Ooohh, there is hot color in the garden right now! Both blooms and bounty are shades of red, orange and yellow with a measure of plum and violet thrown into the mix. My garden has been a delight (for the most part) this year. I've enjoyed much of the ornamental garden and have a smaller …
Tag: Summer Gardens
For the Love of Lilies
Oriental lilies are a must-have in my garden. Visually, they are foot traffic stoppers and they burn their fragrance lamps from the time the first blossom opens until the last petal falls. Lilies bid 'good morning', 'good day', and 'good evening' like no other...Their lovely sweet scent lightly covers the entire garden in late July …
Raspberry Riches
A series on the Fall garden could never be complete without mentioning ever-bearing raspberries. My raspberries have become RICH... in color, taste and volume and it's been amazing. I have three raspberry bushes (Varieties: 'Heritage', 'Amity' and 'Summit') and this is the second year in my garden so the first real year of production. But …
Tasty, Ripe, Homegrown Tomatoes… A Force To Be Dealt With?
It's that time of year when the tomato plants (or seeds) you carefully selected, planted, supported and watered are coming into their FULL bounty - sharing their glorious fruits bowl after bowl day after day! It's amazing that as long as we wait for home-grown ripe tomatoes, they can quickly become an overwhelming force to …
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A Pickin’ and A Grinin’ Pacific Northwest Style
During our recent visit to the greater Portland, Oregon area we had the opportunity to go blueberry picking. It was in our favor that the Western states experienced a very cool spring and late start to the growing season because typically Northwest blueberries would be on strong in July but this year early/mid August was …
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Returning To The Garden
As I noted earlier in August, it is hard to leave the garden in late summer during the prime harvest season if you are growing food. A type of garden anxiety disorder can be ignited while you are busy running around getting everything to a point where it will be o.k. to leave if for …
Getting Vacation-Ready May Cause Temporary Gardener Insanity
Taking a 10 day trip in the middle of the summer harvest season can be cause for a little craziness in a gardener. Now, I know it's a privilege to go on vacation so I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the opportunity but as I was out getting the garden vacation-ready I became a …
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Are You Coneflower Cool?
During the hot summer months here in the Intermountain West there are few plants that can take the hours of high heat and dry air and still look absolutely cool! In my garden I find one of the best summer coolers to be coneflowers (Echinacea). Whether old or new they pump out beautiful daisy-form flowers …
Handful of This, Handful of That
The warm season harvest has begun! Actually, it began last week right at the end of July and now I am so distracted by my crops that every time I go out to the garden to do some maintenance I end up harvesting a 'handful of this and a handful of that'. See what I …
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