Dried Flowers and Herbs

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Just me becoming the garden witch I always knew I was.

As a gardener, you end up drying lotsa handy things. For me, that means things to turn into "tea", either for consuming, or for making handmade soaps. These jars are a mix: dandelion petals, mint leaves, violet leaves, and dill. I have a mesh 4-layered drying rack in the basement that is very handy for this process. Just throw the items in there in a single layer and forget about them for a month, then jar 'em up!

Summer 2024

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Summer, amirite?

It's comingggggg. I can almost feel it, lol.

2024 Garden Happenings

Sunday, February 16, 2025

In mid-June, I decided I wanted to grow strawberries in the garden. I got 25 earliglow junebearing strabwerry roots for ten dollars. 'Figured I was planting late, so even if only half of them made it, that'd be a good deal. Way more than half of them made it...

To make room for the strawberries, I had to move the purple asparagus to the open garden, where the rest of my asparagus is. 'Turns out the critters don't eat it, so asparagus doesn't need to be behind a fence! Most resources recommend against moving mature crowns, and just using new crowns. But I figured I had a bed of these old ones, so might as well use them. But I also got 20 new purple passion asparagus crowns for twenty dollars, also cheap, and also late in the season to be planting. But most of them came up. Now we just gotta wait another 2 years to be able to harvest from this new asparagus patch!

I also dug out a clump of chives to make room for three Victoria Rhubarb roots which really blew up by the end of summer! It was a real edible-perennial planting time around these parts! Excited to see what it all looks like this upcoming summer.

2023 Bouquets-in-Review

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Just a round up of bouquets from this past season. Grown in the garden. A mix of dahlias, zinnias, tickseed, allium, hyssop, echniacea, bee balm, dydrangea, daffodils, the usual.

Last of the 2023 Dahlia Bouquets

Sunday, October 8, 2023

A couple more dahlia bouquets to round off the season!

Lotsa dinenrplate Labyrinth dahlia, Night Silence, Beatrice, along with a few Zinnia, echinacea, or butterfly bush thrown in there.x

First Dahlias of 2023

Sunday, August 27, 2023

The first dahlia blooms of the season!

I believe these to be Night Silence and Beatrice, both from Eden Brothers Old Rose Dahlia Mix. Some day, I'd like to dedicate much more space to growing these lovely flowers!

Harvesting: Sungold Cherry Tomatos

Sunday, August 13, 2023

The garden is still going full tilt, despite the lack of posts! We're having an absolutely horrendous mosquito season, though, so the garden is currently an unkempt jungle. However, that doesn't stop the plants from producing!!

This here is the frist time I've grown Sungold Tomatos. They're an F1 hybrid, so not heirloom, but they're known to be the sweetest...and they live up to that reputation!

Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Sunday, August 21, 2022

I needed a shareable recipe in a pinch, thankfully, I have a garden! I was able to put together this garlic scape pesto from what I had growing + lying around. You can pretty much make pesto out of anything green (such as carrot tops or parsley!), so that's also a bit handy as well.

Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almonds (or pine nuts)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped [garlic scapes*, basil]
• 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice (or juice and zest of 1/2 lemon)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• A few grinds of black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* If you're serving this fresh, you'll want to sautee the garlic scapes first, or use more basil in the mix (50/50). If you're freezing this, you can just use fresh garlic scapes, no need for sauteeing or basil!

1. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan for a couple minutes, let cool.
2. If sauteeing garlic scapes: sautee in a small amount of olive oil until starting to brown on all sides, let cool
3. Combine scapes, nuts, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a food processor.
4. Pulse ~20 times, until combined, scrape the sides as needed.
5. Pour in the olive oil through the feed tube while the motor is running.
6. When the oil is incorporated, transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese. If freezing the pesto, add the cheese after you've defrosted it.

July 4, 2022

Harvesting: Spring Broccoli Rabe

Sunday, June 26, 2022

June 17 & 10, 2022
The first year I grew Broccoli Rabe! And I apparently really wanted to, as I have two seed packets for it somehow! As a brassica, it's pretty easy - grows faster than kale. Next year I should start up about twice as many seeds, as I'm a fan. Or maybe, the same number of broccoli rabe seedlings, but also a row of sprouting broccoli?

I prefer to eat these raw, but one can also do a simple sauteeing a la Love & Lemons: Blanch for 2 minutes first, then sautee with garlic for 5 minutes. Squirt of lemon juice at the end. Salt to taste. Soggy leaves, crunchy stems. Perhaps not everyone's preferred combo!

That in the pan is, like, 75% of this year's harvest. Which is why, perhaps, doubling the number of seeds I start might be wise!

Harvesting: Mâche in April!

Sunday, June 19, 2022

May 11, 2022
I've talked a little about mâche (or corn salad, or lamb's lettuce) around here, particularly, collecting the seeds and as one of the plants that is almost too accelerated by a hoop tunnel. Since they so readily self seed, and they're ready to harvest + go to seed before anything else goes in the garden, I don't really plan my mâche too much. I just let it do its thing.

March 12, 2022
In mid-March the self-sown seedlings appear, even without a hoop tunnel. And once they're decently big, it's a good time to thin out the smallest ones (i.e. eat them), so the healthier plants have a better chance.

May 12, 2022
By mid-May, the leaves are pretty much full-grown and only a week or two from going to seed. The leaves are still fine after they've gone to seed (unlike lettuce leaves, which turn very bitter when the plant bolts). I never really get a large, "salad-sized" harvest, although, if I pulled most of the plants up in mid-May (letting a couple go to seed for next year), then I might! I rather prefer sitting in the garden and sharing leaves with the dog.

2021 Bee Update

Sunday, May 22, 2022

June 1, 2021
The winter of 2020/2021 was rather difficult for everyone in the area. Due to early winter weather, pretty much everyone lost their hives. Both our hives died, although it's worth noting that most honeybees only live 5-6 weeks, while the queen bee can survive 2-5 years typically. It's just that even the queen and all the bee-replenishing appartaus also passed away suddenly, likely due to the weather. Shortly after receiving our 2 bee nucs to replace the previous year's hives, one hive actually split swarmed...

We called some bee friends who had lost 18 hives to come and retrieve our swarm, as it was easily accessible and we did not need a third hive of bees. They were able to shake most of the swarm from the forsythia into a temporary hive to transport back to their farm. Nothing wasted!

June 1, 2021
This year, J decided he only wanted one hive, so that he could repaint the yellow hiveboxes. So, he bought one box of bees. And then, on a warm day in April, we saw that our yellow hive was alive and well! It looks like the purple hive didn't make it. So, I suppose we'll have two hives this year, and no repainting!

April 11, 2022
On my dog walks in the forest behind the house lately, I've noticed there isn't a whole lot for the active bees to gather nectar and pollen from. Hopefully they've got enough honey in their stores!

April 18, 2022