In My Garden -- Early June 2016

Early June.

I'm playing "catch up" with my blog this week...  Since I've been working four days a week, my off-days are usually spent "recuperating" and rejuvenating--and doing my own laundry, cooking for the guys, running errands...  You see why my blog has been on the back burner?

I sweet-talked Fernando and Joseph into picking strawberries on this early June morning, which I believe was a homeschool convention day (meaning I had to be at the convention working all day).  They picked a nice amount to add to the strawberries I had already picked, so that meant we'd have not only strawberry preserves (which, to this day, I haven't made yet!!), we'd get to have a nice Strawberry Shortcake Night soon.

On another early June day, I confronted my two sage plants, which had flowered and gotten huge since last year.  I cut off all the flowers parts close to the base, and used the leaves to make fried sage--I simply chopped them up and fried them in a little butter, then used them as topping for everything from my ham chili to soup to salad.  Yum!

Pruned back and ready to grow nicely again.

I also weeded the pathway near the carrot/sage/garlic/tomato bed.

Also in early June, I tackled the front flower garden.  This oregano bush--it's not really a plant any more, I don't think--has taken over the front part of the garden and I'd really rather just dig it out.  For now, I trimmed it way back.

I also had Danny do a bunch of weeding for me.  Guys are so handy!

A second "companion" oregano plant.

Variegated beard tongue blooming pink.

I also picked my French sorrel before it bloomed this year.  I have wanted to make French sorrel soup, which (at this point) I've already made.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Amazing-ness!!  I'll share a recipe as I continue to catch up with blogging.

So, remember those strawberries?  Yep, hulled and washed and turned into yumminess.

Strawberry Shortcake Night was fantastic!


Back to life,
Christine

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Fruits and Veggies

Late May.

Come along with me on a tour of my garden, nice and close up!

Carrot sprouts are peeking up through the compost.

The sage set to blooming--I will have to cut back all the blooms.

In the strawberry patch were surprises from the overnight rains.

A strawberry to pick!

There were lots of green strawberries, and beautiful blossoms as well.

My pea plants, sown much later than I would've liked, were sprouting up.  Hopefully I'll be able to harvest their delicious fruit before the summer heat sets in.

Baby pea sprouts.

Above and below, my green bean plants were taking root.

Tomato blossoms!

My parsley is looking beautiful this year.

This basil--columnar basil--is a new herb for me this year.  The leaves are smaller than traditional basil, but can be used in the same way.  They also taste the same as the traditional basil.  You may recall that a number of years ago, my traditional basil developed basil downy mildew, and I needed to find an alternative for the several years experts say it will take for the mildew to finally be gone in my garden.  I've had success with Medinette basil (not pictured but I'm growing it again this year), and I thought I'd try this variety.

Here's to a new garden and harvest season!!


Back to life,
Christine

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End of May in my garden

Here is a macro tour of my back yard garden, from today's wanderings.

Above and below, my Medinette basil seems to be thriving.  I snipped off the about-to-flower tops so the plant can bush out and grow larger.  There doesn't seem to be an issue with basil downy mildew, which my regular variety basil plants had last year.  From what I read, the mildew can remain in the soil for several years, so I'm anxious to see how this variety fares in my garden.  Ohhh, I can't wait for fresh basil, for pesto, for...!

I found some bright orange mushrooms growing in the mulch.

I have two new sage plants; hopefully they'll last a few years!

The tomato plants have lots of blossoms, and I'm looking forward to trying a new heirloom variety--black brandywine.

Amazing amounts of strawberries beginning to grow!

And, I picked a few ripe ones, too!  My very first, very small, harvest.

Back to life,
Christine

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Flowers and Herbs

May 19-20.

Time for a visit to one of my front yard flower gardens!  Oh--but not just flowers!  I've got some herbs growing in here, stuff the critters don't eat, and so far it's all doing fantastic!  Here's a picture of the whole garden:

See that light green bush?  That's oregano.  I'm going to have to harvest it really soon!

Here are three new plants for this garden:  next to my cheap $2 garden gloves (lost one of my awesome pair from last year, grr), you'll see English thyme, pincushion flower, and French sorrel, an edible leaf-herb (more on that below!).

I started with the flower portion of my purchase:  pincushion flower.  It has these bright, deep pink blooms that look like pincushions.  But I bet you figured that out.  They're supposed to bloom all summer with new blossoms popping up continually, so that sounded pretty good to me.  We'll see how it does this year.  I tend to love those flowers that require little maintenance, and which are hardy enough to keep coming back year after year, even with my neglect.  I'm much better with vegetables than with flowers!

There was an open spot by that rock, so that's where this flower would be planted.  Just to the right of that area, there is/was a purple coneflower.  Even now (July), it remains dead; it never came back from last year.  This makes me sad, as it was so very pretty.

On to the herbs!  You can see in the picture below that I've already planted the English thyme and French sorrel (extreme front right, and behind that), but I wanted to show you what I had done in order to do that.  I had to move all those other flowers in the picture.  Those are variegated beard tongue, and bloom the prettiest pinks and purples.  They also proliferate in this garden, which I love.  And not so love, since I have to move them to keep them contained.  But I have also given some to neighbors so they can enjoy them as well.  I really do love their color!

Below you can see the English thyme and French sorrel together.  Two European herbs!  I've snipped a few sprigs of the thyme already, and they've dried, hanging in my basement (you'll see that in an upcoming post, too!).  The French sorrel can be eaten like a leaf lettuce or spinach, chopped up in a salad or eaten with fish.  I thought it had a more bitter taste like arugula does, but when I tried it, it was positively lemony!

French sorrel, there in the bright green.

English thyme, with purple and pink beard tongue beyond.

I thought I'd throw one more picture in, of my sage plant.  This has come back faithfully year after year, but sadly, shortly after I took this picture, it mysteriously died.  I'm still upset about it, as I don't know why it happened.  I was really looking forward to fried sage leaves, which I had done once before the plant died.

Anyway, there's my front yard herb garden, with some flowers thrown in!


Back to life,
Christine

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Some "Sage" Advice

"There is rhythm to being a farmgirl.

It is the rhythm of working hard when there is work to be done.

It is the rhythm of finding joy in the "doing" of the work.

It is also the rhythm of slowing down to enjoy each moment."

Rene Groom

Thanks to Mary's blog and a few other websites, I decided to try drying some herbs.  I had never harvested the sage in my garden before, and just let the little plant grow each year.  But the leaves were so pretty this year, I figured it would be a good first attempt at drying.

Here is a nice pile of sage, all clean and dry and ready for processing.

All I needed was some string to tie the sage in little bundles.  I may have made the bundles too large, but again, this was my first attempt.  I still have a ton of herbs to harvest in my garden!

Fernando, dear heart, hung some long, thin wood pieces in our basement "bomb shelter and food storage" area.  I tied the sage bundles to them.

A few websites instructed me to place the bundled herbs in brown paper bags, and a few gave me permission to simply hang the herbs upside down to dry.  I don't have a lot of space for hanging, so I opted for simply hanging them.  Time will tell if this method really works--sources claim it takes about two weeks to fully dry herbs.  I also learned that high-moisture herbs such as basil do not dry well, so I went ahead this week and started processing my prolific basil for freezer storage.


Back to life,
Christine

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