Gardenia in zone 6B

Here's a gardenia that I planted this spring. We're in zone 6b and this is a zone 7 plant; but I'm hoping that some heavy mulching this fall will help it make it through the winter. If we don't have a severe winter, I think it might survive. For extra protection, I'll put some rocks around the base to retain heat during the day then release it over night.

I took a brief walk in the garden yesterday and guess what? There were 3 more summer squashes to pick - two pretty large zucchini and one yellow. Hopefully, my friend Betty will take some off my hands today!

If you've been reading my blog, you'll remember that the critters ate all but two of my corn plants. Well, miracle of miracles, one of the surviving stalks actually has an ear of corn. I have no idea how that happened since the only other survivor is too far away from it to have pollinated it. Maybe one of the birds we feed daily, or the bees who dine on all our flowers took pity on me and pollinated it. Jim says I should eat it all by myself; but I couldn't do that. I'm hoping the late corn I planted will give us a few more ears before the first frost.

I noticed that I have some beans on my few bush bean plants and the newly planted seeds are up, so if the bunnies leave them alone we'll have another small, late crop. I picked a few more peaches off one of our three peach trees. Seems the peaches on the two older trees have some disease. I don't use poisonous sprays on the food I grow; but I'll have to see if there is some organic sprays to prevent this next year.

I'm feeling a tiny bit better this morning, so maybe all the vitamins and homeopathics are having some effect on this bug. I hope so. Being this tired and not being able to get in the studio or do necessary garden work is beginning to try my patience.