Category Archives: gardening

New garden sink

June 18, 2020Family, gardeningsusanmanzke

It was delivered by UPS yesterday.

Not too hard to put together except for banging the fittings in place on the metal legs.

I thought this would come in handy when kids and grandkids are visiting. They could use this for washing up outside.

The trouble is that it just gushes water out the bottom, so if you are not careful, you’ll have wet feet–also the faucet swings about too easily so that could get you wet, too.

I’m trying to think of a way to add a bit of hose so I can direct the drain water into the flower bed or grass.

At least I got it together….I think. There’s usually something I didn’t do right, but I have faith that one of my kids will figure out where I went wrong.

Today I added a little color

June 10, 2020gardeningsusanmanzke

I took this photo a while back but didn’t post it.

I love irises. Too bad they don’t last all summer long.

I would not mind having them around longer, not just for the spring.

Too soon they are gone.

A little greenery

June 9, 2020gardeningsusanmanzke

Flowers are nice, but I also like some greenery.

Right now the ferns living around Sunnybook Farm are at their height of beautiful greenness.

They will not look prettier than they do today. So I thought I’d share a photo here.

Sometimes storms knock them to the ground, but I hope they will remain upright for the future weeks to come.

Ferns and hostas decorate the gardens here. It’s may not be easy being green, but green is a lovely color to enjoy.

Poppies

May 28, 2020gardeningsusanmanzke

I like poppies, but they never last long enough.

They come, popping out, and too soon they are gone.

Before the rain arrived today, I snapped two photos of my first poppies.

I can’t look at a poppy without thinking of the field of poppies in the Wizzard of Oz.

Good thing the Good Witch came by to wake Dorothy, Toto, and the lion.

Now I’m sitting and listening to the rain falling. It’s a beautiful sound when there are no storms attached.

I hope I got all my windows closed. I know I have one opened on the porch, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem right now. In fact, it is letting in cool air.

Rain is also a nice sound when it is nap time, but I hope it doesn’t last that long. We’ll see.

Gardening…a little

May 23, 2020gardeningsusanmanzke

I do not have a large garden. Up until today, I only had potatoes planted.

Yesterday, I called Keilhofer Greenhouse to see if they had any tomato plants left. They did. They also said I could arrange to buy them over the telephone and then pick them up without having to go inside.

Yeah, I told her I wanted 3 different tomato plants: Roma, yellow pear, and cherry tomato, along with a sweet pepper plant–I got their last sweet pepper plant.

We made the arrangements for my purchase. When all was set at the greenhouse, I got a phone call to pick up my plants.

This photo was taken in my car after I picked up my plants.

Today, I put my tomatoes and pepper plant into a raised bed Bob set up years ago.

It didn’t take long to put them in place.

This is a closeup of my pear tomato plant.

I also planted some lettuce seed, so with some bacon, at the end of August I’ll be able to put together a BLT.

If I want other fresh vegetables, I will head to a farmer’s market.

I do not plan on doing a lot of canning, if any anymore.

Now I have fingers crossed that my tomatoes do well and receive a gentle shower tonight to get them settled in their home for the summer.

In my dreams, I can see my little harvest and almost taste the juiciness of the bounty of my little garden patch.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person