My friend gave me this plant, and I put it in the garden before we went on our trip.  It is Portulaca, and isn't it pretty?  

 

I put it near the entrance to the garden, so that when I step into the garden I am greeted by these sweet yellow flowers.  I love this little splash of sunshine.  Thanks, Priscilla.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

We also dug up all the garlic.  Not too impressive.  Lesson here?  Buy new seed garlic every year.  

 

When we plant fresh seed garlic we get good results.  When I replant garlic cloves that I grew, they are kinda small.  And these are so small that cleaning them is going to take a long time.  Oh, well.  It's garlic, right?

 

I will do better this October.  Buy the fresh bulbs to plant.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We harvested our crop of red onions!!!`  I planted them back in March;  I think there were a hundred tiny red onion sets.  They've been growing all spring, and here they are drying in the basement.  I counted 45.  Yay!!!

 

I love growing these in my garden.  They are exactly the size that I would buy if the store ever sold ones this small.  We always have to get the great big ones, then throw away some, unused.  How much can you really use at any one time?  Anyway, these will keep in the basement about 6 months.  We should be able to use them all.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Thanks, Patty for painting the haybale and setting up your fun folk art.  We love seeing it when we turn that corner entering the neighborhood.  

 

 

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, 2026!!!

 

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!!!