Running With the Turtle

The larger turtles seem to prefer The Kitchen Garden as a home instead of The Pond.  Earlier this spring, we found several of them half buried in the garden while preparing the garden beds.  Since I needed the space for my vegetables, I moved them back to the pond.   The small turtles seem happy to continue to live in the pond but the larger ones keep returning to the garden.  As you can see, they keep making a run across the backyard to the kitchen garden.   Lucky enjoys racing around them when he finds them.  Obviously, he’s never heard of the tortoise and the hare tale.

Lazy Dog Days of Summer

With this sultry humid heat that we have been experiencing,  gardening outside has become quite unbearable for the human gardeners.  To get any bit of gardening done (mainly pulling weeds and watering),  early mornings is the only time to really get out there.   Otherwise, the humidity and the heat will definitely knock you out.  Late evenings would be okay if you don’t mind being eaten alive.   “OFF” doesn’t actually work very well for me.  The mosquitoes around my area seem immune to it or they are very aggressive suckers.   I always end up with at least ten very itching bites each time I venture out to the garden in the evenings.   On the other hand, my “doggy” gardening partner, Lucky,  is enjoying the hot summer days.  Taking a “que”  from him, I have decided to enjoy my garden from a distance, like from my covered patio and sipping a nice and cool iced tea.  LOL.

Toad on a Lily Pad

Since my Sony camera is on the blink, I will be depending on my iphone camera for pics of my garden until the Sony camera is fixed.  Just when I’ve started to really get into taking garden pictures, too.  Anyways, here’s a picture of a cute little toad on a lily pad in my pond.   It’s the same toad but from different angles and distance.

Usually, you see frogs but I don’t seem to have any in my yard,  just toads.  Last year, there was an influx of tadpoles in my newly built pond which I thought were frogs.  For over two months, I eagerly monitored their growth and lamented the ones who were eaten by the koi.  Imagine my surprise to realize that I had been raising toads in my pond when they were fully grown.  They promptly hopped away and disappeared from my yard, which is a bit of a relief since I didn’t want my dog, Lucky, to eat one and get sick from the poison on the toad.

This year, I welcome all reptiles and amphibians to my garden since I seem to have an influx of snails and slugs eating all my plants.  Although I think snails are cute, they are not welcome to an all you can buffet in my garden.  LOL.