Why Every Gardener Needs a Mystery Garden

Every gardener needs a place to plunk miscellaneous plants, plants they procure without knowing much about how they look or behave, plants that may not have a clear home.  Three years ago my in-laws helped us remove several overgrown junipers from alongside our house.  We put in a curved bed in the exact footprint of the former shrub.  During the first year of the bed it was my cut flower bed, full of zinnias and cosmos.  Now it is my mystery bed.  

The Thrill of Summer

The day is hyper clear, the sky is deep blue.  The sun is warm, the breeze soothing, the air ripe with possibility.  It is the beginning of summer.  What is it about warm weather that makes us feel younger, lighter, optimistic?  The plants are exploding with growth (especially the grass!  yey mowing!)  and everything is so green.  Its mind boggling, especially after such a long winter.  K. built a trellis out of cedar and today I will anchor the trellis and plant the same purple beans my grandmother grew each summer along her arbor.  

Dinner Tonight

We got a new grill, and it's a whole new world.  I looked at the seafood market and the butcher's with new eyes after years of not grilling.  The possibilities!  Grilling recipes to follow later this summer.

For our inaugural grill feast we prepared asparagus, corn, cheeseburgers and chicken.  Tonight, we will make a simple meal of previously prepared foods: garlic scape pesto, grilled chicken and pasta.  We'll add broccoli and toss together.

If you haven't made garlic scape pesto, it's flavorful way to use (and preserve) your scapes.  For those who don't grow garlic, or frequent a farmers market, the scapes are a part of the garlic plant pruned in summer to allow the energy of the plant to go into making sumptuous garlic bulbs, rather than a flower.  If harvested promptly, the scapes are tasty and succulent.  After time, they become tough.  I use tough scapes in avant garde flower arrangements.

For those of you grilling tonight for the holiday, enjoy!  And Happy Fourth of July!

Five Years Later...

Five years ago K. and I married at the boat shop and said our vows in the company of our friends and family.  Its an unbelievable experience to look around the room and see loved ones from all phases of life, and to bring these people together, connected through two people, into one time and place for the purpose of celebrating a union.  

My mom and aunt used perennials and herbs to decorate our lunch tables the day before the ceremony, and clustered their pots into a garden cart outside of our reception on our wedding day.  After our honeymoon we planted the soft pink and fuchsia peonies, yellow yarrow, French lavender, Shasta daisies and Stella de Oro Daylilies in our garden.

Planting a fence of onions

Have you ever nurtured seedlings for several months, then gone out the garden with a basket just before dinner to pick said vegetable, only to find their stumpy remains?

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve likely come across a post about groundhogs.  This infamous garden pest is a continual source of frustration.  I try to recognize that he or she is a creature just trying to eat, but it doesn’t soothe me when tender beans or baby lettuces just at their peak are mowed down to bitten-off stumps.   We live in a small town loaded with home gardens and few natural groundhog predators. Kurt dislikes relocating groundhogs with the Havahart (which I understand, as I have yet to even attempt it), so I’m always trying something new to discourage the rodents. 

Generations of lablab

I had given up on starting my own seedlings.  Despite a grow light and a cozy spot over the radiator, my seedlings were always spindly, leggy, wan specimens.  Last spring I purchased a dozen varieties of tomato seedlings from our farmers market, as well as lunchbox peppers and various herbs.  Eggplant, zinnia and cosmos starts from our garden supply store rounded out my seedling needs, I seeded the rest directly in the beds.  

Hibernating

See you in spring.