Just a Little Toady

I have a visitor.  My family has owned this property for over 30 yrs. and I have never seen this visitor on the property, but he's here.  I hope he finds a wife (or she a husband) and make many babies.  I like them hopping through my garden eating the bugs.  Be a gluten.  Eat all you want.

This is an organic pesticide. They eat 2-3 times their weight in bugs per day.  My toad's is a bufo americanus, i.e common toad in Iowa.  Toads hunt for insects primarily at night, so it was nice that I got a chance to meet my garden friend.  Rumor has it that if you half bury a clay pot on it's side and keep the area moist and shady, a toad will shelter there.  They are not fond of the hot sun ( I don't blame then, neither am I), so the moist little get-away makes them happy.  I suppose it is an amphibian's version of air conditioning.

The Kentucky Wonder pole beans are turning the back fence into a hedge.  The little white blossoms are promising a fence full of green beans.  These beans have been popular since 1864.  I suppose something pleasant needed to come out of the Civil War.  (Actually my favorite quote from that year was,"They couldn't hit an elephant from this distance!"   Quite the last words of one General John Sedwick.)  Not only was General Sedwick full of beans, hopefully my hedge o' Kentucky Wonder will be also!

 Notice the brown grass in the background?  Iowa is in the throws of a drought.  My little fairy garden alive with fire flys and toads is watered regularly, so it is just soaking up the hot weather with open arms.  But the neighbors corn field has started to turn brown.  That is not good at all. So if you're inclined, say a prayer for my neighbors and actually the whole state.  

Basil and Braided Garlic

This month has been a busy month of building paths, tying tomato plants, and weeding.  Pounding in fence posts and getting the tomato plants off the ground has been sweatier work than I thought.  I come in from the  garden smelling like a teenage boy's gym clothes.  Sweat literally runs down my glasses like it was raining.  This spring was marked by hurricane force winds and now that the temperature has spiked, the wind dies to placid stillness.
According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, " in the summer forenoons,—when the fervent heat, that almost liquefied the rest of the human family,"  the plants have stretched towards the sky, relishing the "liquefying" heat.  You can see them reveling in the sun.

The basil in amongst the tomato plants is bushing out nicely due to my husbands attentiveness.  He goes out regularly and plucks the tops and just a few leaves from the plant, leaving plenty for the plant to live off of.  He then either drys the leaves on racks or freezes the leaves.  Putting the leaves in the refrigerator will only result in a slimy mess.

The pumpkin in the plastic water tepee from the home page is flourishing.  The fruit is abundant and growing daily.  

The borage has it's petite, pretty blue flowers and the potatoes have their white ones.

The garlic scapes have been sauteed and devoured.  And the garlic has been harvested.  Way more than what we thought. Some bulbs were tiny, some were huge and everything in between.  It tastes wonderful.  Well worth growing your own. The garlic must be dried to save for the year.  Braiding the garlic must be easy.  I've braided hair for years.  My first try was a flop, but 6 vain attempts later I decided that I was really going for the rustic look.  You know, Italian peasants in cotton skirts in a Tuscan kitchen with a big fire place kind of rustic.

Yes, my fantasy does help me sleep at night.