So for anyone new to garden blogging, you'll just have to jump in in the middle of my garden saga - here's today's report:

Y'all may remember that I let my dill get all out of control because I was trying to lure black swallowtails to the garden. Got some. Took the dill to the compost and then found another round of caterpillars on the parsley.

You can see why I think feeding them some dill or parsley is worth it, they're beautiful. But this poor thing was trapped inside the bird netting over one of my tomatoes.Not such a great place to put your chrysalis. Don't worry. I liberated it. Lovely to see it fly away.

Picked the last two squashes, and then dug up the squash plants. They put up a valiant fight against the squash vine borers - and we were able to pass along some squash to my daughter who requested them. A small reward to her for all the work she did on the tilling that made our garden possible. But you can see why they had to go - squash vine borers, hail, and then some kind of fungus on the leaves.

Now we have our path back on that side of the garden.

It's too hot for tomatoes to set fruit down here in Texas anymore.

But there are lots of green ones, so we'll be harvesting for a while. Now that we've managed to win the war with the birds. LOOK what I had to throw in the compost. It was sad.

They evidently were sneaking UNDER the edges of the bird netting. Got some tent stakes and nailed down the edges better, and so far, it seems to be keeping them out.

And the eggplant are finally setting fruit. Now that the squash are out of the way, maybe they'll actually thrive.

Making more pickles today - we're going to try dill this time. And trying freezing some tomatoes, too.

Thanks again, diane101 (I feel like I have to keeping adding the "101" since we have another diane). I'm wondering if your neck is hurting because you've been spending too much time at the computer welcoming folks. Much appreciated, but take care of yourself. Hope you feel better soon.

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. -Thomas Pynchon

I love lilies of all types, even though I'm allergic to the more fragrant
ones...  So below is what's blooing in my front "yard" - click
pics for larger view.  I did get some pics of the veggie garden,
just need to upload them.

This is the first year the day lilies are blooming.  Have them in
light yellow and red/yellow.  The red/yellow ones haven't bloomed
yet.  But I'm happy to see the light yellow ones.

I have more growing, they just haven't bloomed yet.

I thought his title was president of the United States, not of Iraq. -- Patrick Maunder, Seattle

Missed the dust-up OVER THERE-thankfully. So now I'm trying to catch up on 15 Welcome Wagon diaries. Wow.

I printed your instructions for posting pictures, Diane. Maybe by next gardening diary I can master it and send some Buschart photos. It was breathtaking.

The boyz cleared out the beds in my herb garden, mostly, and I got in chamomile, oregano (fresh oregano--my favorite), lemon thyme, regular old thyme, two kinds of sage, and lemon balm. Melisa insisted on getting into the act so my tomato and pepper starts could get planted (yes it's late, what's your point?). So Melisa and I, mostly her really, cleared four of the 24 old triangular beds that were hopefully going to go away this year, she shoveled in some compost from the pile, and we got Brandywine, Heinz 263, Principese Borghese, Legend, Quali-T53 (I think), Sweet Million and Early Cherry tomatoes, and Early Jalapeno, Ancho 101 and Italian Pepperoncini peppers.

Half those tomatoes I didn't order; Territorial ran out of the plants I ordered and substituted other varieties, so the Sweet Million, Quali-T and Legend tomatoes, we'll see how they turn out. (Nifty thing about Territorial: They refunded the money for the plants I ordered that they ran out of, and gave me the substitutes for free. I highly recommend them. No financial relationship blah de blah, just a very long time customer.)

The fruit trees and berry vines I planted are doing all right; it looks like only two of the raspberry vines are really going to take off, but I'll be able to propagate them fairly easily. The fruit trees (elderberry, pie cherry, plums and nectarine) are still alive, to my shock, considering how long they were out of the ground. They could use some pruning. Our existing old 4-in-1 apple tree is looking a little peaked and I don't know how much longer it'll be with us.

So now my attention turns to getting the hen house built, especially after Wednesday's sadness: We had the chickens out in their temporary pen for a sunny day of eating grass, weeds and bugs when our ancient dog ripped out the (flimsy it turned out) staples on one side of the pen, chased three of the "girls" out, ate one, killed a second for fun and scared the third into hiding in the tall grass. Josie, my 7 year old, found the remains; the one that Kaila mostly ate was Josie's favorite, a black araucana named Lucky that we were really looking forward to giving us eggs since araucanas lay blue, green or pink eggs. We'll stick with the four remaining hens and if things go well we'll get a few more chicks next spring. I really wanted to have extra eggs to sell, but with four hens we'll get about 2 doz eggs which is enough for us to eat and have a few to give away but not enough to sell. And actually, I'm pretty worried that my favorite hen is actually a rooster. They're still pretty young so it's hard to tell, but s/he's showing some signs. If Jumper does turn out to be a rooster, I can't rename him Dinner as planned; I just like that chicken too much. Any of the others I wouldn't have as much trouble. I think I have a friend in the country I could give Jumper to if it comes to that. (Countdown to eggs: T minus 60 days or so.)

After that, it's removing all but 8 of the triangular beds; we're leaving four under the apple tree where I'm going to plant mints, and the four with the pepper and tomato plants in them. Then we'll dig long raised beds  for summer/fall planting. The nice thing about being in Oregon is that we have four-season gardening if you manage it right, and this year we're going to give it a real go.

And I'm still figuring out how to grow edible fish in my pond...

Dean Speaks for Me

Click here to step into the Village Blue2

Container of Mexican orange blossom, petunias, diascia, rosemary in the background

Container of astilbe, baby tears, lemon-lime nicotania, bamboo in the background

Special thanks to Frankenoid at DKos because her diary got me back into miniature gardening and kick started me back into photography. Now, thanks to Diane101 for this opportunity!

To thine own self be true. W.S.

Below is the Untermyer Fountain in the French Garden (on the right in the aerial photo):

Nice backyard.

Her nickname is Tutu, and she's a baby Barn owl.

This is what they look like, but I have a hundred or more in bloom right now.  An old run of them, they were planted sometime in the mid 1940's and have been spreading out ever since.  I'll take a picture tomorrow morning and post it.

don't miss ~ Matters of Spirit and Expanded Views