Here is another good example of Mother Nature making up for lost time, and plants overfruiting this year.  

 

In this picture you can see a few red berries from last year, not that many.  But look at all the new berries for this year.  This is just one small branch.  This tree is really loaded with berries.  I wish the birds would eat them, but I don't think they do.  They seem to last on the tree a really long time, even into the next year.

 

My Seek app told me that this is a native holly, Dahoon Holly, Ilex cassine, a close relative of Yaupon Holly.  I can see that.

 

Anyway, when the berries turn red, this tree should be really spectacular.  I will show it to you again when that happens.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look what Patty did to the haybale!!!  She painted the whole thing black, then added eight arms of black plastic drain pipes to create this fabulous spider to greet us as we drive into the neighborhood.  

 

How awesome!!!  How FUN!!!

 

WE LOVE IT!!!  HAPPY FALL!!!

 

This is what real loaves of bread look like at our house.  A bit smaller than a bale of hay, and definitely more tasty.

 

In 2020, when we weren't participating in happy hours or dinner parties, we would make bread every Sunday, and deliver it to our friends.  One week I would deliver, the next week Jon would deliver.  That way we got to sorta keep up with folks, and let them know we were thinking about them.  We also were able to keep our distance and still show love.

 

I have a little bread warmer stone in my kitchen that says:  Bread is the symbol of friendship and hospitality.  

 

We love making bread, and sharing it with our friends.  It's still everybody's favorite thing for me to bring to a dinner party.

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

 

 

 

Our neighbor, Keith, hayed his fields a couple days ago, and when we rode by there, we saw all these bales of hay.  This is the most I could get into one picture, but there were about twenty of them throughout the meadow.  

 

Jon had a friend back in Virginia who always commented when he saw rectangular bales of hay, that they looked like loaves of bread to him.  I can never see haybales of any shape in a field that I don't remember the loaves of bread.  

 

I hope I just created an "eye-worm" for you.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Here are my orange zinnias right next to the bright pink ones.  I love that!!!

 

These are about 4 feet tall, and the brightest orange you can imagine.  The butterflies are all over them.  I saw a clouded sulfur, and a long-tailed skipper in the zinnias.  I tried to get pix of them, but they are too fast for me.  Anyway, they are happy in my garden, and I'm happy to provide food for them in the fall.   

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The same day that I told you I had nothing to talk about, we walked the loop and I saw this beautiful sage growing in our friends' garden.  I knew that it was some type of sage, but I asked Seek to further identify it for me.  It is Mealy Blue Sage.  Gosh, they could have come up with something a little nicer for a plant so pretty.  

 

Anyway, its botanical name is Salvia farinacea.  Here's the sweet thing about Sage:  Salvia comes from a word meaning healthy, and to save.  Whenever I see sage, I think of salvation.  Maybe that's how I remember the Salvia part.  Another cool thing about this sage is that it is perennial, meaning that you only have to plant it once, and it keeps coming back.

 

I'm sure our friends bought this plant in a local garden center.  Maybe you can find some too.  It is really pretty.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

It isn't very pretty after the rain, but we have a second crop of dill coming up.  It's not big enough to harvest berries or seeds, but I pull up the leaves by the roots, and put them in a vase in the kitchen.  They last about three days that way, and we put the dill weed on everything.  It's really good (and pretty) on hard boiled eggs.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

This picture has a bunch of stories to tell:

 

Usually by the end of the summer, the marigolds get tall, then flop over and break.  But these marigolds got planted after I harvested all the dill from this end of the garden.  So they are still fairly short and still pretty.

 

You can also see that beautiful basil behind them.

 

That leafless stem in the walk path?  That is what's left of a butternut squash.  I picked the squash, and the baby deer have gotten into the garden, and eaten all the squash leaves.  They nibbled the Swiss chard too, but Jon put some wire cages around them.  INSIDE THE GARDEN!!!

 

One more cool thing:  at the beginning of summer we put a bunch of dry leaves on the right hand walk path to keep down the weeds next to the fence, and it worked.  We didn't have to weed this walkway at all.  Guess what we're going to do with all those hickory leaves when they fall.  Cover all the walk paths, and save ourselves some work next summer.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

Isn't it funny?  Right when I thought there was nothing to talk about, a whole bunch of things to talk about presented themselves.  I love it!!!

 

Last week we got enough rain for the garden to perk up.  I saw this zinnia blooming out there, showing her real flowers.  See the little yellow flowers in the center?  That's what the pollinators are going for.  And when the flowers get pollinated they produce their seeds at the base of the bright pink petals.  Psst...I also have some screaming orange ones close to the pink ones.  They haven't perked up yet, but I love seeing these colors together.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

It's prettier outside, but inside is nice too.  It's also easier to access at dinnertime.  We use the leaves, the flowers and the flower buds.  The older ones are too hard, but the buds close to the ends of the stems are soft, and delightful on a salad.  

 

Grow basil!!!  Well, don't plant it now, it's too late in the season, but do plant it in May.  I usually put 8-10 plants in the garden, and a few in a 12 inch pot that we put on the porch.  If you keep it pinched, it will get bushy, and last all summer.

 

The best part is brushing against it, and releasing that gorgeous smell.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!