The Little White House garden on the 4th of July~

Despite the fact that our region has been labeled “exceptional drought” and the temperatures have been above 100 degrees for most of June and into July, the garden is doing fairly well.  (The grass, not so much.)  Here is what’s been going on in our garden. ~

 We will get to enjoy our first cantaloupe tomorrow.  (It’s chilling in the frig as we speak.)

 We only have two watermelons but they are the best looking watermelons we’ve ever grown!  We can not wait to enjoy these beauties.

We have the most beautiful zucchini plants we’ve ever been able to grow because of our problems with squash borer worms…

 which is obviously still a problem because the zucchinis just shrivel up!  Next year, I guess we’ll be covering our plants with tulle and hand pollinating…or maybe we’ll just buy our squash at the Farmer’s Market.  I was really looking forward to some zucchini bread too. 

Surprise sunflowers are popping up all over the garden because my two older sons decided to surprise me.  I love the unexpected sunflowers all over the place. 

 We are having a great year for tomatoes except the heat and water problems are causing them to crack.  I’ve just been having to harvest them a little earlier than I normally would and let them finish ripening in the house.

Speaking of tomatoes…

Guess what we did today?

 We made more salsa!

We just canned six pints a few weeks ago and the family finished off the last pint today.  I wonder how long these six pints will last?

 I had a little help with the veggie chopping today during the salsa making party.  ~smile~

 We cleared out the yard waste compost pile and have made a sitting area in the garden.  I love it!  At the end of the day, I love to sit here with my sweet tea and watch the chickens while surrounded by the garden plants.  With all of the sounds of the insects around me, I almost forget that I’m in the middle of the city and not on a country farm. 

After finishing the canning tonight, I headed out to the garden and picked a few sunflowers, purple coneflowers, and wildflowers.  They sat on the table beside me as I soaked up the sights and sounds of…

kids splashing in the pool

my husband watering the garden for me

the city chicks running around the garden

and

thunder!

The Good Lord sent us some relief tonight with some much needed rain.

  Instead, I sat inside with my sweet little flowers, a new batch of tomatoes, a bowl of ice cream and watched the rain fall.  

And I am thankful for God’s many blessings on our Little White House.

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