Country Chatter

May has to be the “bestest” month of the whole year.  This year in particular, May is stunning. It is cool with a touch of warmth, rainy, stormy, sunny  and just plain gorgeous.

Today I worked in my garden.  I took the jugs off of my tomatoes that were protecting them from frost and cold weather. The tomatoes were dark green, bushy and growing nicely.  I hoed around the plants and staked them with t-posts.

See the cows in the background grazing in the field of buttercups!

Better Boy Tomatoes

Then I planted my grape tomato (Juliet) and California Wonder peppers.  I like to cage the grape tomato.

It already has some tomatoes on the vine.

I planted a row of zinnias and filled in a few empty spots in my bean rows.  I think the cool weather was hard on the germination of them.

I had to go back to the house for my camera and take some pictures!

Earliglow Strawberries

I made a strawberry pie for lunch tomorrow. We are celebrating Mom Hertzler’s 94th birthday and Mother’s Day.

Blue Lake Pole Beans

I am really pleased with my raised beds. This one has my early stuff……radishes, beets, cabbage, lettuce  and spinach.

This is the first year I have planted Red Sails Lettuce.  I love it.  That will be a regular addition to my lettuce bed!

Burpless Cucumbers

Planted 3 Blueberry bushes this year. They are looking good!

I noticed the southern sky turning dark.  That is where our storms come from.  I quickly gathered strawberries, asparagus  and then I just had to take some pictures of my rose garden.

Who needs roses from a florist for Mother’s Day?!!!

Another favorite flower-the fragrant, lovely peony that opens around Mother’s Day.  The first bud opened this morning just in the nick of time!!!  The bushes are loaded with buds.   I remember a mistake I made the first year I was married.  Dad Hertzler had planted these by the side of the house.  I sprayed them as they were loaded with ants!                               That is a big no-no!  The ants help to open the buds.

Another spring favorite is the stately iris.  They bloom for a day and then are past their prime!  Their beauty reminds me of the verse in Matthew 6:28-29.  “…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not neither do they spin:  and yet I tell you, That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”   Solomon, the richest, wisest king in history with all his pomp and beauty could not hold a candle to the lovely lilies.

I forget the name of this flower but it quietly blooms in May and has very tiny, delicate blossoms.

My duck pen….

and then I have a few herbs…

Chives. I like them for the way they bloom almost more than the use of them!

And this my friends, is why I love May!

Note: The storm blew over this afternoon and after supper Gene tilled the rest of my garden with the big tiller behind the tractor. The ground worked up so soft and fluffy. Then he helped me finish planting  my garden;  Fordhook Limas, 2nd patch of Incredible Sweet Corn, and Hales Best Cantaloupe.  I am a satisfied gardener!