#red beefsteak

It’s beginning to look a little like Halloween: 

Friday’s backyard garden harvest: 

We finished decorating on Saturday: 

I found a use for that concrete planter I found on the curb back in April: 

A mantis & her prey: 

The carpenter bee that is in flight was a male (you can’t see it from this angle but he has a white spot on his face). He was zooming in to make his move on that female (no white face mark). His technique was none too subtle in that it began with a head butt followed by slam dancing: 

Yep, it rained: 

Our Beit Alpha cucumber has decided the end is nigh: 

This volunteer sunflower had its leaves worn out by an unknown caterpillar: 

Friday’s backyard garden harvest. I like this arrangement. It is one part Cthulhu & one part Sumerian beard: 

Lost in ancient memories of thin cold air & softly chanted prayers: 

Wut?:

Monday’s backyard garden harvest: 

My queen & I after celebrating our anniversary at Restaurant Iris: 

Saturday tomatoes: 

Sunday’s Plot 420 harvest. The watermelon split so it might not be ripe but, worse case scenario, it will become compost: 

Hairy vetch by torch light: 

Deveining shrimp is one of my exclusive kitchen duties: 

Sunday dinner: 

Wednesday tomatoes - 2 Big Beef & a Red Beefsteak with squirrel bites: 

One: 

Two: 

Three: 

Four: 

Five: 

Six Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars on our parsley. We have about this many every year & the annual survival rate for them to become butterflies is 0 to 1 because birds think they’re yummy: 

The Plot 420 report for Wednesday.

The Big Boy purple hull peas are breaking ground: 

The first planting of corn’s tassels are producing pollen & the honeybees are doing their thing: 

The Black Beauties are starting to make: 

So is the yellow squash: 

Onions with strawberries: 

Onions without strawberries. Conditions in both containers are identical except one has 2 strawberry plants in it. It might just be a coincidence but we’ll see how the experiment of adding strawberries to the onion pot at the house goes: 

Heading home from Plot 420. The field is beautiful & we see a lot of professional photographers photographing couples & families in them but every time I see folks standing out there, all I can think is “chiggers & ticks”: 

Meanwhile, back at the house: 

Afternoon tomatoes - 1 Big Beef & another squirrel bitten Red Beefsteak: 

One of our community garden neighbors gave us some yellow squash so my queen made squash & onions to go with the rest of tonight’s dinner: 

Monday lunch: 

Monday tomatoes: 

The Mississippi kites were taking advantage of the high winds in their hunt for cicadas: 

The grackles got in on the cicada action too: 

Venus just above the tree line: 

A couple of our red beefsteak tomatoes have a little blossom end rot: 

The Big Beefs that we planted at the same time aren’t showing any signs of blossom end so I don’t think the issue with the Red Beefsteaks is a lack of calcium in the soil but probably due to inconsistent watering:  

Fire pit weather is over so I gave all the components a fresh coat of heat resistant paint before storing them away until Fall: 

I had hung up some wild garlic to dry & it did this: 

Tomato & bell pepper seedlings. The flat on the left is all Lemon Boys & the flat next to it is all Abe Lincolns: 

I’ve mentioned our mystery tree before. After a little research, my queen & I believe it is an avocado tree: 

Just a couple of shots of the backyard from the backdoor: 

Another lily that bloomed for the first time this year: 

Whether it was a gray squirrel or a rat, I don’t get the logic behind this damage to one of our cabbage plants. There doesn’t seem to have been a clear goal: 

We added this cattle panel trellis to the backyard garden plot today: 

Tuesday’s backyard garden harvest: 

Tuesday’s protein: 

Caught this guy peeping in the window while I was working in the home office: 

The Ruby-throated hummingbird migration has started within the last week or so. We’ve gone from around 1 or 2 birds visiting the backyard daily to 4 to 6. So far, they’ve all been females: 

Wednesday’s backyard garden harvest: 

Watermelon at Plot 420: 

Our Big Boy purplehull peas have taken off. As you can see, Big Boys vine more than other purplehulls: 

Wednesday’s Plot 420 harvest: