QFC Shopping Trip 8/3

You are probably wondering what on earth that green stuff is.  This is my first batch of homemade pesto, courtesy of the garden, and we are eating it with roasted veggies and pasta for dinner tonight.  I've also got the crock pot full of homemade baked beans, which I thought was going to be dinner, but it is not going to be finished cooking until around 8:00, so we are having a switcheroo.

I went up to QFC for my weekly shopping trip and spent $43.14 with the sales and after coupons, realizing a savings of only 26%.  Everything was on sale except for Special K, Coffee Mate, mushrooms, red bell pepper, brown sugar and navy beans.  It doesn't take much to blow your percentage.

I took some pictures of my back yard so I could give you the grand tour.  My deck and back yard are like another living space for me in the summer and it gets a lot of use.  This first picture is to the left off the deck, facing north.  I planted this bed in nasturtiums when I first moved here in 1995 and haven't planted it since.

Past the gate is an old contractor's wheel barrow filled with zucchini.  It gets hot enough for them and I usually have a pretty good crop as long as it doesn't get too cold.

This is the view from the green bean end of the garden.  I plant Territorial Jade bush beans and they do very well.  I actually get sick of eating them because they produce so much, but right now I can't wait for them to come on.  They have started to bloom and it is in the 80s, so it shouldn't be too much longer.

This is the potato patch.  I've never grown potatoes before and had no idea how delicious they were.

The deck after I cleaned it up.

I bought my deck plants at Home Depot this year because QFC put theirs out too early.  I thought that Home Depot had better plants at a really good price, but you had to buy six packs, which was okay with me.  I do not believe in subtle deck pots.  Go for the whore house look, I say.

This one is my begonia pot.  Nothing subtle about her.

This is the begonia that I found growing in the compost.  I have no idea where it came from.  It is subtle, but still quite charming.

 

This last picture is of the lemon balm growing through the bird bath with the scented geranium next to it.  There is the sweetest little frog that lives there and he actually comes out to visit, but I'm worried that Poppy will notice that he hops and it would be fun to bite him and then she can foam at the mouth and I would feel bad about the frog, and so on.