Garden Update 7-11 through 7-15-14

 The Yukon Gold potato plants are dying fast.

The front potatoes are Russet Norkadah and the back potatoes are All Blue.  Just the right side of this bed has dying potatoes.

Peaches are starting to ripen.

More peaches.
I haven't seen many birds around I wonder if the "B Gon" products are keeping them away or if it is just too hot.

The wind we had a few days ago blew a lot more apples off of the tree.  Here is one a squirrel brought next to the nice damp soil under the faucet and ate. I found it there yesterday morning.  This morning it is completely gone.

These are Moon Flower plants at my front door at 8:30 p.m on 7/11.  They are starting to open.

Here they are at 8:30 a.m. on 7/12 before they close for the day.  Sometimes a bee will go inside the flower and it will close.  The bee is stuck there until it gets dark.  The flowers are so thin that you can see the bee buzzing around inside.

Our honey bees died last year, so Hubby cleaned out the hive and found out that moths were the problem.  He stacked the hive pieces up in the corner where our junk is and this year bees made themselves a new home in there.

 He is taking everything apart to find the queen and the sections the bees are using.

Here he is moving them to a new location.

My darling little helper decided to help her grandpa, she got snow overalls, coat, and gloves that would protect her so she could be a beekeeper too.  She went to where she could see the bees and grandpa around the side of the house and got scared, because she had nothing to cover her face.  How sweet of her to give it a try even though she looks like she is going to die of heat.

I have bought fresh basil from the store and tried to root a piece of it many times in the past and it hasn't worked.  Last week I bought fresh basil and the package wasn't cold like it usually it.  The store I went to had the herbs hanging above the produce.  I put one of the pieces in a vase and as you can see it has rooted.  I am now thinking that the other one I tried were refrigerated and that made them not grow. 7-14-14

The roots have grown a lot in one day.  7-15-14

 Here it is in the vase.  I currently sits in the kitchen window.  I will get it into soil soon. 7-14-14

We made salad last night and decided to experiment with two of the lettuce bunches.  We cut off the bottom pieces and put them in water to see if they would root.

 Here is the side view.  I let you know what happens.

Update:  I am amazed at how fast this is growing.  It was cut and put in water 7-14 and this is it in less than 48 hours later.

I saw on Pinterest a watermelon cut into sticks, so I decided to try it.  This is our third watermelon now cut this way.  It gets eaten a lot faster cut into sticks.

These sticks are very kid friendly.  You still get wedges on the outside edge, but they are easier for the kids to eat too.  I don't think I will ever cut a watermelon any other way now.  This is not from my garden.  This is a personal sized watermelon from the 99 cent only store.  So is the lettuce.