Chaos Garden

The plot of ground in the back of our house that is not covered by the deck that is a story of the ground is my chaos garden. It is a haphazard production. The two hydrangea bushes that we planted almost 20 years ago two blooms on them this year after being almost killed by a late frost and heavy deer grazing last year. In early July they looked wonderful against the white brick of the exterior of the basement. A closer look showed the green tinges on the petals.

By early August – the flowers are fading. Many times they will dry on the bush. I bring then inside in the autumn for dried arrangements.

A close up of the leaves show deer are still around this year too.

The cone flowers come up every year on one side of the plot – and attract butterflies. On the day I was doing the photographs for this post last week there was a persistent spicebush swallowtail. There is some honeysuckle that photobombed a couple of pictures. I periodically pull all the honeysuckle to keep it from taking over.

There is a sycamore that came up in the corner of the plot furthest from the house and I have left it there to shade the big dining room and master bathroom from the sun in the afternoon. It has helped make the house easier to cool – but having a tree as large as the tree will be in another 10-15 years might be problematic. Sycamores have peeling bark…leaves that continue to get larger and larger throughout the growing season.

The garden also has two types of milkweed which I planted to help Monarch butterflies but that are enjoyed by lots of other insects as well. The common milkweed had all its mid-range leaves eaten by something. The lemon balm grows all around both milkweeds.

There are also several clumps of chives. I harvest just enough to use immediately. Somehow herbs that are cut fresh always taste better!

CSA Week 1

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) started this week right on schedule; the last few weeks have finally gotten warm enough and dry enough for the veggies to grow very quickly since a week or so ago it appeared that the start of the CSA would be a week or two late. This first week included lots of green: kale, garlic scapes, chives, pac choi, mizuna, and lettuce (I got the red leafed variety just to break the green monopoly). The strawberries also added a nice color contrast. I like everything in the share this week – but the garlic scapes are probably the most ‘special’ because they are not generally available in grocery stores and they are only available for a few weeks; I’m already thinking about how I want to use all 8 of them in the next week!

I used a bin left from some greens bought at the grocery store (and already eaten) to store the veggies I washed right ways: chives, lettuce, and mizuna. The other veggies went into the crisper in the same form I picked them up from the bin at the CSA.

Then I enjoyed a serving of strawberries with coconut milk – my summer afternoon snack.

Zooming – May 2016

The zoomed images are more familiar things list month. See how many of them you recognize (click on the image to see an enlarged version of the collage).

Grackle and chives bud

Horse chestnut and paulownia (princess tree) flowers

Sweet bay bud, chives (further along their bloom cycle than the first image), tulip poplar flowers

Toad, lacewing, grass with heavy dew

Mourning doves, strawberries, iris flower

Beautiful Food – May 2016

Veggies are the beauties this month – in anticipation of the Gorman Farm Community Supported Agriculture starting up the 1^st week of June. Two veggies that are available already in pots on my deck or in the front flowerbed are chives and dandelions.

I love the shape of the chive buds when they are still closed and after they open. I simply cut them up with the slim green stems in salads.

My grocery store often has largish bags of baby bok choy for $1.99. They can go into salads or into stir fry – which makes it easy to use them up while they are still crisp. The green and white color combination has always appealed to me. The contrasting smooth and crinkle texture adds to the visual appeal.

And what’s not to like about colorful bell peppers. I buy the organic ones and usually every color except green!

The Flowerbed in Front of our House

It has been so rainy that I haven’t been able to do much work in the flower beds around our house. In the front, the growth is luxuriant. The chives seem to be growing faster than I can harvest them to add to salads. Yesterday I added a handful of chopped chives (flowers and all) to pureed hardboiled egg and hummus. I spread it in a pita and used the leftover as a ‘dip’ for celery sticks and carrot chips. Yum!

All around the chives, the day lilies are everywhere and the deer have not bothered them like they have in the past few years (eating the leaves down to the ground as fast as they grew). Hopefully with all the other food this spring, the deer will leave the lilies along. Comin up next to the downspout from the gutter are two milkweed plants. They are weeds – but I’m going to let them grow and hope that some monarch butterflies visit our garden to lay their eggs.

Do you see the tulip poplar seedling? That is something I need to pull before it gets any bigger. The daylilies and Black Eyed Susans will stay.

And then there are the irises – just beginning to bloom. Some of the buds look like they got waterlogged or too cold and are not developing further. But the plants that are blooming are gorgeous as usual. I like them even more because the largest grouping of irises is visible from the skinny windows that frame our front door.

On the other side of the front – there is another milkweed growing in a bed that is being overrun by grass. Some focused pulling needs to happen all around it and the young nine-bark bush we planted a year ago.

The front of the house looks very green – and will look even better as soon as I am home on a sunny day and spend the time to do a bit of clean up and out in the front flowerbed!