon

this year I have a note on the calendar so we don't repeat that mistake








and this is the onion patch

we planted a bunch of sets and most of them actually came up

before too long I'll start thinning the plants and cooking with the little green onions

by the end of the growing season we should have some onions big enough to store




the only other squash that survived the weather, the birds and the squirrels were the hubbards

and in this hill all 3 of the seeds came up

we have replanted pumpkins, butternuts and cucumbers, and we hope some of them will actually come up





we've never tried to grow broccoli before, but there was a perfect shaded spot in front of the onion patch, so we got a four pack of plants

all four of them are starting to form flowers -- which is the part of broccoli that you eat --- very cool!

and there's a little row of swiss chard there in front of those plants

we planted double rows of beans on each side of the wood frame

and we thought they hadn't survived, so the DH bought some more seeds

then this week you could almost watch them grow as they popped up their little heads

I'll plant that second batch of seeds toward the end of the month -- that should keep us in beans for a long time

and this week I need to get the netting installed for those beans to crawl up on!

today's activities include taking the dog to the vaccine clinic for her heart worm test so I can get a new prescription for her

then back to work on quilts and some bead work in the studio