Summer is a busy time for gardeners, so I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to. Every day in the garden brings new discoveries, new questions, and new rewards! Here are a few recent photos we’ve snapped around the house and garden. What’s going on with your garden this month?
Buen provecho!
A beautiful yellow butterfly among the zinnias
Borage blossoms float on a refreshing sangria
My wife says I never bring her flowers, but this gardener’s bouquet is more romantic, don’t you think? đŸ™‚
Shamrocks in the potted laurel
Just grilling a little corn and sausage in July on my backyard fire barrel. Now that’s summertime!
My gardening friends have harvested ground cherries already, but the ones in my garden haven’t fallen yet. Too much shade? Maybe.
This amaranth is about knee high, but other plants have grown so tall that they’re now above my head.
More than one person has told me that my amaranth is unusually large…!
A couple of figs
The tomatoes have started to ripen! I have waited all year to eat tomatoes from my own garden.
The deer nibble off all the tender leaf buds on the pumpkin vine. They haven’t eaten up all the blossoms–yet.
I am not a big fan of these “Chinese forget-me-nots.” They produce sticky burr seeds. But the honeybees visit them, so they can’t be all bad.
Echinacea (also called coneflowers) attract plenty of birds and bees.
Many kinds of creatures love Echinacea (coneflowers). I haven’t been quick enough to capture a photo of the golden finches, but the bees aren’t afraid of a closeup!
Bees love so many of the plants in my garden, including this sunflower.
These Mexican cucumbers or watermelon gherkins (Melothria scabra) are the cutest cucumbers ever. My daughters love the look of them. I’m pickling some now; we’ll see how they taste!
At this point, these leeks have become a decorative element in the garden, with blossoms shaded from pink or green to white.
A garden spider spins a web in the forsythia branches
A feast on one platter, including beets and beet greens
Came across this nice little yellow flower. Turns out it’s Solanum rostratum–also known as buffalo bur, prickly nightshade, Texas thistle or Mexican thistle. See those little thorns? Poisonous. I killed it as a community service!
Just one pumpkin vine takes over a large part of the garden.
One of the most eagerly anticipated garden fruits: the purple cherokee tomato! Great with a little olive oil and just a tiny pinch of salt.
Dinner with Daniel 