Wednesday, June 30, 2010


EHINACEA, ET AL


Those are echinacea flowers, or straw flowers. Yes you consume this plant to ward off colds, and yes it is growing in one of my front flower beds. The vegetable gardens, like my children, have gone absolutely wild and seem to be all the better for it. My Three Sisters Garden of corn, beans and squash is just as delighted to be here as if an old Indian squaw had planted them instead of this old white squaw.


What I try to do is to make the soil as rich as possible, snuggle the plants and seeds in there all nice and cozily, and then let them grow as they will, creating their own barrier against weeds as they spread shade and crowd them out. And since I share the yard with a beagle and two of the cats, I have various little plots spread about, and fenced in. So here is a tour of my somewhat mixed up but (I think) lovely, growing things...


This is a side view of the three sisters, along with their friends, the heirloom tomatoes (Juliet, Ox Heart, Abe Lincoln and one or two others whose names escape me right now), basil, Italian parsley, and green peppers.








Granny Smith Apple Tree:





The pic above is another little garden, full to overflowing with two tomato plants (also heirlooms from last year) that volunteered to grow from seed this year, pickling cucumbers, tabasco peppers and chili peppers. The cucumbers will not be restrained and are overtaking their boundaries, reaching out to a volunteer pumpkin (or maybe its some other squash) growing just outside the plot, and threatening to mix it up with another pumpkin and some cantaloupes, fenced in a few feet away. I will show it to you now, and I think you can click on these.






And now, for some of the flowers....


And me, finally taking a bit of Sunday rest. To be continued....

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:52 PM

    Emmarinda, thanks for the little tour through your garden! Isn't it fun to watch everything grow?.....practically overnight, it seems, when the weather is cooperative!

    My tomatoes are not as big as yours yet, but I have high hopes that I will get to can some this year. Last year's crop was so spotty I just froze the few I would get here & there. Conversely, our apples were quite good last year...we pressed most of what we had into cider...but I think this year we will not be so fortunate.

    Strawberries are just about petered out, & now I'm picking mulberries & raspberries. Always something, eh? :o)

    Brenda

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  2. Yes, indeed, Brenda, summer is a season when you can find yourself working really hard if you want to enjoy all this good stuff later in the year. I wish I could have tried a glass of your cider!!

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  3. Your garden looks great, and you look as pretty as your flowers.

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  4. Thank you, Jenny.

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