In the Garden

Tomatoes from my garden, these were picked early to compare with vine ripened ones.

My beautiful Comfrey plant. It has early outgrown its space, it is about two feet around now. I will get some good roots from it this fall.

Butternut squash in the garden. These are volunteer vines, and there are at least 6 squash on them. Looking forward to sharing some and butternut squash soup for harvest.

The Morning glory vine that I planted in a pot to trail up the patio support. They are lovely in the morning.

Afternoon Walk in the Garden

Today we had thunderstorms, but after the rain stopped the sun came out again so I decided to take a walk through the gardens to see what might be happening.



The Tansy is blooming beautifully.






The white Yarrow that I was gifted in April is settling itself in very nicely and looking healthy as well. The other patch had two blooms already. I am greatly pleased that my namesake is thriving in my garden.

My old dear teacher, Comfrey has become an entity unto itself. I am sharing more and more of this wonderful healing plants leaves every year and will most likely have roots to share this fall.

Looking among the tall, beautiful Mugwort plants against the fence, what is that I see? It's a little bright pink Bee Balm (Monarda) struggling to grow, but growing it is, underneath the towering Mugwort, Catnip, and Lemon Balm.

So pretty, I thought all of the bright pink had been smothered out, but no....

I love walks in the garden, especially after a good rain. Garden blessings to you all.

Blogland Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted so I
thought I would just play a little catch
up today.


First up is an interesting pentagram shaped tomato. It was the best tasting one that I got out of my garden...umm, I wonder why that is.


These are some of the bracelets that I made out of recycled belts from the thrift store. They are so boho and fun. I am putting some of them up for sale. Let me know if you are interested. The two on the left top I made for me though.

As the wheel turns.....this is the sunset on my sun wheel that I made from honeysuckle vine last year, what a lovely sight this was.

This morning I was greeted by my two sweeties enjoying some alone time together, while they let me sleep in. A great two-fer that was, Sophie and her dad got to catch up and enjoy each other's company and I got to sleep in for the first time this week!

Last but not least, I started on fall classes this past Monday. A full class load; art appreciation, algebra, world literature, Spanish and world history. So far it looks like all the classes are going to be very interesting with interesting and entertaining professors.

The Wheel Turns......

"Slowly the energy of summer has shifted, and we begin to see signs of the wheel's turning. The earth ripens and grows mellow~we can smell the warm and heavy difference in the air. All around us, plants once stiff with juice are softening and drying, going to seed. Everywhere are signs of the early harvest, with roadside stands and farmer's markets overflowing with produce. The light at sunset grows hazy and golden, and the nighttime insect's lullabye outside our windows are softer and less strident, weaving through our dreams. Summer has passed its prime." Celebrating the Great Mother.

Sassafras leaf turned orange-gold

Dogwood berries call to the birds

Eastern Tent Caterpillars getting ready to come out of their home
Bee Balm gone to seed.

Garden Update

The gardens have gone crazy in this humid, nearly tropical weather we have been having.



Here are some calendulas looking lovely even though the weeds have nearly covered them in the back garden. :/


Here is what I think is a melon, though it could be a pumpkin, I love surprises in the garden.

Speaking of surprises.....this Horned Melon volunteered in the vegetable garden. I vaguely recall getting one to try and promptly consigning it to the compost bin. Where its seeds bid their time til I added them, unknowingly to the garden soil. I have three of these things, which are a tropical plant originally from Africa. That should tell you a little about the weather we have been having here.

Little sweet red bell peppers. They are not getting very big, but they are so sweet and delicious.

Here are the gourds, pumkins, whatever, I am not even sure. But they are beautiful and will make glorious harvest displays in the months to come.

Lammas Harvest

Sophie and I harvested some things from the garden today. We got a couple of beautiful sunflowers, some huge cucumbers, several lovely beets, three mini pumpkins, and three finger sized carrots that Sophie is just thrilled about.
We decided to make Demeter's Harvest Bread, we improvise the recipe from Laurel's Kitchen cookbook for basic whole grain bread. Ours was half wheat, half corn flour in honor of the Lammas corn/grain harvests. Sophie worked very hard on kneading the bread dough and we enjoyed watching it rise and smelling the delicious fresh bread smell as it baked.

We made out loaves round in reverence to the Great Earth Mother who is generous with Her bounty at this blessed time of Lammas.

More Garden Beauties

A late afternoon garden walk, revealed these beauties to my eyes...
sweet green bell peppers, small but flourishing.....


....not sure of this one, haven't grown it before.....cantaloupe or some other melon.....

Beautiful, fragrant Garden Flocks....

Lovely pink Hydrangea, blooming for the second time this year....

mini pumpkins....we have three...we are so proud.:)

Green tomatoes planted with striking orange marigolds....a perfect combination....

Garden

The garden this week, tomatoes! We have a lot, and expect more in the coming days to ripen. They are beautiful, organic and delicious straight from the vine.

Basil, oh lovely greenness. How I love lady Basil. Need to make pesto!

Sunflower, we planted a whole row of these beauties, this is one of two that actually survived the early spring torrential rains. It is a small, two foot tall one, we do have one Mammoth sunflower in the other garden, it should bloom in time for Lammas in two weeks.

Beauty in the Garden

We had this lovely visitor in the Bee Balm yesterday. A gorgeous Black Swallowtail. It was very intent on extracting the remaining nectar from the nearly gone bee balm. We were able to get a good view of the flying flower without distracting it from its meal.

This morning there are two of them on the butterfly bush. I did not get a photo of them, but I have a feeling that one of them was this same one. It came back and brought a friend to our yard for breakfast.

Garden Update

The beautiful hydrangea bush, it is gloriously blooming itself crazy. Deep pink then turning to purple. Lovely.

Green tomatoes! No red ones as of yet, but we have hopes....

Butterfly bush, they love it of course, our yard is alive with colorful butterflies.

A pot of colorful faced lovelies, rescued from the trash bin.

In the garden

There is always Thyme
Beautiful purple Bee Balm

Little buttons of Tansy

Gorgeous Double Daylilies

Sweet suductive Jasmine

Glorious Hydrangea

Lovely pink Bee Balm

In the Garden

Took a stroll around the gardens that I have, honestly not spent enough time in these past few weeks, so much has been going on. But they are doing well, maybe not as well, as they would be if I was giving them all they needed, but you can see they are very healthy and vibrant.

This is some sort of squash or melon that volunteered in the flower bed, came from the compost I'm sure. Can't wait to see what it turns out to be.

The beautiful Monarda (Bee Balm). It is always so gorgeous, and the smell is so aahhh.

This is one of the raised vegetable beds. They are looking just fabulous! I am looking forward to harvesting some things. This is broccoli, mini pumpkin, basil, tiny spinach and weeds! LOL

The other raised bed, with peas on the trellis, a couple of sunflowers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and marigolds.

A lone, but gorgeous Echinacea, coneflower.

This little shrub, fished from the trash last year, turned out to be a lovely white blooming Crape Myrtle! How sweet!

One of the butterfly bushes.

Our first tomato! Woo hoo!

The new bee balm is a lovely pale pink. We will see if the hummers and bees come to it.



Our long suffering Hydrangea. Last year we had to have a yellow jacket nest removed from the center of it, and it has come back with a lovely determination. Garden blessings.