Daylilies – ACK
I have a confession – I do not like daylilies – at all. I don’t know why, they just really bring out a strong reaction of dislike when I see them. The funny thing is that I have tons of them in my gardens. They were all here when I moved in. I gave a bunch to my mom, but the ones that stayed have been multiplying and I have even more now than we had in the beginning.
Perhaps it’s the lines of the plants, that they have a tendency to look kind of messy. Maybe it’s the strong bold colors, I’m not a big fan of bright primary colors in the garden. Maybe it’s the shape of the flowers. I really don’t know why it is that I don’t like them. There are a few varieties however, that I don’t mind as much as others. I have a wine colored one that’s not bad and a light buttery yellow one.
I especially do not like the ‘Stella de Oro’ lilies for some reason and there’s a huge patch of them in the garden. They are filling a space and will be replaced with other plants when I have propagated or purchased new plants. Oddly enough I don’t mind the wild tiger lilies, I kind of like them. We have a few in the garden and I want to plant a large patch of them in the ditch in front of the hedge on the new lot.
It’s kind of interesting how flower and plant tastes are varied. We have certain colors, shapes, and textures that we’re drawn to when it comes to our garden. I find that I like white, purple and light yellow flowers in my garden and pretty much anything that provides something delicious for my plate.
Do you have any kind of plant/flower that you have a strong dislike for?
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Summer Sun Giveaway from Ethel
Remember when I wrote about taking care of your hands and talked about making a salt scrub to keep your hands in tip top shape for during the gardening season? Well Ethel Gloves is doing a giveaway on Facebook that includes a jar of my homemade herbal salt scrub, a pair of lovely yellow Saffron Ethel gloves and an organic cotton tote bag. See the instructions for entering below for your chance to win.
It’s been a hot summer, the sun beating down as you tend to your garden and work on finishing your weekend projects. Being out in the summer sun and caring for your hands isn’t easy. To help protect and care for your hands we are doing an exclusive Giveaway on our FaceBook Page! Simply visit our FaceBook Page click the “Like” button or select the “Giveaway” tab.
Enter our Summer Sun Giveaway by entering in your info and sharing the promotion with your FaceBook friends. The Giveaway will activate once 50 or more entries are registered. The sign up period will run from July 15, 2011 through July 31, 2011. Ten (10) winners from the prize pool will be selected at random on August 1, 2011.
The prize package includes:
(1) Homemade Lemon Balm Sea Salt Scrub
(1) Pair of Ethel Bamboo Saffron Glove
(1) Organic Ethel Gloves Tote Bag
PLEASE READ the Terms & Conditions prior to entry for eligibility information.
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Friday Favorite: The Smell of Tomatoes
You don’t really think about it during the long dark winter and it’s still a distant memory while you’re seeding all your little tomato seedlings. When repotting or planting your tiny tomatoes it’s not very strong, a faint whiff of what it will be come high summer when the plants are growing in the heat of the sun. One day when you head out to the garden to tie up your tomatoes it hits you, that smell that is tomato foliage. An unmistakable smell it is, that of tomato foliage – it is much stronger and more pungent than the fresh fruit. There’s nothing quite like it really.
Some people love it and some hate it. I was firmly in the HATE IT camp my first year of growing tomatoes. Then I learned to LOVE IT. So much so that I decided to make it a Friday Favorite. I spent some time out tying up the tomatoes this week and was thinking about how much I love that smell.
What about you – are in the love it or hate it camp when it comes to the smell of tomato foliage?
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Sunny Volunteers
There’s not shortage of volunteers in the garden. Every year I have some kind of flower that appears everywhere and it seems each year it’s a different kind. This year I have sunflowers popping up everywhere.
No doubt they’re planted by the birds, squirrels and chipmunks that frequent our bird feeder. Up until this year our lot has been too shady around the bird feeder for these sunflowers to germinate and flower. Since we had those trees cut down they finally have enough sun to bloom.
The funny thing is that I planted a bunch of sunflowers and each seedling was eating by the crows when they emerged. At least I’ll have some sunflowers after all, even if they’re not the fall color mix that I planted.
Do you grow sunflowers in your garden? What’s your most prolific volunteer this year?
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Fresh Eating
There’s something quite wonderful about harvesting something and eating it it within minutes, or while in the garden as I do with black raspberries and other things. Yesterday I was going to fry up some duck eggs for breakfast and was trying to figure out what to have on the side. I considered zucchini & mushrooms, but we’d had those for dinner the night before. Then I remembered that it was time to start harvesting new potatoes.
I have read that harvesting new potatoes actually increases yield since it allows the potato plants to put more energy toward sizing up the remaining smaller potatoes. I’ve never harvested a lot of new potatoes before so we’ll see how many tiny potatoes I have when harvesting this year. It’s not quite as easy as “reach into the soil around plants and pluck a few potatoes for your basket”. I don’t know what kind of soil these people have that write these tips but there’s no “reaching” into the soil. I use a trowel and gently search for a potato or two around the base of each plant. These potatoes were sauteed in bacon great with a few leeks and garlic and sprinkled with some parsley when they were finished.
Do you harvest new potatoes? What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes for breakfast?
