'Round Here

1. Blue Hydrangea. Sweet Blue Hydrangea. How I love thee!
2. Sugar snap peas are in! They have to be my favorite spring vegetable. My favorite 'while gardening' snack. I eat them by the handful when I'm out working in the garden. We've been eating a lot of stir fries with peas, green onions, carrots and garlic from the garden. This weekend I'll freeze some, so we can have them this winter.
3. Lavender. I wish I had scratch 'n sniff, so you could smell these blossoms. Some of the dried flowers will be making their way into my Etsy shop in the form of jewelry in the near future.
4. Garlic circle. I harvested our garlic yesterday. It's early this year, but so if everything else. They spent the day outside, in the shade of the umbrella.
5. The Jackmanii Clematis is in full bloom. I love, love, love this plant.

We haven't had much rain lately, although it's supposed to rain this afternoon and evening. Hopefully we won't get the high winds and hail that they mentioned. Fingers crossed. As soon as we do get the rain, I'll be tilling and planting the rest of the summer garden. And I'll be munching on sugar snaps as I do it.

'Round Here

This week in the gardens:
1. Lettuce. Broccoli. Lemon Balm. And a white rose peaking through the trellis.
2. Clematis in full bloom. I love this variety.
3. Chamomile and Oregano.
4. Solomon Seal.
5. Variegated Ivy.
6. Columbine.

'Round Here

1. Columbine
2. Clematis
3. New sage plant
4. Flowering cilantro/coriander
5. Clematis trellis

The gardens are coming along beautifully. I planted our spring garden the other day. I'll add some photos once the seeds sprout. Today, I'll try and plant the rest of it. I have seeds to start too. So much to do. I love this time of year. Best get going.
Have a wonderful weekend.

'Round Here

 Our crazy weather continues. We're breaking temperature records left and right. The rain continues to come down. Yesterday, I was able to get a lot of work done before it began. When it finally did begin to fall, it brought with it pea sized hail. Today, the forecast is the same. It stopped long enough for me to head outside, get some fresh air and snap some photos.

That was what the sky looked like last night, at sunset, after the storm passed! Everything glowed orange.

I dug up some turnips in the turnip bed that we planted last fall. Normally, they would not have survived the winter. Since it was so mild here, they continued to grow. A nice surprise! I got a fabulous recipe from a woman I met on twitter for tofu turnip soup that I'll be making this weekend.

While I'm waiting for the ground to dry out, I decided to plant some onion sets in some of our large pots.

The bachelor buttons are beginning to bloom. I harvested these seeds years ago, down the road at the edge of a field. I like to think that they once grew in the cottage garden of one of the families that settled this area.

Last year, I moved our herbs closer to the house. It is so much easier to run outside to snip a piece or ten when we need fresh herbs. I dug up a few chunks of oregano. Looks to me like they love their new home.

The parsley plants are still alive and looking pretty good, although they'll soon be seeding out. They're usually dead, but the mild winter.....

I moved the lemon balm too. It's growing next to the rose trellis. I think she'll be happy there.

And our cilantro is also alive and kicking. It will soon be seeding out too.

Today is half over. Here's hoping that we don't get any of that golf ball size hail that I saw on TV last night.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We finally got a REAL rain! Two hours worth. That makes for one happy garden and gardener.

I hope you're getting the weather that your garden needs. Now to lay some mulch down.

Pictured from top to bottom are:

1. Garlic blossoms with bumble bee

2. Fried green tomatoes anyone?

3. Clematis

4. Tomatillo starting to climb

5. Lavender, astillbe and hydrangea

Until next time.....

How Does Your Garden Grow?

These pictures were from this past week. The gardens are growing like crazy, despite the fact that we've had zero rain. I've been watering and mulching like a mad woman. I think we're in for a long, hot summer. Again.

From top to bottom we have:

Lavender

Parsley seedling with oyster shell marking. I use oyster shells to mark all of our plants in the garden.

Squash hill.

Dill and green onions.

Garlic blossom opening up.

Here's to a fantabulous week, hopefully with a splash of rain.

Until next time.....

Wordless Wednesday

A Perfect Monday Morning

It's been a really beautiful day today, so far. The temps are starting to get back to normal. I was outside doing some much needed garden maintenance and could feel the change in the weather. I knew this would happen. It's one of the things that I love about TN. The weather see-saws. Gotta love the variety. Rain is in the forecast for the rest of the week.

I got caught up on harvesting veggies. That special someone is still pecking at tomatoes. I've been picking them very under ripe, which I'm not happy about. I need to head outside to cut some of our herbs and freeze them.

I even had time to photograph some new earrings that are in or will soon be in the shop. I wish that I had more time to work with some of my new beads, but today is more of a gardening day. I'll have the rest of the week to play with beads.

Hope the week is turning out to be a pleasant one for y'all too. I hear parsley calling my name.

Until next time.....

Wordless Wednesday

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The memory of the Spring garden, or lack there of, is behind me now. All that rain, which still continues, is making for a beautimous Summer garden. Here's a peak around the place~
Yellow squash:

Yellow squash and zucchin row:

Pole Lima beans (protected from the rabbits):

Lavender:

How does your garden grow?

Until next time.....

Crystal Lake in May

I heard on the news last month that the bugs were going to be bad this year. I believe it now! We went up to Crystal Lake this past weekend and the mosquitos were awful! They have never been this bad.

We kept a tiny campfire going; enough to make a bit of smoke. The smoke keeps them away.

I also had my bug oil that I made last year. It works like a charm. It's a recipe that I got from a book written by Juliette de Bairacli Levy; one of my fav herbalists. Wormwood, rue and rosemary are steeped in olive oil. I add some rosemary essential oil to the finished oil. It's great for your skin. I even put it on my face. I love it. The bugs hate it.

I was saddened to hear that Juliette passed away last Thursday, the 28th of May. She was 95 years old. Her herb books were some of the first ones that I read. I brought one of my books with me to read and reflect on everything that I learned from her. What an awesome woman!

We did a bit more work on the driveway. I think pretty soon, my Bambi Airstream will be able to wind it's way down the drive. No, I don't own one yet. Soon come~

Until next time.....

DIY ~ Grow Your Own Herbs

Herbs are so easy to grow and like everything else from the garden, tastes so much better than store bought. You don't need a lot of space to grow herbs. Many of them do just fine in pots.

I grow many of our cooking and tea herbs and put them in our freezer; either fresh or dried.

For fresh herbs, I chop them and pack them into freezer containers. For dried ones, I hang them indoors in bunches until dried, then strip them off the stalks and pack them in freezer containers. I take out as much as I need when I'm cooking. Remember to label the containers with the contents.

The photos are chamomile from our garden. It reseeds itself and pops up in the strangest of places. I dry them in bunches and pack them in containers to use in tea and herbal preparations.

Until next time.....