Garden update - July
In garden news, things are growing great. Last night I checked and realized I had to do some major cutting before things bolted. I cut a few small heads of broccoli, another bunch of oregano, a large handful of swiss chard, another large handful of scallions, and I was finally able to harvest the first growth from my basil plants. It smelled awesome. We were going over to see Jenn and Leonard so I packaged up some of the yield for them.
It really is amazing, looking at a plant sticking out of the ground, just how much comes from it. I mean, my basil plants looked pretty small but I had way more basil than I could use in two meals just from one harvest. Same thing with the chard and the broccoli - I remember thinking, "There's not much there" but I filled my basket to overflowing before I knew it.
I also wanted to bring Jenn a few of the lovely marigolds growing near my pepper plants, so I snipped off a few blooms, then looked around the yard and realized there were a ton of flowers that could be cut. I ended up cutting 15 different varities, I had no idea I had that many flowers just growing wild in my back yard! There is a humungous (and by humungous I mean about fifteen feet across) snapdragon plant in the upper level of the yard, full of gorgeous purple blossoms. I cut lots of those. Also some yellow daisies in a couple of varieites, some other purple flower, some wild purple bell flower on a vine, what I think was a tiger lily, and who knows what else. I cut some for her and some for the house, and again I was surprised how a few snips here and there yielded three large handfuls of blooms.
I've started thinking about driving around my neighborhood and taking pictures of flowers people have in front of their houses, figuring out what they are, then planting them strategically so I have some sort of blossoms all summer long. The one thing I love about my house is the bulb garden in front - the former owners put in plants that all grow and bloom in sequence, so at any one time there's always something blooming. It started with daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinths in the spring, progressed to peonies, then to tiger lilies, and now a huge mass of out-of-control bellflowers are budding and ready to open.
What I need to do is get my shit together and plant the backyard beds so they work the same way. There's a big slope bisecting our yard that Michael wants to leave wild, so it would be cool if I could find hardy perennials that I could plant there to keep it populated.
I remember the bellflowers went to seed last year and it seemed pretty easy to gather up - the flowers looked something like this and were primarily purple though there were a couple of white plants thrown in there. Maybe I'll toss some of that seed in the backyard, it grows like crazy and in three years the front bed has turned into a riot of three-foot plants in midsummer. If anyone out there wants some seed from these plants when it's available in the Autumn, let me know.
It really is amazing, looking at a plant sticking out of the ground, just how much comes from it. I mean, my basil plants looked pretty small but I had way more basil than I could use in two meals just from one harvest. Same thing with the chard and the broccoli - I remember thinking, "There's not much there" but I filled my basket to overflowing before I knew it.
I also wanted to bring Jenn a few of the lovely marigolds growing near my pepper plants, so I snipped off a few blooms, then looked around the yard and realized there were a ton of flowers that could be cut. I ended up cutting 15 different varities, I had no idea I had that many flowers just growing wild in my back yard! There is a humungous (and by humungous I mean about fifteen feet across) snapdragon plant in the upper level of the yard, full of gorgeous purple blossoms. I cut lots of those. Also some yellow daisies in a couple of varieites, some other purple flower, some wild purple bell flower on a vine, what I think was a tiger lily, and who knows what else. I cut some for her and some for the house, and again I was surprised how a few snips here and there yielded three large handfuls of blooms.
I've started thinking about driving around my neighborhood and taking pictures of flowers people have in front of their houses, figuring out what they are, then planting them strategically so I have some sort of blossoms all summer long. The one thing I love about my house is the bulb garden in front - the former owners put in plants that all grow and bloom in sequence, so at any one time there's always something blooming. It started with daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinths in the spring, progressed to peonies, then to tiger lilies, and now a huge mass of out-of-control bellflowers are budding and ready to open.
What I need to do is get my shit together and plant the backyard beds so they work the same way. There's a big slope bisecting our yard that Michael wants to leave wild, so it would be cool if I could find hardy perennials that I could plant there to keep it populated.
I remember the bellflowers went to seed last year and it seemed pretty easy to gather up - the flowers looked something like this and were primarily purple though there were a couple of white plants thrown in there. Maybe I'll toss some of that seed in the backyard, it grows like crazy and in three years the front bed has turned into a riot of three-foot plants in midsummer. If anyone out there wants some seed from these plants when it's available in the Autumn, let me know.
posted by Jen at
4:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home