Workhorses

First is my "freebie" wheelbarrow. A couple of years ago while on my walk with Kirby I spotted this hefty thing on which was attached a hand written FREE sign. I wheeled it all the way home (at least a mile) with Kirby being rather skittish by it. SLK replaced the tire that was always going flat but it has been a help. Last evening I shoveled out the extra soil before planting the Star Jasmine and loaded up the wheelbarrow. Early this morning, after turning on the telly just to see thee bridal dress, I did another hilling of the potatoes.

Here's another one of my favorite workhorses, my old, sturdy Bosch mixer. Oh I do love the look and colors of the trendy Kitchen Aid mixers but the power and especially the capacity of my old workhorse wins my heart over and over again. I plopped 3 sticks of butter in the mixer before working outside this a.m. to bring it to room temperature. I'm going to make the traditional oatmeal cookie recipe but I'll add about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of coconut and some coconut extract. Y U M M Y !

I heard from Dori that she wanted to see the potato and cuke photos too. Here you are dear daughter. I'm growing the cucumbers vertically on tomato cages this year. After all I don't really have a garden but am just tucking vegetable plants around the raised perimeter of the yard. Cindy and I found a 6 pack of lemon cucumbers at Whitfield Nursery (love this nursery!!) and I planted them on the outside of the 2 cages and will train the up, up, up. This one below is between the canna's I got free on the Mesa Temple grounds a couple years ago...the perk for not finding a near parking spot and having to park over the the gardening "shed" and seeing the free sign. Jody was with me and she even snagged a couple and took them home to Oregon in her carry-on. On the right of the cukes is a red yucca with pink blooms that haven't shown themselves yet.

The "potato patch" is planted with Yellow Yukon's.

Notice all the rocks I was retrieving from the soil. Oh I do hope for a good harvest.

When I went out to check on the evenings planting of Jasmine I noticed Kirby had also been checking it out and left 2 prints. I have yet to replace all that large river rock in this area. I may yet sneak a few other plants in here.

Do you have any suggestions? I am open to them.

Lettuce and spinach (not pictured) are doing fairly well but needed thinning. Behind them are my sunflowers that after a second planting are up but are very, very slow to put on growth since they are supposed to end up being 6 feet tall. Pictures of that area of the "garden" yet to come.

Wishing you a . . .

Happy day, msk