This hot pink rose unexpectedly bloomed in my garden this year. I expected it to take a bit more time establishing itself, as it was placed near some tough competition. I picked the fragrant, hot-pink bloom to dry the petals so that I can try drinking rose petal tea!
Can you spot the yarrow leaf in the background?
The peas have yielded enough pods to make an appearance in several dinners. I am impressed with how productive the plants were this year, especially compared to the time that the peas were eaten by bugs and I barely got to try any. That said, I think next time, I’d like to grow snow or snap peas so that I can eat the pods, as well. The pods were boiled into a couple of broths, but I’d prefer to be able to eat the entire product I harvest, rather than putting the pods back into the soil through compost because pods are too fibrous to chew. The peas were delicious fresh or steamed!
My poor, confused Christmas cactus bloomed in summer! Here are more of its beautiful, hot pink-red flowers!
I give my mint patch a hard pruning every midsummer, and sometimes another in late summer or early fall to keep it under control. Unchecked, mint can become invasive in North America as it easily crowds out all other plants that may try to grow. Luckily, mint makes lovely tea and mintcakes! I harvest bundles and dry them in a dark room, then I strip the leaves from the stems and store them in a jar for cooking and tea the rest of the year. It’s important to label all your jars with the ingredient and the harvest date so that you don’t let anything go to waste.
I can taste it already! No, really, there were many more of these bundles unpictured and now my hands and my home all smells strongly of delicious mint!
The peas were productive this year, much better than last year when they were eaten by beetles down to the stems. I think it worked better this year because the plants were spaced further apart. These peas came from seeds I was lucky enough to get on clearance last fall, and despite this, they managed to germinate at a decent rate. The blossoms are bright white and the peas are the variety you have to take out of the pod to eat.
Volunteer plants, ones that I didn’t go through the effort of planting but somehow still grew in my garden, are the best kind of weeds. Here is a walking onion that had walked right out of the onion bed and into the pathway and a radish that managed to grow despite the odds, as all of its fellow radishes had been picked already. The radish was a lovely afternoon snack, and the onion found its way into dinner the night I discovered it.
I came across these two ladybugs on one of my white yarrow plants. Lady bugs are excellent because they eat the bugs that eat my garden plants.
I repotted a broken-off segment of my christmas cactus early in the spring. This must have confused it somehow, because it bloomed in the summer!
The flowers are this hot pink-red color. They don’t have much fragrance, but are certainly beautiful to look at!
Each flower lasts a few days before dropping off. There were a large number of flower buds on this house plant.
This weed is spread by birds and has a very sturdy root. I can’t seem to get rid of it. Unfortunately, it’s poisonous to eat.
Still, it’s such a vibrant, beautiful green color.
The weather is far too hot for spinach now. I miss it, but I plan on trying to plant more greens again when the weather cools!
