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CathyA
8-14-15, 10:13am
Wow......this summer is really going fast. My garden is pooping out sooner than usual this year.....But that's okay.....'cause I am too. :~)
I'm planning on converting almost everything in the garden to raised container gardens for next year. I'll have about 9 containers, and my swing set. I'm evening going to plant pole beans in them, with trellises in the ground next to them.
I tried that this year in my back yard and the pole beans are trying to reach a nearby branch of a tree! Cathy and the bean stalk... haha

Everyone on the gardenweb tomato forum told me that I shouldn't have planted 6 Roma tomatoes in a 6' foot (70 gallon) stocktank..........but they were wrong. These Romas saved the day (with all the monsoon rains). They are pooping out because of septoria leaf spot......but they've given me a lot of tomatoes that I've frozen. The San Marzano tomatoes that were in the ground have only given me a few.

I planted 6 peppers and 2 sun sugar cherry tomatoes in another 6' stock tank and they are all doing great. Now I need to figure out how to plug a couple of the drainage holes, because they drain too quickly. I'm trying to figure out a drain plug system where, from underneath the containers, I can either open or close the drains. That way, I can shift from drought to monsoon..........which seems to be the future of the weather.

The cucumbers are slowly plugging along, growing up the swingset trellis. I don't have nearly what I usually have, but at least I have some.
I picked some of the green tomatoes for a green tomato casserole. It's so yummy.........green tomatoes, fresh bread crumbs, grated cheddar cheese.
I saved up enough cucumbers to make Danish cucumber salad (marinated cucs and onions with dill). I usually made this constantly last summer, but because the cucs aren't growing well this year (because of the monsoons).....we've only had it once........which made it even more special.

Many of the hostas are blooming in the back yard and the hummingbirds and bees are loving the blossoms. I'm getting yellow and pink waterlilies, but still no lotus blossoms. I have about 6-8 green frogs sitting around on lily pads.
But most of all..........I have mosquitoes!! We spend most of our time outdoors slapping ourselves. haha It's funny........when I talk about all this stuff, it makes it sound like my place is sooooo perfect. Well, it is perfect in a VERY rustic/rural/weedy/jungle sense. But we love it!

Okay........your turn.

iris lilies
8-14-15, 12:08pm
I've had swarms of what I thought were bumble bees this year. I enjoy them. But DH pointed out that they are carpenter bees. For some reason that makes a difference in my perception of them. They love all of my flowers and are cruurentlynhanging out in the phlox.

CathyA
8-14-15, 12:55pm
Yeah, I'm not sure I know the difference between carpenter bees and bumble bees. We do have carpenter bees, and they've eaten holes in our fascia boards. oh well. We can replace the boards. They are fun to watch though. They're always guarding their holes and challenging me all the time.......but they don't have stingers. Only the queen does.

iris lilies
8-14-15, 2:11pm
Yeah, I'm not sure I know the difference between carpenter bees and bumble bees. We do have carpenter bees, and they've eaten holes in our fascia boards. oh well. We can replace the boards. They are fun to watch though. They're always guarding their holes and challenging me all the time.......but they don't have stingers. Only the queen does.

My Carpenter bees have a yellow band on their lower half. Bumble bees have a yellow band on their upper half.

You know, I just read up on them and still can't figure them out. What is the gender of the bees who are hanging out in my phlox? they all work side by side, companionably, getting nector. If these are males they sure are being friendly with each other. But perhaps they are territorial only about their home. But then where do all of these bees live? They don't swarm around my house, just in my garden. Hmm,.

Next year I will pay better attention. Perhaps I had bumblebees in the spring and Carpenter bees in the summer, and didn't recognize the difference.

CathyA
8-15-15, 3:36pm
Hmmm.....I looked things up and it appears that I have a lot of carpenter bees.....with totally black lower halves. What's interesting is today when I was sitting on the deck and watching the various bugs visit the hosta blossoms, I realized that the bees that looked like carpenter bees were penetrating the tubular blossoms close to where the inside pollen would be, and the bees that looked like bumble bees (with yellow just on top), were going into the blossom. Then I realized that this would make sense. The carpenter bees are made to drill into hard wood......so they must be more easily able to drill into the sides of the tubular blossoms. Just a guess..........but it was interesting watching the 2 different kinds of bees get nectar in different ways.