My Gnome garden has the nicest crop of volunteer tomato plants. The funny thing about these super healthy plants is that we dug-up and moved the soil. Filtered out roots and anything else we could see. We put down black plastic in the flower bed and then put the dirt back in it. Over time we set up the birdbath, rain-chain and gnomes. I then planted the flowers. After a while I went to weed the garden and found around a dozen tomato plants growing. I think it’s funny how they seem to be planted with some intention next to the flowers.
I believe the plants to be a large cherry tomato variety, but I won’t be 100% sure until they produce an edible fruit. The tomatoes plants I’ve planted in this garden in the past grew super tall and gangly… sooo I’m not thrilled that these may weave my gnome garden into a viney mess.
I realize that some folks would’ve just pulled them up and tossed them, but I can’t do it, I wasn’t raised that way. I was raised that a volunteer veggie/flower is a gift and should be tended too with as much, if not more, care as if you planted it yourself.
We’ve been discussing what to do with the tomato plants and have decided we’ll probably move them to the big garden sometime soon.
Even though I’ve enjoyed growing squash for years (and have written a book about it,) Until this year, I didn’t think to pay attention to if different squash variety blooms were noticeably different.
I suppose the golden egg squash bloom in the photo below could be folding in for the day or not opened totally, but I think there may be a difference in the varieties. I’ll keep an eye on them and see. 
Below is a couple of squash photos just
because I think they’re pretty.

My rosemary is growing beautifully in it’s pretty red container and protective netting. I’m surprised that it’s thriving even though I take it inside every evening.
This next photo is of my Husband’s 4th planting and last ditch effort to grow sweet corn. He’s tried different varieties of sweet corn, but the crows, turkeys and dry weather have prevented any success of the corn growing.
My husband re-tilled the patch and planted new sweet corn seeds and then strung fluorescent twine around, in and over the patch. He’s hoping it may deter the critters long enough for some of the seeds to grow.
In the upper right side of the photo you can see a healthy patch of corn and wonder why (as I do) that it hasn’t been feasted upon yet. It’s a decorative corn variety with different colors of kernels.
My husband planted some asparagus beans in with the decorative corn. Asparagus beans are a new variety for us. They’re supposed to grow to be 14 to 30 inches long. We thought it’d be a fun bean to try to grow and eat.
My husband thinks it’s the decorative corn variety itself that has deterred the pests so far. I think he may be right. But I also think the deer may be saving it for when they have they’re babies and need some extra nourishment for their nursing fawn.
Whatever the reason for this grace period of growing, We figure that the corn and beans could be dined upon at any time. They’ve dined on our main bean patch so who knows what the deal is.
None-the-less, We keep calm and garden on. Maybe we’ll at least have one mess of corn and beans of some variety. If we don’t, it ain’t because my dedicated husband didn’t give it an all-star try.
Take care & have a great weekend of sunshine & smiles.


My husband got into the seed buying spirit and decided to try to grow some different things we’ve never grown before.

We had sort of a corny weekend with gardening. We harvested a lot of produce.
Some of the potatoes are huge.
The onions are drying on a table on the back-porch, and the potatoes are drying on garbage bags in my craft room.
It may not look like a lot of potatoes, but it’s more than plenty for us. After the potatoes dry a couple weeks or more we’ll put them in mesh bags and stack them somewhere… and then I’ll have my floor back. lol

We used the normal method of shucking to prepare our corn for freezing. We’re happy we had about a bushel of corn. We put up 26 bags of corn-off-the-cob.

We got our first harvest of green beans yesterday. I can hardly wait to cook them. I’m going to put new potatoes and some herbs in with the beans and let them cook down. Yum! The rest of the beans will be snapped, blanched, vacuum packed and put in the freezer for winter.














Our area has been hit by some storms the past couple days. Today is beautiful and the sun is shining. The clouds are amazing. It’d be a good day for lying on a pallet and watching the clouds change shapes. In the middle of my above photo, that’s a real heart shaped cloud that was hanging in our sky. It made me smile and I knew I had to share it with you all.