Taking A Bite Out Of Crime

When putting up a bird feeder, protection is very important (especially in areas with a lot of wildlife traffic, like my yard). Sometimes you even need to take it a step further and match the degree of protection to the type of food presented....
....or you may become the victim of a crime!

Well, a crime with a certain "cuteness factor" :)

Submitted to Friday Ark.

Garden Harvests Continue

This is the time of year that the garden is really producing, and frankly I couldn't be happier to be so busy with it! This herb is my favorite of the season, basil 'Pistou'....the leaves keep this tidy form, even as they grow back after shearing. (Plus the flavor is terrific!) Tomatoes, eggplant 'Fairytale', beans, spaghetti squash 'Small Wonder', and cucumber 'Crystal Apple'.

Summer squash 'Cocozelle' grows on nice bushing plants, and produces LOTS of fruit!

Plenty of herbs are contributing to my harvest: sage, tarragon, greek oregano, thyme, seedling pea, basil and cilantro.

Greens, more spaghetti squash, beans, peppers...

....spinach and swiss chard from my "hot" grill garden.

'Crystal Apple' cuke, snow pea 'Alaska', and bean 'Royalty Purple Pod'.

And just recently my pepper harvest has really exploded!

This is shaping up to be my yummiest season ever!

Garden Gloves Worth Trying

I first became aware of these gloves when I read a post where a favorite blogger, Mr. Brown Thumb, had reviewed them. I really wanted to try a pair, so I contacted Alice Strong at Garden Basket and proposed reviewing their gloves here in exchange for a complimentary pair. May I present the Atlas Glove! These folks at Strong Marketing have several nifty products, including Seed Ballz (I've been wanting to make some of these myself, but theirs look to be done very well!)

The gloves are soft and stretchy....

....and I found them terrific for weeding. Great dexterity and sensation, and the rubberized tips really help me grip the weeds.

I could even handle seeds!

The pair I wore are a size medium, which I usually wear in women's garden gloves. These were just a tiny bit loose on me, so small would have been better. But for performance in the garden at a great price, the Atlas Glove is a perfect fit!

Disclaimer: Strong Marketing gave me these complimentary gloves in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed here are honest and all my own.

Where do they go?

While observing all the wicked cool residents of Milkweed City, I began to wonder: where do the many Monarch caterpillars go to metamorphize into butterflies? In all the 12 years I've lived here, I'd never seen a chrysalis. Well, ask and you shall recieve! Walking past my Big Bluestem grass just a couple days after my ponderings, here it was!
Wow! LOOK at that! You can see the beautiful butterfly wings almost fully developed, and the "vessel" has this weird "zipper-looking" row of "lights" on it.

Reminds me of that dude on the Picard genre of Star Trek...Giordi!

I checked again the very next day...transition complete!

I love nature! :)

August SeedGROW Project Update

August has arrived already, and both of my nasturtium 'Spitfire' plants are blooming.... ...like crazy!

Hooray for flowers!

"I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project, thanks to Renee's Garden for the seeds."