All Decked Out!

 Although Summer is rapidly coming to a close, today I am sharing my back deck in all it's Summer glory! Here in Northern Indiana we usually still have several weeks - if not even months - of beautiful weather left, so there is still plenty of time to enjoy deck time.

This year, I did just a few little things on my back deck to make it a little more summery, welcoming, and cozy. I didn't (couldn't) spend a lot of money or time, and it turned out wonderful. It's exactly what I was going for!

At the first sight of summer around here, up goes our green patio umbrella! We got our cute little patio dining set at Menards several years ago for less than $100! It has served us very well! It came with four nice chairs, a table, and the umbrella. It's living proof that you don't need to spend a lot of money to make your house a home!

I have been obsessed with colorful patio lights every since I was little and I have plenty! From pink flamingos and palm trees to multi-colored Chinese lanterns. But, this year, I decided to go clear. I'm really digging Edison Bulbs and all the plain, clear glass globe lights that are so popular right now. They cast such a gorgeous, warm glow and will carry over to Fall nicely. Just make sure to bring them in once the temps drop, otherwise they will break!

I would love a pergola to string my patio lights from, but I like my sunshine more! With nothing much to hang my lights from, I ended up hanging them from the gutters. I used very small 3M Command clips that I got on clearance and they worked like a charm!

This Summer I also decided that I needed a giant planter on my deck, chock full of flowers.  I ended up finding a cheap, large, faux terracotta planter. It was exactly what I had in mind. I filled it with hot pink petunias, white sunpatiens, purple trailing verbena, and a giant corkscrew plant stuck right in the middle! I followed the thriller, filler, and spiller method and it worked like a charm! I also added my tiny lawn flamingo I got in New Smyrna Beach, Florida last year for some extra tropical vibes!

 Although I am more than ready for pumpkins and other Fall decor, I am still not ready to give up Summer and warm, sunny days! I try to spend every minute I can out on my deck soaking up every last ray of sunshine!

 

 

Feeding and Attracting Hummingbirds

I love all birds, but my favorite are probably hummingbirds. They are so tiny and cute and very friendly compared to other birds. I have at least three hummingbirds that live in my yard and visit my feeder on a regular basis. 

Here in Northern Indiana we get the Ruby-Throated variety of hummingbirds. The males have a bright reddish-pink patch on their throats and a beautiful green back. The females, like any other bird, are not as pretty as the males. They are usually not as bright of a green and have more brown on them with just a white throat.

Hummingbirds are pretty amazing little creatures. They fly about 27 miles per hour! They are very curious and will buzz right by you, so close that you can almost feel it. Mine also like to watch us almost as much as we like to watch them. Sometimes I will look up and one will be flying stationary and looking in the window at me!

I feed my hummingbirds homemade nectar. You can buy the red stuff at the store, but it's really just so simple and cheap to make it yourself. Plus, there is some debate on whether the red stuff is good for them or not. So I figure, why take the chance? Fresh is always best anyways! Just make sure to always keep a steady supply of food for them and they will keep coming back for more!

All you need to do to make your own nectar is fully combine one part sugar to four parts cold water. That's it! No boiling needed! I have a large feeder so I use 1/2 cup sugar and 2 cups water. These birds like their nectar changed every 3-4 days or whenever it gets cloudy. Mine will tell us when they want fresh!

Also make sure to clean out your feeder each time you refill it. Hummingbirds can get sick and die if the feeder is moldy or too dirty. All we do is rinse it ours out very well with plain old water and wipe off any mold spots. Do not use soaps to clean it as that can make birds sick too.

Almost anyone can get in on the fun of feeding hummingbirds, even if you live in an apartment! I've seen hummingbird feeders that attach to windows or you can hang them from just about anywhere. These birds are very territorial and will keep coming back to the same spot year after year.

Hummingbirds are very friendly and curious creatures. Mine let me get very close to them and they like to buzz us to say hello! I've seen videos of people holding a feeder in their hands and hummingbirds coming right up to them and eating out of their hands. This has happened to my mom once, but not me yet! That's my goal though!

This is one of my female hummingbirds. I have two females and one male (as far as I can tell) that come to my feeder. I see the girls out more than the guy for some reason.

If you have several birds fighting each other off at your feeder, put out another feeder. The more feeders you have, the more birds you will attract.

I just put up a another feeder in my new window box. So far, I've only seen one bird at it once. It will probably catch on better next year. Hummingbirds also feed on flower nectar too.

Hummingbirds like to rest nearby in between feedings, usually in a tree, but sometimes they sit on my tomato cages too! Once, I was gardening and I looked up and came face to face with a hummingbird sitting on a tomato cage. It was pretty cool! We sat there for a little bit staring at each other before it flew off!

This is my male hummingbird. He's a bit harder to photograph. I couldn't get a picture of him head on so you could see his ruby throat, but notice how his back is much more bright green than the females.

Here's a closer picture. They really are very beautiful birds!

Hummingbirds flap their wings about 53 times PER SECOND!

In my area, hummingbirds generally arrive sometime in April and stay throughout Fall. Sometimes birds that are traveling through your area will stop at your feeder on their way to Central America, where they spend the winter.

Happy feeding!

 

The Vegetable Garden

My vegetable garden has finally started to take off! We had a very slow start and had to replant a bit, but we've ended up with quite a few things growing! Even things we didn't expect!

Shortly after planting the vegetable garden and cactus seeds we had a major rainout and unfortunately, a lot of my seeds washed away!

My DIY Cactus Garden that was growing in my Jiffy Greenhouse was a complete bust! I left it on my back porch to soak up the sun and all it ended up soaking up was a ton of water. Even with the lid on! I have a feeling that when I dumped the water out, the seeds went with it. Oops.

My vegetable garden also got washed away! Only two pumpkin plants and two (what we thought were) honeydew ended up surviving, along with three sunflowers. None of the cantaloupes came up at all.

 On a positive note, we have tons of full-size cucumbers growing! And no, we didn't plant any cucumbers this year! Or last year even! I honestly think that the honeydew seeds were actually cucumber seeds that were mispackaged.

We did end up getting four already-sprouted Iroquois Cantaloupes from Main's Garden in New Haven during their annual half off sale to replace the seeds. They're doing well so far and flowering, but still no fruit yet. Iroquois is supposedly one of the easiest kinds to grow, so that's good for us!

I'm not mad about all the failures in my garden this year. I'm sure that even Martha Stewart has had her share of gardening mishaps! It's all part of the learning process! For as many failures as we had this year, we've had just as many successes! And I am very excited that my pumpkins are doing so well! I can't wait for Fall!

I had my suspicions when I saw this that it wasn't a honeydew! I've grown enough pickles to know what a cucumber blossom looks like!

The cucumbers are probably doing the best out of everything we planted!

Here's one that's almost ready!

This is one of the Iroquois Cantaloupes that we planted.

Here's a tiny pumpkin just sprouting out of it's orange blossom! I've got several more at this stage right now.

This is the biggest pumpkin so far. They are all the mini pumpkins so it won't get too much bigger than this. I am curious if it's going to be white or orange. It's still too hard to tell at this stage.

This was the poor cactus garden after it's rainout. I may try it again if I can find some more cactus seeds!

Here's one of my beautiful sunflowers!