Potpourri #9 - Saffron Mix

This special mix took courage to muster, awaiting the combination to arrive like an epiphany, I worked around the Saffron Crocus petals, cleaning the other areas of the table until I could avoid it no longer.

This mix is mint based. It needed something to lighten the base so I went with a pale gray eucalyptus. It contains both Apple mint and Spear mint, Eucalyptus leaves, Saffron petals, Statis Flowers, and a few Hummingbird Bush flowers as dots of orange for a wild note. The last two mixes have been my absolute favorites because of the rich colors that are so pure and stellar!

Thank you Leslie for the Saffron!

To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Potpourri #3

I'm still cleaning off the formal dining room table which is where all of the potpourri materials are strewn about. It is a lovely sight. Today's concoction is a potpourri and tea! It consists of Chocolate Mint, Tulsi (Holy Basil), Hybiscus and Calendula flowers.

Of all of the potpourris so far, this one is the most fragrant and it is because of the mint and Tulsi.

I adore Tulsi. I have contemplated becoming a Tulsi farmer, possibly growing nothing else. That is how much I adore the stuff. It is addicting. I make everyone Tulsi tea when they come over to visit, and gift Tulsi cuttings to them when they leave. One visitor later asked if the tea had euphoric properties, and I would say that it obviously does, considering that I would like to forsake all my other favorites in the garden and grow it exclusively! It's some pretty cool stuff. If you need any, come on over, seems like I'll have plenty.

Potpourri #2

I had to clean up the tabletops around here and get a handle on the place. I was getting pretty spread out with all of the potpourri material, the herbs drying, and the seeds that I've harvested for use for next year. (I did decide to start hanging things from the ceiling in the garage, btw).

I am thankful that I married a patient man. He hasn't said anything about nature completely taking over the house.

So I grabbed a coffee can and decided that the potpourris can be stored in coffee cans and if they pick up the scent of coffee that is okay, because I love coffee. So there I am looking at the materials again and decided to put together another blend.

The one pictured above is Eggplant leaf, Apple slices and Orange and Pink Zinna flowers. (The Apples are from my tree and they are Red Delicious hastened to the earth in an unripened state by the wind.) So I contemplated the blend and decided that it needed a bit more refinement.

So I added Lavender leaf to the mix and it quieted the need to do anything else to it. I think this one is ready to receive a "note" of coffee.

Enough cleaning, don't you think?

Thanks for visiting. To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Potpourri

I have been collecting everything that I can think of from my garden for potpourri. It's spread out across the table and I am sure it is going to start taking over my house.

Today I gathered Cucumber leaves, Lantana flowers, a tiny peach rosebud, Echanacea flowers and seedheads, Sunflower seedheads,

Yellow Purky Sue flowers, Chaste Tree Berries, Crape Murtle Blossoms, pink Lambs Ear leaves, Penstemmon blossoms, Garlic Chive seedheads, Butterfly Bush seedheads, Chocolate Mint, Calendula Petals, Eucalyptus, Zinna flowers, Blue Salvia flowers,

The items on the glass plate will fit right in, they are interesting seedheads from a tree during a walk in the park, Blue Hawthorn berries, Statice from a bouquet from hubby and a dried Zinna flower. The California Poppy seed hulls might be a stretch but we will see, there's dried Catnip seedheads, and Catnip leaf bundles which should work pretty nicely as a base.

On the kitchen table there are materials that can be used for the base. There is Tulsi, Sage, and Lemon-Lime (mixed) Basil.

The grow shelves have been repurposed as drying shelves and they contain Genovese Basil, and Lemon-Lime Basil.

The available horizontal surfaces are all taken, so in the garage are Apple slices with fresh and dried Zinnas. Once everything is dry I am going to start assembling combinations and maybe consider adding essential oils to the mix.

I enjoy collecting items for potpourri. It is just another way to be surrounded by the colors and textures of your garden.

Thanks for visiting! Garden on!

All the Best

I am calling this post all of the best and here is the reason why. I have been gone for an extremely long time, and I want to share the most awesome photos that I have collected as I still do take about a handful of photos a day, but I have been busy reading recipes for preserving the garden harvest, and obviously a myriad of other things, but apparently they didn't amount to much because I can't remember their significance in the whole scheme of things.

So perhaps busy isn't always best..... But I do really enjoy this photo of the Copper Dragon Fly solaring up in the warmth of the morning sun and wanted to share this with everyone.

Here is the perfect effect of the Morning Glories and they are all that I imagined that they would be.

The Red Canna from the Master Gardener's giveaway is more than expected! Perhaps the person who brought them in needs to drink more coffee so that they are more excitable and explenitive in their decriptions...... Just Red Canna had me thinking, well.....you know.

The Tomatoes have been a delight to pick everyday. They are starting to fade off and I am okay with it. I froze some in a gallon bag and made salsa and pasta sauce, and we have been eating them everyday, so all is fine by me.

The Armenian Cucumbers are in the midst of things. This is the fifth one harvested so far, and it will go into the pickle jar. The other half went into the salad last night. They are spectacular and recommended to me by Leslie Doyle last year. They will become a Black Mountain Garden standard.

So this is how the Armenian Cucumbers are presented in the garden. If you double click the photo, you will be able to pick out a few handing on the vine.

The Green Room is alot of fun to walk through and you can see the corn on the left which has grown tall and has produced ears. The white flowers in the center on the right are Lime Basil and they are quite lovely and I totally love the effect. I want to grown Lime Basil as a ground cover next year.

Here is a closeup of the corn before I picked them. I didn't know when to pick the corn, but if you wait too long the sugars change and they are no longer at their tasty best.

And I had no idea when that was...but either way they are sure beautiful. These are the prettiest corn in my little world, and I am going to let them dry. I remember all of the colored corn hanging from the lattias in one of the adobes at the Pueblos de Taos Indian Reservation in Taos, New Mexico. It made falling over the furniture really quite enjoyable and a remarkably, memorable experience. This one is for "Up the Hill" Susan. I miss you girl. Are you still just as wild as I remember? (Nobody could grow colored corn like Susan!)

Thanks for visiting! To all of my colored corn loving gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

One for Chaos

It is suddenly extremely hot and many of the plants have singed tips. I ramped up the water hopefully enough to stay off the increase in temperatures. We shall see.......

The Morning Glory are starting to come on with vigor.

The Echanacea are enjoying the heat.

The contrast of purple with burnt orange is striking and and all I can do is react with startled fondness.

This one is for you!

This photo belongs in the Chaos Series and that is surely where it will go.

No squash yet on the Turk's Turban, just flowers.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Where to Begin

I don't know where to begin. First there is the bench I made out of recycled shipping crates.

And all of the Iris are preparing to bloom and this is the first one, a gift from my friend Don.

I've planted Bed Seven and while configuring the irrigation, (I use the chopsticks to layout the design) Symba was stricken sleepy by the effect of the Catnip. That stuff is mighty powerful.

And I captured this photo of Spring to add to the photo of Winter on the sidebar. There are many opportunities to take photos of birds, the hummingbirds on the Penstemon, I just fear scratching the camera with the pruning shears or something else so I set the camera down and repeatedly miss the opportunity. Maybe today is a good day to try again.

Thanks for visiting. To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

New Bed 7

I removed all of the rock that had been accumulating for 3 years from the back corner and filled in the next new bed with Tomato Lady Soil. This will be called Bed Seven.

The Burgandy Plum is flowering and to the right is the location for the Medicinal Herbs bed. So far it contains Echinacea and Lemon Grass.

Here is the vantage from the same location and you can see the new bed with plantings of Catnip and Echinacea and Mexican Primrose on the lower right. There is also Catnip and Corriander in the barrel. Far in the distance you can make out the new compost tumbler that I purchased from Lowes. It was $88 on sale and is really a nice design.

The wall of Peas are just touching the 6 foot mark.

There are Lettuces at their feet.

Penstemmon are flowering all over the garden.

I've been busy planting seeds and transplanting seedlings.

This is the photo for the archives of the Seasonal Changes of the Main Bed in Spring 2010.

And here is the update of the Poppies that were broadcast in the half abandoned walkway.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Little Rosemary Wreaths

Here are little Rosemary wreaths that are perfect to make after a rain. I added them to the bowl of orange rind and dried lemon slices and they spice up the kitchen.

The new raised bed is filled with Black Dirt and the irrigation is installed. The rain settled everything in and the whole garden is fresh and new.

Here is a close up of the irrigation and it was fun to arrive at this design where the lumber was cut at an angle. As all of my planting areas and raised beds have names, I thought about this one for a while, this one is called the Bevel Bed.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Freeze Passing Through

We took off to Phoenix to see Bret Favre play Minnesota Vikings vs the Phoenix Cardinals and before we left I brought the self-sowed tomato that was growing in homemade compost into the house. So here it is with blossoms, looking for some 60 degree weather.

Well it's not going to find it outside, because we got back and it is winter now at Black Mountain Garden. There is ice in the birdbath leftover from the rain last weekend. And with all of the rain and overcast skies, it froze the last few nights.

So lets walkabout and see the effect of freeze on the winter garden. Here are the Mesclun Lettuces. They all look fine, with the addition of yellow leaves from the apple tree.

The Basil bit the dust due to the freeze. The tree stake pole segments are chunky mulch/feline guard, (my own invention) and quite effective I might say. They are temporary, and some things are just temporary.

I commandeered the unused trash bin from the garage and it's a new rain barrel and it is over half full from the rain from the weekend. This picture qualifies as ugly but it is okay, it is educational.

Here is another ugly picture, but with the addition of rainwater being captured in a clay vessel it is elevated to "ugliness transcended".

Here is frozen water on the leaves of the "Mother of all Hens and Chickens" (for lack of it's true name) and this can't possibly be good.

The spinach are getting bigger. They have taken a long time to get to this size but the freeze passing through didn't bother them a bit.

Against the south side of the north facing wall is where the Green Beans are located and they did not get hit by the freeze. This is the location where Leslie the garden expert suggests planting Lemon Trees because the reflected heat from the wall is retained well into the night.

The freeze whacked the Purple Heart Wandering Jew located in the Cactus Bed.

There are a few unusual things to mention, like this Penstemmon with flower buds forming,

And this California Poppy hiding out under the Penstemmon leaves which will be the first to flower, long before the others that haven't even started germinating yet.

The New Zealand Spinach bit the dust, got whacked, met it's frozen demise, you choose.

But the chard looks like no frost here.

So here is a panorama of the garden in early December after the first freeze. All of the salts that consolidate on the surface of the soil in the fall, (seems more predominate) have been washed away.

Hose art is provided by Laura who now recuperating from a cold, thought the idea of carrying around a frozen hose to get it out of the picture didn't seem too appealing, so she left it there. Watch for more hose art in upcoming posts! Can you see the color in the leaves of the Eucalyptus?

Now this is what Heavenly Bamboo is all about! There are alot more garden pots gathered around then there have been in previous updates. It's a sign, spring is going to be amazing!

There's a sign of freeze on the Peach Tree and the Lantana in the sunning bed, freeze that was just passing through.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!