Friday, August 15, 2014

august bloom day - 2014

Happy Bloom Day everybody!  I can't believe it's been a full month since I've posted.  It's been a busy summer.  And by busy, I mean I've been a homebody and done a bunch of stuff around the house.  But it's starting to show.  Last August, I didn't even bother with Bloom Day because I had absolutely nothing blooming in my yard.  (Well maybe my butterfly bush, but that's it.)  It was my mission this spring to have flowers this year, and I took a step in the right direction.  I have a long way to go, but this is a start.

In April, I planted two baby antique roses, and Cramoisi Superieur is blooming. :)  Buff Beauty hasn't bloomed, but it's fighting some blackspot and hanging in there.


The wild Black & Brown-Eyed Susans are proving that native plants are the best plants.


This little weed is one of my favorites.  It grows in a pot with some drawf nandina, and I think the little blue flowers are pretty darn cute.


But the most colorful flowers right now are the zinnias and the impatiens.  I was so happy to find them this year, and I haven't had any problems that weren't a direct result of my neglect!


The zinnias are from a variety of seeds.  There was Green Envy, a Fancy Named Purple, and a mixed pack.  They're spindly looking, but still pretty.




And just because I'm proud, here are some of the tomatoes I've harvested and frozen.  My mom is a surrogate tomato grower, so this gallon is a mix of what we've both grown.  I love tomato season, and have been making capresi salads & pasta sauces like it's my job.  This year I'm trying to extend the season by doing some canning.  This particular group is destined to be pickled and put up.  I've never tried pickled tomatoes, but I have a recipe from the Ball Cookbook, and they haven't let me down yet!


Happy Bloom Day everyone. Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what else is blooming around the world :)

7 comments:

  1. I love your little blue native flower. Do you have any idea what it is? RamblinwithAM

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    1. I'm not sure what it is. I think I'm going to invest in a native wildflowers book soon so I can be better about my identifications :)

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  2. I am a real fan of Zinnias. Impatiens faint and fall over here without constant watering so I use Begonias instead.

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    1. Hi Jean, I am blessed/cursed with near full shade. Your begonias sound lovely!

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  3. I just put up some jars of diced tomatoes. What do you do with your frozen ones? I just read about freezing them but am not sure what they'd be good for.

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    1. I'm actually going to can them. I have pickled tomato recipe that called for more than I could harvest at one time. My grandmother freezes her tomatoes rather than canning them. She uses them to make salsas and sauces.

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  4. I don't know if you'll get back to read this comment, but still I thought I'd share that the little blue flower is called a dayflower. I admired them at the "other" place that we farm. They grew up along the foundations there and I fell in love with those brilliant blue little flowers. THEN I saw that they make nice robust seed, so I started harvesting whenever we were down there. I sprinkled them along my foundation on one side. WHEWEEE They have taken over! Their leaves and stems look a lot like Wandering Jew plants, except green. So now I pull them whenever I see them in my bee balm or coreopsis, They are happy at my place!

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Sooooo, the spammers have finally discovered my blog. I'm not sure if that means I've 'made it', but it does mean that I have turned on comment moderation for my older posts. Don't worry though, I get the notifications quickly, and promise to read and publish anything that doesn't include random comments or suspicious links.

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