Best Harvest in Years

Already this year I've had the best harvest in several years. It's the cage, because the deer are huge and the squirrels are around as well. In spite of a very late start (end of June) other things that helped were:

I planted the day I bought them. 

It rained a lot for the first few weeks. 

We've had breaks in the heat so fruit can set. 

If I got no more for the rest of the summer I'm pleased. 

Spring for Real

I done remember this tree being quite so vivid before. The dogwood by the front door is also blooming, for the first time ever. 

Finally Spring

We had a glorious good weekend, and I had time to be out there. I cleaned up the  outside corner and the front yard. Small bites. 

I saw bloodroot up- I think this is really late. 

Autumn

I gave in and turned on the heat when I got home from work last night. 

Outside

There is a lot going on outside. I'll just post and caption a bunch of pictures.

Rocky did some liberal mixing of bulbs together.

The ironweed was spectacular this year.

This showed up - bidens?

The turtleheads are doing great. I think they like more light.

This showed up, too!  I had to cut back suckers and branches to create the little grotto she is sitting in.

Vignette of yellows.

White and purple ageratum with some asters as well.

The white blooms are in heavy shade by the Norway spruce.

Bite the Bullet on the Basement

It's smelling awfully damp and musty down there - it's time to bite the bullet and deal with it.  I'm not entirely sure what that means - except that getting rid of a lot of crap from there seems like a good first step. I've been dealing with the paper, and have taken some books to the library store. I've got more in my car right now. But I'm going to end up with a lot of still usable stuff. Some I would be happy to recycle - if I can figure out how to recycle them - and some I can pitch. But there is a lot of stuff I'll want to keep. I'm not sure what to do with it.

I'm also not sure what exactly I want to have done with the basement. I know I want it dry. I think I want a new, waterproof floor. I think I need to get almost everything out the basement - which probably means a pod, since there will be signficant stuff going back down in there when its all done.

How much do I want to do myself? How much do I want to hire out? And what kinds of contractors do this kind of work?  Unambiguously, getting rid of stuff is the right step right now, but what next?

Turtles!

I was reading in a garden book this very morning that eastern box turtles live underground their first year. Then I found while weeding two tiny turtles, where the dog had been digging. I moved them outside of the dog's yard under a bush.