Photo: Complements of The Farmers Almanac 

 

Here is the link to learn more about July 4th celebrations and history.

 

 

I hope your holiday is safe and happy.

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

 

The tomatillos are coming right along.  The plants are about 4 feet tall, and there are lots of yellow flowers.  

 

Some of the flowers have already grown into little lanterns.  See the two little green lanterns in this picture?  When you squeeze them they are full of air, and you can feel the little berry inside.  That little berry will grow into the tomatillo.  When the tomatillo is big enough, the little lantern splits, and that's when they are ready to pick.  I'll show you as we go along.

 

We like to skewer them, and cook them on the grill for about 5 minutes.  Or maybe it's 10 minutes.  (I don't know, I'm not the one who does that part.)  I just plant the seeds, nurture the plants, and pick the fruits when they are ready.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Do you love Mimosa trees?  I do.  I love seeing them along the highway, and I love being close enough to smell them.  This one is at the entrance to the Caney Creek Recycle Center.  I love them, but I don't want them growing in my back yard.

 

Because Mimosa trees propagate like weeds.  The seeds fall on the ground and before you know it they are growing all over the place, sometimes in inconvenient places.  Like behind the oil tank in Momma's back yard.  Boy, that was a stinker to remove.

 

Anyway, if you see one, try to get up close enough to smell the flowers.  They are like little pink powder puffs, and smell just as sweet.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

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!!!