Remember our Carolina Sweetshrub growing in Meeks Park?  I show it to you every spring.  Well, we were in Murphy earlier in the week, and I saw this bush.  It looked very familiar to me, but I couldn't be sure, so I let my SEEK app identify it for me.  It said Carolina Sweetshrub, Calycanthus floridus, same genus and species as the ones in the park.

 

Funny thing though, these leaves and flowers are about three times bigger than the ones in the park.  Hmmm.  I wonder if it is the difference between native/wild and cultivated.  Maybe this one came from a plant nursery.  It is growing in a prominent place downtown, so it had to have been planted there, not just wild.  Anyway, I will be looking to see if this one is available, and if it is indeed the same thing.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Yay!!!  The zucchinis are doing great!!!  All 18 plants are growing well.  Some even have little baby zucchinis on them.  These variegated plants in the foreground grow gray zucchinis.  The skin is very tender, and easily scratched, so you don't see them very often in the grocery store.  We have seen them at the farmers' market, but I love growing them myself.  They are so good.  The ones farther along the row are Black Beauties, the dark green heirloom variety.  I love them all.  And these are looking great!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look how beautiful the leeks are this week.  They had just started blooming when we left for our road trip, and when we got back the following week they were bursting at the seams.  

 

Leeks bloom the second year, and when they do that the leek part is too tough to use in the kitchen.  But it is totally worth it to me to let them go to flower and seed.  They are beautiful, and I can save the seeds to replant.  Round and around we go.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Remember I told you that we planted chamomile for the first time this year?  Well, here it is blooming.  The plants are kinda floppy, but the blooms are sweet.  Its botanical name is Matricaria chamomilla, and is commonly known as German Chamomile.  There are other plants called Chamomile, but we know this one is the German Chamomile by the feathery leaves.  And I also know it is German Chamomile, because those are the seeds that I bought.  Hahaha.

 

Anyway, we can make a soothing tea using the flowers, or maybe we will just buy Celestial Seasonings version.  

 

Pretty, aren't they?

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The tomatoes are growing great!!!  These cages are 6 feet tall, and the tomato plants are all the way to the top.  And there are lots of flowers set.  Some even have tomatoes set.  My friends in Virginia used to celebrate the Fourth of July with BLTs, with the tomatoes from their garden.  Our growing season is a little behind theirs.  We generally start harvesting tomatoes the middle of July.  And are swimming in them by the middle of August.  Hey, we love it.

 

We have decided to blanch and freeze our tomatoes this year, and can them when the weather is cooler.  That way we aren't heating up the kitchen in the middle of summer, and running the AC to death.  We froze some last summer, and made our tomato sauce in October when we could open the windows.  Made good sense, so we will change our canning process to go with the weather.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Here is the Buffalo nut at the park.  I have never seen it anywhere else.  My books say that it grows primarily in the Appalachian Mountains, mostly in the shade, and the nuts, leaves and flowers are all poisonous to humans.

 

Interestingly, it is hemiparasitic;  meaning that it carries on photosynthesis, AND will parasitize plants around it.  

 

There are several specimen trees in the park.  We love seeing them.

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

 

 

Our friend "The Squirrel Man" hasn't been around for a while, so we take peanuts with us when we walk in the park.

 

Jon usually carries about 10 peanuts, and offers them to the squirrels.  Well, this little one took one, then followed us until Jon gave him another one.  Look at the little piggy:  he's got two in his mouth!

 

Life is good on the mountain.  We have enough for us, and enough to share.

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

 

 

 

OK.  This is a weird picture, but when I put it in perspective for you, you will get it.  We are on the lower deck looking up.

 

Look to the left on the rafter:  see Momma bird's nest?  Now look to the right and you can see a big fat corn snake.  See that bulge at the back end of his body?  We suspect that is the result of eating a couple of our baby birds.  Hey, it's the food chain, right?  Reality check and frustrating, all at the same time.

 

It took "Corny" a full 24 hours to digest his meal, before he could move on, hopefully to somebody else's yard.

 

 

SORRY!!! 

 

Jon showed me this nest of baby birds the other day.  Of course I had to get up on a ladder to see them, as they are up in the rafters under the top deck.  Anyway, here they are: 4 of them, filling up the nest.

 

Momma bird built the first nest a couple months ago, and felt safe enough to raise another brood in the same spot.  She laid these eggs a couple weeks ago, and when we got home from our trip the babies were already here.

 

How cute are they?!?

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

My friend left for a week long trip, and said it was ok to cut a few of her flowers.  So I picked three of her black-eyed Susies, and just look at them!!!  I added them to my already pretty arrangement, and it's even prettier.  Thanks, Priscilla.  

 

I hope you treat yourself to flowers.  They are food for the soul.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!