The long Hot Summer... It started before Spring this year, it was hot early. Everything came early so I thought fall would come early and then winter and set things straight.
But that did not happen. So many things just burned up and I decided to take what I could and concentrate them in small beds. My big plans of the container garden did not work out. I learn my biggest lessons from things that did not work out so this year I had big lessons.
It caused me to do more research and I discovered that lavender does not like it wet. So I started over once again. To me life has a lot of starting over, isn't that we are suppose to do? We cannot just go within and just give up. I have tried that a few times and it only makes people around us feel bad too.
The basil, oh has it loved the heat. I can go outside and drip sweat in a matter of just minutes and there stands the basil, bees swarming all around and the basil flourishing.
I always thought of basil as a annual until I started letting it go to seed. Everywhere I look there seems to be basil growing. Our sturdy Azaleas are taking a beating, curled and parched, even our bridle wreath is dying but basil is everywhere. I walk through the crunchy garden and rub against the long stems of basil and get aroma therapy treatment each time.
Most Everything shriveled and here was the lush pineapple sage that was beautiful the beginning of summer. Completely gone.
I took a liking to corn and flour tortillas this summer. They were easy and did not heat up the house.
We were enjoying the long beans during spring but then the heat was so bad they started shriveling up in a days time.
So I decided to dry them for next years planting..
Or add them to soup or stew or just cook them. When they were growing well and doing as they should we would saute the entire green bean in olive oil.
Then strange things started to happen... Egg plants from two years ago started emerging. These were a new variety we had tried the year before last that did not do well and then now, it decided to gift us these.
A garden is truly an adventure.
The tanks have done well despite the drought. This tank of sage has done well and I did not plant the basil or the tomato. More gifts from yard creatures.
Then one day I gasped. There they were. I had planted some asparagus beans, they were sooo good. We enjoyed them very early this year and I decided to buy some more seeds but there were none, I looked in the stores, I looked online but none to be found. They had long stopped growing due to the drought and heat. And then one day I was wondering around the crunchy garden and there were two dried up long beans. I actually squealed with excitement like a child. They look a little battered but possibly next year they just might grow new asparagus beans. They are very long beans and are not like the other long beans. They have a different flavor.
We would go out and cut these long beans and come in and wash them and then toss the entire long beans into a skillet and saute them. It only took a few of them to make a serving.
Then Charles came in one day and said, you should go out and look at this Blackeyed Susan. It had a double head and was so pretty. So I said, I wonder what else is doubled.
Bell Peppers,
Eggplant blooms..
Long beans set in pairs.
Heirloom Chrysanthemums.
Lemons
Gaura
Tomato blooms
Have you ever truly studied an okra bloom.....?
I think they are beautiful. Every bit of the bloom is just wonderful.
Look at the deep burgundy colors inside the bloom.
Ahhhhh.
I have been letting the okra dry out to save the seeds.
So I got a fifth or eight wind and asked Charles if we could put in some emergency lasagna beds for the dying plants and so we did early in the mornings before the sun was up good.
Katherine was happy to just stay inside in where it was cool and lay inside a pair of Charles work pants.
So in a bit of time I pruned back the dying plants and planted the ones that were perennial and we added some stray basil's that had set themselves in pots.
We brought one of the cages back to use and planted celery which really prefers cooler weather than we have now. But to me the yard looks cooler since we added some new mulch and the lasagna beds. If the perennials take it should be pretty next year.
So I am concentrating on a small area. The trees in the back look lush and green but they are not doing as good as they look in this picture. The roots are not getting any water and they are suffering.
My knitted dish cloth jar is suppose to be packed full but I am slow on many things lately. The hot summer seems to be making me slower, it certainly is not that I am getting older.
Grandma Donna
