Here is a pretty close-up view of my cauliflower.  

 

See the purple?  That is evidence of sunburn.  And the “rice”-iness of the curds on the right?  That’s because I left it in the garden too long.  I was hoping it would get bigger.  

 

Oh well, I wouldn’t buy it in the store like this, but you can be sure that we are going to eat it however it looks.

 

Live and Learn.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

THIS is the real reason I grow dill.  I love it when the seed heads are in this berry stage.  

 

They look like fireworks to me.  And when I walk past them I can smell dill.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Remember the pink celery?  Well, here it is in the garden.  The stems really are pink.  

 

I planted several in different places, to see which area of the garden it likes best.  This seems to be the best one.  It is growing in the shade of last year’s kale.  Not total shade, but shade in the hottest part of the day.

 

It stands about 18 inches tall and spreads to about a foot.  Very pretty.

 

Now, about the taste… the leaves are a lot like store-bought celery, just a little stronger.  And the stems are tasty like store-bought celery, but indigestible.  So you can chew on them a bit, and then spit them out.  They don’t even soften up much when you cook them.  Not much of a recommendation for planting it, except it is easy to grow and pretty.

 

So this is how I use it:  we eat a little of the leaves in our salad mix, and I use the stems and leaves in a crystal clear vase as the backup greenery to go with flowers.  

 

I’m glad I tried it, because I learned something new, and I can now say that I’ve grown celery.  But I probably won’t do it again.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I don’t know where I got this Bee Balm, but it is growing in the wild garden.  I love this color too, and hope that it will spread like the other one.  

 

I’ve read that it was used as a substitute for tea during the Boston Tea Party.  

 

We haven’t made tea with it, but we love to add the flowers and bits of the leaves to our salads.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I promised I’d show you the blueberries as they ripen.  Aren’t they beautiful?  

 

We have been picking berries for about a week now.  They are the most wonderful color of blue:  Misty Moonlight.  ;)

 

This is so cool about picking blueberries:  When you see blue ones they are ripe.  But sometimes on the underside they are still a little pink.  We separate out any showing pink and leave them in a bowl, and the next day they are all the way blue.

 

The freezer is filling up with blueberries.  Next, we are going to start dehydrating them:  blueberry raisins.  They take up less space in the freezer.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I thought you might like to see some dill.  I sowed the seeds at the end of the summer last year, and this is what it looks like now.  There are two rows of dill, just the ends of the rows.  They stand about 4 feet tall, and are wonderful right now.  

 

We dry the leaves (dill weed) and put it in the spice cabinet.  And the seeds?  We put some in the spice cabinet, use some to make dill pickles, but mostly I spread them out all over the place because I love this.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

This is the earliest we have ever made pickles.  But we have lots of cucumbers, and lots of dill.

 

And it was too hot that day to do anything outside, so we made pickles.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I am so proud!!!  This is the first time I have grown lemon grass from seeds.  

 

All the seed catalogs warn that lemon grass has a less than 50% germination rate.  But I tried it, and got several little plants started.  Then I gently upgraded them to 3 inch pots, then 5 inch pots, then finally put them all in this 12 inch pot.  

 

And it looks just like the ones that I have bought from professional growers.  I think that’s worth bragging about!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is last year’s kale gone to seed.  Not beautiful, but very useful.

 

Now that the seed pods have turned brown, it’s time to harvest them.  We can pull out these 4 plants, save all the seeds, and I can use them to sow for microgreens.  Baby kale all winter, and seeds to plant next year.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

The Bee Balm is blooming!!!  Isn’t it gorgeous?  

 

It stands about 4 feet tall, and the spread is about 6 feet wide.  I don’t remember when I planted it, but it has been growing here for at least 10 years.  Best part:  it is perennial, so I don’t have to replant it, or reseed it.  It just keeps coming up in the same spot, spreading each year.  This spring when it started coming up we put 5 round tomato cages around it, and guided the stems to stay inside the cages.  And it worked!!!  It hasn’t blown over in high wind, or flopped over in heavy rain.

 

And I am not the only one;  the bees and hummingbirds love it too.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!