It's a Jungle Out There!

Ben and I spent a couple of nights up in the ski town of Breckenridge last weekend for my birthday, perfect timing to escape the veil of smoke around Boulder from the various wildfires burning in Utah and Oregon.  The skies up at 10,000 feet appeared less smokey and the views were fairly clear, which was a nice break.  

We enjoyed a scenic drive over Guanella Pass, did the first mile or so of the hike up to Mt. Bierstadt which traveled by a lovely pond that was being visited by three moose, and hiked the McCullough Gulch Trail, a four mile loop that went straight up a rocky jeep road that eventually led to a beautiful wooded trail up to a big waterfall that spread itself out over a wide array of rocks as it tumbled down the mountain.   We enjoyed being away and had a good time.  

I want to show you my veggie and flower garden, but first I have to share this photo of a beautiful flower arrangement that my sweet brother and sister-in-law sent me for my birthday.  It was a lovely surprise and I've really enjoyed it. 

I do love flowers and our two raised beds are bursting with zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers and dahlias.  They share the limited space with two four tomato plants, four cucumber plants, three pepper plants and four basil plants.  Thanks to the dozen or so buckets of horse manure that Ben dug into the garden last fall all these plants are growing like crazy, doing their best to escape the confines of the raised beds and sprawl into the yard.  It's quite a jungle!

Something new for this year are the six fancy dahlia plants I ordered by mail.  I'm quite liking them, though they are certainly "space hogs," and are so heavy that they're pulling down the six foot stakes we pounded into the ground to keep them upright.    

This one leaned so far over that I finally just cut it and brought it into the house to enjoy.

And speaking of space hogs, it's our first year for trying the "Mortgage Lifter" tomato, a huge beefsteak type with an average weight per tomato of two pounds!  I thought for sure that a fruit that big couldn't taste good, but it sure did.      

Nothing says summer like a ripe tomato eaten straight out of the garden!