Flora and Fauna

Roscoe and I had a lovely adventure on the hill last week. I was pulling goldenrod out along the driveway, because I want to encourage the vetch, black-eyed Susans, clover, and other wildflowers that are growing there.


When I got home, I looked up the type of goldenrod that was starting to flower. Turns out it is called sweet goldenrod, or anise-scented goldenrod. It really does smell like anise! and it is supposed to make a good tea, with the dried leaves and flowers. This batch of flowers though went to spruce up the house.


Meanwhile, Roscoe was off on an adventure of his own. He very kindly took a break from his drink to smile for the camera.


Having satisfied his thirst, he was off to do some digging.


Proudly displaying his prize...


...then back on his way...


...to bury it again.


Gerard gave us quite the warm welcome when we got home from our adventure. "What, you want me to move out of the driveway?" (Notice in the background the rain buckets that he has overturned with his leash.)


All in all, a lovely afternoon.

Week in Review

The scarlet runner beans are probably my favorite part of the garden (if I had to choose). Today I met a female hummingbird that also seems to enjoy the beautiful bright red flowers.


And there are lots more beans on the way!


I planted some salad greens in the shade of the scarlet runner beans. I didn't know how well they would come up, but it looks like we will at least have some lettuce, mustard, and endive.


The cucumbers are finally starting to take over. If you look closely, you may be able to see the scarlet runner bean flowering in between the two cucumber plants.


Our first cucumber! I actually picked our first four yesterday (they had grown considerably since I took this picture), and there are plenty more flowers on the way.


Our volunteer squash is making itself right at home next to the onion and garlic bed. Every day we trim it back so it doesn't take over the onions and garlic...or the cherries...or the gooseberries. It cuts down on the mowing and weeding though!


The purple stalks of sweet corn and the deep green vine of a winter squash or pumpkin (I can't remember which). :)


The lemon balm looks as lovely as it smells. We can't wait to make tea with it!


The hops are still climbing, and the cones look beautiful.


The comfrey looks bigger every day. By now (a few days after I took this picture), there is very little mulch visible in the bed at all. And we had given up a couple of these plants as "probably dead" not too long ago!


Pizza anyone?

Surprised by Purple (twice)

We have been making smoothies for several weeks now, usually with the berries we pick. Raspberries were the dominant fruit for awhile, since they ripened before the blackberries and we have many more raspberries and blackberries than blackcaps or golden raspberries. So a typical smoothie was mostly raspberries, with a few blackberries, less blackcaps, and an occasional golden raspberry. This makes a smoothie that is some shade of pink. Well, last week the raspberries began to slow down and the blackberries took over, so the fruit I picked was almost all blackberries with just a few raspberries. I put all the ingredients in the blender and let the electricity work its magic. When I turned around, I was quite surprised to see a very different color of smoothie than anything I had ever seen before!


The pictures really don't do the color justice. I had no idea that this shade of purple could result from anything other than Red 5 and Blue 7 (or whatever those weird artificial dyes are that they put in food). I can't imagine what an all-blackberry smoothie would look like, but maybe in the next couple of weeks I will find out!


I have also been surprised to see our sweet corn turning a lovely shade of purple.


The tassels, stalks, and even the leaves of the more mature plants are quite purple.


I would have expected something like that from our ornamental corn (which still looks quite ordinary and green), but I have been surprised by purple sweet corn. (Hopefully I didn't mix the seeds up, I have been having some trouble with that. :-/) I'm curious to see if the kernels will be purple too? Further bulletins as events warrant!