Flowers, meet Veggie Gardener. Veggie Gardener, meet Flowers.

In a lot of ways, I just don't 'get' flower gardening. I think I'm way too right-brain oriented to design a proper flower bed, which is why the one in front of our house laid neglected for so long. This past weekend, I was determined to do something about it. So I went to my favorite local plant nursery and spent WAY too much on what I consider to be the 'sexy sorority sisters' of the plant kingdom. And just to illustrate how much I care, I threw away all of the plant tags without reading them so I can't even tell you what I planted.


Peonies are among my favorite flowers and this one was the prettiest of the lot. I can't remember the exact name though.


And this purple thingy looked interesting so I snatched it up.


I think this is a chrysanthemum of some sort but alas, I can't say for sure.

Ok, that's enough about flowers. Let's get back to the veggies.

Late May Veggie Blooms

The blooms you find in a veggie garden this time of year may not be as obviously spectacular as those in a conventional flower garden, but if you stop and look closely enough, there is still plenty of color and interest for the discerning eye. I realized this as I worked in the garden today. In no particular order:


The mizuna has bolted. Like most other brassicas, the flowers are yellow and remind me of little exploding fireworks.


My Seville orange tree is blooming. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have some orange marmalade in time for Christmas since we won't have any Meyer lemons this year.


I've been meaning to pull up what's left of last year's scallions but haven't gotten around to it...


I'm glad I didn't because the blooms are really interesting and complex close up.


Last year's sage and thyme are taking over the herb bed and will have to be trimmed back.

The purple sage flowers remind me of lavender. I wonder if they are in the same family.


The crimson flowered broad (fava) beans have the most stunning blooms in the garden right now.

I can't get over how beautiful the crimson flowers are. The plants are stockier than the more common Windsor variety. I wonder if the beans taste any differently.


My white-flowered Windsor fava beans are growing vigorously now. I have to remind myself to water them everyday now that our daily highs are in the 80's. Last year, I didn't do so during a hot dry spell and had a lot of blooms drop as a result.

I read somewhere that fava bean flowers and shoots are very tasty. I could never bring myself eat them as I love the eventual beans too much!


Last year, I made some flavored vinegar from these chive blossoms. I have to admit that the flavor was a bit strong for my taste. Maybe this year I'll try something different and steep them in some olive or canola oil. This giant cluster of chives is growing alongside my cantaloupe, Imperial artichokes and relocated wild strawberries.


Finally, this may be the saddest looking flower of the bunch but who wouldn't be excited to see the first tomato blossoms of the year?

Aerial View of the Fall Garden

Taken from our 2nd floor bedroom window, I would call this a semi-aerial view of my garden. It's not that impressive is it? Nonetheless, I like to offer it as proof that you don't need that much space to grow a decent amount of food. All in all, I think I have about 1000 square feet of growing space, though I've never officially measured it. As you can see, the dogs have done quite a number on our grass. We desperately need to train them to do their business in the back end of the yard. I'm getting quite sick of looking at the dead patches.

Our next home would ideally be situated on 3 to 5 acres of land, with pretty of open space and a reasonable amount of woodlands. Most of my garden lies in part shade and I'm looking forward to the day when I grow all of my veggies in full sun. I'd like to plant a small orchard and have access to enough freshly-cut logs to grow my own shitake mushrooms. Hopefully, this will become a reality in 3 to 5 years. For the time being, I'll be focusing on whipping this space into shape.


In other news, the Heavenly Blue morning glories are finally starting to flower. It hadn't been doing much of anything all summer long. I'm guessing that the lack of rain had something to do with that.


I love these blooms. They only last a day or two but are magnificent to look at.

Friday Blooms

I hope everyone is as excited about the long weekend as I am. Sometimes, you just need a break from the daily rat race. I'm looking forward to three days of relaxation...or as close to it as I can get. Call me a homebody but when I'm not at work, I generally want to be home. The last thing I want to do this weekend is to be stuck in holiday traffic.

My garden isn't known for its flowers but I thought I'd share some photos I took of what's blooming these days:


This morning glory is HUGE! The beautiful flowers are the size of the palm of my hand.


I haven't picked any nasturtiums yet. They just look too pretty to eat.


The German chamomile is ready to be picked and dried. The flowers have a wonderful aroma...almost like melon.


Is it common for zinnias to produce different colored flowers from the same plant? Maybe it's just my imagination but I'm seeing more colors than I do plants.


I've never grown calendulas before. They are quite stunning if you ask me.


Another variation of calendula I presume.

Garden Notes - Rabbit Troubles and Plant Updates

I've been having my fair share of rodent problems lately. It seems 2x4 inch wire mesh is not enough to keep the rabbits out, especially the baby ones. The adults seem to have a bit more sense. So far, they've picked over my soybeans, nibbled on several of my green beans, decapitated one rather large head of lettuce and corn stalk and shaved off one of my pepper plants. As a result, I will be spending my weekend putting up chicken wire all around the perimeter of my garden. Hopefully that will be more of a deterrent.


I really should have put more effort into growing flowers this year. The garden looks a bit too green at the moment. I've always loved the European potagers and their classic style of mixing edibles and ornamentals in unique patterns. Well...that will have to wait until next year.


The cut-and-come-again lettuce mix that I grew in my salad box a few months ago failed miserably. I really only have myself to blame as there was little to no fertility in the garden soil that I used. I will try again this fall with a mix of compost and potting soil. For now, I have little patch growing in the garden.


A year and a half after purchasing the small cutting, my Kaffir lime tree is flowering for the first time. Citrus blossoms never fail to get me excited. I'm curious to see how the fruit develops.


I'm not sure what type of lettuce this is but it's beautiful. I've enjoyed watching it grow. It resembles a butterhead but the leaves have a crispiness that is more reminiscent of iceberg. I think it's either Korean or Manoa. I will have to ask Winnie if she has any ideas as the seeds were from her.


The cranberries I planted out last year are beginning to flower and spread. The leaves are bright green at the moment but should develop into a bright burgundy as the fall approaches.

Finally, here's a look at my celery after they've been thinned down to one plant. I transplanted them out in clusters of 4-5 plants simply because I was too lazy to thin my seedlings. Now I'm glad that I didn't since in each cluster, there is always one plant that drastically outperforms the rest. And looking at the size of my celery, it doesn't seem like the crowded conditions have hurt them too much. I've been harvesting the thinnings to use in soups. Delicious! I think I'll stick to growing them this way.

Zinnias

Friends of ours dropped by a couple of weeks ago and gave us a beautiful pot of zinnias as a housewarming gift. Even though I haven't really thought about what kinds of flowers I wanted to grow next year, I will admit that caring for these flowers have gotten me really excited about it. Zinnias (although somewhat ubiquitious these days) are definitely a flower I would consider growing from seed. They've wilted several times already due to may neglect and seem to bounce back really quickly after a good soaking. Now that's my kind of flower. I've already purchased some cosmos, morning glory and oriential poppy seeds off of a discount rack for next year. I think I'll add zinnias to the list.