Kodiak Gardens

True story!!

Winter is coming but this past weekend was so warm I decided to carve out a garden bed for these various bushes I planted last year in the late fall to prevent them from dying in their pots! I had never dug up the grass so this weekend I dug up grass and moss and weeds to make it a little prettier. Plus I planted a willow, 2 weigelia, and a hardy hibiscus (not shown). One of them was in a corner between a couple gardens by the veggie garden fence. Hard to tell what everything is since all their leaves are disappearing! 🥹

This wolf spider was NOT small !!

This Pink Diamond hydrangea has been resilient through being dug up, sitting bare rooted for 2 years on the edge of the property because I couldn’t decide where to put her, to finally finding a home. She’s still small since I had trimmed her practically down to nothing a few years ago to dig her up… But she is bouncing back and showing her colors!

Chilly morning made this rose a little frosty looking but it’s now a gorgeous warm fall day!

Fall in the Gardens are beautiful and bittersweet as the days get shorter, the nights get colder, and the trees go bare. Savoring all I can. Some plants are still holding on. 🥰 (click to scroll through the photos and captions)

Pretty sure this Black Swallowtail Caterpillar missed the memo that it is October in New England? She is enjoying my parsley though… 💁🏼‍♀️

It’s the first time I have noticed that on this beautiful Hot pink rose I have, the thorns are almost the same exact color! And this lovely pollinator was checking out the flowers as well. 🌹🐝

I’m happy to see you too, Mr. Zucchini !
😂

It’s beginning to look a lot like fall in the gardens finally! 🎃🎃

So exquisite!! 🌺

🎉 This weekend I branched out and finally tried a new squash I grew. Delicata Squash. It was everything it’s name says. Very delicate flavor. Has the slight taste of an acorn or butternut squash, but very light and not stringy or mushy at all.
Cut lengthwise, scooped out the seeds and guts, then sliced each half into 3/4-1 inch slices. I melted some butter, mixed with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. I coated and tossed the squash slices in the butter mixture and put in a 9x9 glass pan. Roasted at 425° for 25 minutes, flipping each piece halfway through. You can eat the skin of it and it was soft and tasty! I wish I had more! Thankfully I have 2 more growing on the vines now! Looking forward to the next time! ❤️ Try some!

Worth repeating… Summer still hanging on… 🌹

🍎 Our first Honey Crisp apple!! Only two grew on our little tree this year. The other one isn’t looking so hot. So we all enjoyed a few slices of this one. 🍏

This little lady had something under her that looked either like an egg or pollen. Not sure which. But she sure is cute! 🐞

Summer is still hanging on…

Still blooming!! Such gorgeous soft blues!

How gorgeous are these!!? Been waiting and waiting for them to open because I couldn’t remember what these were! Any guesses?

A decent sized apple, a delicata squash, and happy bees! Couple new surprises for the gardens!

This Basil hopper startled me yesterday!

Found this lil acorn squash hiding in the patch! And I picked a handful of end-of-season blueberries and pink lemonade blueberries! What are those, you ask? Blueberries with a different color and I think a slightly sweeter taste that gives the hint of lemonade.

Blackberry Lily

This yellow hibiscus opened for the first time today and I came home to it tonight. 🌺🌼. I love it!! It is the only one I don’t have in a pot, I stuck it in my front garden a couple weeks ago and hoped for the best. The other one is in a pot by my deck stairs and is one that has not yet been eaten by the Japanese beetles yet who have destroyed the ones in the other pot! 😡

I dug up a little garlic and it was not that big. I was disappointed but I think it could be because after the winter I didn’t remove all the leaf mulch I dressed them with to protect through the winter.
So today I removed some of that and added fertilizer as a last ditch effort to see if it will help boost some last minute growth.
I dug one up a week or so ago to check it and dry it. Right I used it in dinner. The bulb was still not dried out, but great strong garlic. There were about 4 cloves in it. Stay tuned…

Rainbow of deliciousness!!

Rain rain go away…. Ugh

🐞 Well hello! 🐞

🦋❤️🦋

Good morning Facebook friends!! 🌺

What a pleasant surprise to come home to today! 🦋

Well, Good Morning to you, Rose! 🌹

The Hollyhocks are coming even though the deer munched on their leaves recently!

Lillies Lillies!!! And Lily beetles 😡😡 destroying them! 😩

So much rain means a lot of fungus growth around the property. While picking some of them for the chickens as a treat this morning I came across this one that caught my eye. It’s almost like a mushroom without its hat! 🍄

Some of the roses are coming out to play!

Man, the weather has been horrible this spring into summer here!! So much gray and so much rain. To say the gardens are struggling will be an understatement. I mean, I’m sure they appreciate the rain, but so do the weeds. And the mosquitoes. The very little time I have had to tend to the gardens have been thwarted by those pesky blood sucking nuisances!! Between my work and my family taking all my time and the weather being crappy…. My gardens are suffering!! Rant over! Enjoy a couple of the positives here!

Nasturtiums. I kept thinking I needed to adjust the exposure on these photos because they seemed so bright but these were really the colors of them! I put them in some flower planters about a week or so ago and they finally bloomed. Beautiful!