Cool and Overcast and Just Right for Gardening

Because GMEG Jealousy had her calf right on time, I had this morning free to work in my garden. Trying to keep everything as organic as possible is truly a challenge this year.  We've had ideal growing temperatures and lots of rain and everything is growing well, especially the weeds.  Some days it seems like all I do is pull weeds. And the really big ones like the iron weed is gimungus already. I can't pull those, I have to chop them down and dig out the roots!

Veronica, day lilies, coral bells, roses, dead nettle and bee balm in a border.

Pretty little pink coral bells.

Here's a picture of the flower border I had planned to extend all along the drive that runs in front of the house. This is as far as I've gone with it in 12 years of planning.  The bee balm is blooming on the right and the day lilies are just starting.  My favorite is a coral bell that has been blooming since May. Tigger is finding the flower bed useful.

I was at the Rural King on Friday and they had all their plants on sale half price. I found a nice azalea bush for $7.50! One of my foundation azaleas in the front of the house had died last year so this looked like a good replacement. When I got it home and read the tag more closely its says the bush will be eight feet tall and eight feed wide eventually. It also says its only cold hardy to 20 degrees F. I'm going to plant it at the back of this bit of border in a vacant spot and see what happens. This area is protected by the house and has an eastern exposure. We'll see if it likes our cold Ohio winters.  I'm still wondering why Rural King was selling it here!

Suppose to be a Moonglow pear tree.

 Three years ago I bought two pear trees from Big Lots.  I think I paid $10.00 each for them.  This one pictured is suppose to be a Moonglow pear, the other is an Anjou.  I always thought fruit trees took at least five years to bear so I was thrilled when the Moonglow not only bloomed but set fruit!  There are just five pears on the tree and I am very hopeful that I'll get to eat all five. The Anjou didn't bloom.

I'm not sure if this is actually a Moonglow.  I thought they were a yellow pear and these have a lot of red on them.  This must also be a dwarf, not a semi-dwarf as I the Anjou seems to be.  I guess I can't complain for $10, and the pears look really nice.

There are wild pears and ornamental pears pretty near this guy. I'm not sure how that has affected it, but some tree pollinated it so time will tell what how the fruit turns out.

Supposed to be a Gala apple with the asparagus gone to flower in the background.

I planted a Gala apple from one of the nursery catalogs at the back of the garden about five years ago. The original tree trunk died and a new one sprouted, above the graft line, I'm pretty sure.  Last year the tree had one apple and it didn't hang on very long.  This year the tree has quite a few apples and it looks like they might make it until fall.  They look like they might even be Galas.  This tree would have been pollinated by the wild apples in the pastures, so anything is possible I guess.  I noticed this evening that little tiny black flies were all over the fruit.  I'll have to figure that out and put up some sticky traps. The flies are damaging the fruit and I'd like to have at least one or two apples to eat. 

Marigolds and mint with some tiny sweet marjorum plants.
 

This year I've been collecting stones from the pastures with an idea of building stone walls for my raised beds.  As you can see the gorund ivy is taking over.  I spend an hour or more every few days pulling ground ivy from around my raised beds. The stuff has taken over the grass and I'm not sure what to do about it, organically.  I could spray it all with Weed Be Gone herbicide, but I don't want to spray any poison so close to my food plants.  I guess I need to do some serious research before the whole lawn is nothing but ground ivy.