Goodies From The Summer Garden
Goodies From The Garden, originally uploaded by Phae.
I love the summer take! We’ve just finished up with the peaches and apricots. We’re also harvesting bell peppers and acorn squash daily now. Soon we’ll have cantaloupe and watermelon ready for harvest.. and our pumpkins are already getting really big!
The only downfall to a summer garden: the heat! I can hardly stand to go out there at dusk to dig around amongst the garden spiders to harvest in the 100+ temps. Ouch! (And yet, well worth the effort. Vegetables just can’t taste better than straight from your own garden!)
Summer Squash! And some linky love :)
Summer Squash!, originally uploaded by Phae.
Did you know that you can eat summer squash blossoms: fresh on a salad, stuffed and baked with cheese, or even deep fried? I didn’t. Now you know too! (Or maybe, I was the last one to know, ha!)
We are really enjoying the summer squash from our garden; we’ve steamed and fried and sauteed it in butter. Every time it is just fantastic. Perfectly textured and flavored- not at all mushy or tough or bitter like some of the aging summer squash we’ve picked up in the market. My husband and kids went from squash haters to fighting over the last pieces at dinner!
And summer squash have just been so easy to grow- they need little water and they don’t seem prone to pests like some of our other crops! These were grown from seed, planted directly in the garden instead of the peat pots we use for more fragile seedlings. Of all the different types of vegetable seeds we planted they were the most viable and productive this summer season.
Now that I know the blossoms are edible I’m anxious to try them. Perhaps deep fried alongside some fried green tomatoes?! Mmhmm. 
But anyways!
If you are on Twitter and you are a gardener of any experience level, you should check out #gardenchat on Monday evenings at 9pm PST. I’ve been a lurker for a while and have learned a lot!
Also, check out these cool cooking/gardening blogs I’ve enjoyed recently!
The Kitchn
Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
You Grow Girl
Sweetnicks
Happy Gardening & Cooking
In The Garden
In The Garden, originally uploaded by Phae.
I’m not a huge fan of geraniums, but this one amazes me with it’s wonderful hot pink blooms. The color is really stunning! And so fragrant, too.
I must apologize for my lack of photo-blogging, or blogging at all. I’ve taken a break from pretty much all but twitter lately, as my family and I work to make some major improvements to our home.
Since I last blogged we have: expanded our garden by nearly twofold, built a 300 square foot patio, and almost died. Ha. I’m telling you- we are really altogether too old and out-of-shape to be doing this stuff ourselves… but if you know me you know that I foolishly insist on pushing myself over and beyond my limits!
There are some just-ok photos (taken with my iPhone) of the patio going in and also of the new garden space on my flickr stream. It’s terrible but until today I haven’t picked up my “real” camera in what seems like forever! I’m on full-speed-ahead-build-stuff mode so that we can get it all done just in time to really enjoy our spaces this summer.
This weekend we will be working on the path that will connect our patio and Mom & Dad’s house, across the courtyard. And also- laying down sod. My guess is that it will take us two weekends of sod-laying before the courtyard resembles a real yard. I’m going to be STRONG come this summer. Either that, or comatose. 
We’ve accomplished so much now, just a few more weeks of Big Projects and I’ll be able to putter around again. Can’t wait to share before-and-after photos!
Thanks for stopping in!
The last of the tulips…
The third variety of tulips we planted last fall has finally bloomed. Isn’t it bright and spring-y and gorgeous?! I am going to be sad to see the tulips fade soon- many have already begun losing their petals. We’ll definitely be adding several more varieties of tulips- and some daffodils, to the flower beds next fall!
Purple Iris
Purple Iris, originally uploaded by Phae.
Years ago my cousin was cleaning out my grandmother’s flower beds and gathered up hundreds of mixed bulbs. I grabbed a bucket full and when we moved in here I planted them in random order. I have been quite pleased to see most of them are gorgeous daffodils or purple iris. I’m also stoked they lived these years without being properly cared for! This is one that bloomed today.
Check out this flower opened all the way up here.
Yellow Makes Me Happy
Our yellow tulips have bloomed! One more variety is just about to bloom. I think they are supposed to be red/orange/yellow. I forget.
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Such a gorgeous plant! And tasty too! This baby was planted two weeks ago in our vegetable garden.
Today we spent quite a bit of time in our various gardens. We planted more strawberries as well as various pepper plants in the edible garden. I planted a flat of Dragon’s Blood Sedum ground cover around and about. We planted six bushes: Gardenias, Spanish Lavender & Abelia Kaleidescope in the front flower gardens.
Most notably, we planted a Flame Maple tree in honor of my late Uncle Mike. It will be a beautiful tree- one day reaching as high as 50 feet tall, and displaying bright red leaves throughout the fall and much of winter. I look forward to watching it grow and enjoying it’s shade.
And now, I’m tired. Oh! But in case you are interested, I though I’d link you to my gardening photo set over at flickr. Enjoy!
Surprise Daffodil
Guess I didn’t get all the bulbs out of this pot before planting the cactus our neighbors gave us!
Name This Tree!
We love our big shade tree, but we have no idea what it is. It’s blooming right now and the blooms are most unusual. Anybody have any idea what kind of tree this is?
More info: we live in Central California. There are many divided trunks on the base of this tree. They split off at ground level. The foliage during the spring and summer is very green and lush. It all turns yellow and falls in fall. It is only now beginning to bloom and leaf out again. It is about 30′ tall. Any guesses?
I <3 Spring!
Yesterday an iris, today the peach tree- everything is blooming! It makes me happy to see the plants around me awaken from their winter slumber.. and it serves as a reminder: it’s time to get back out and enjoy the beauty of this world again! I tend to hibernate the winter away, like so much flora and fauna.
The mature pomegranate trees next door are in full bloom, they look so magnificent that it makes me anxious for the day when our baby trees grow up.
Speaking of trees growing up- check out my flickr stream if you are interested to see our baby apricots! I’m so excited, our first fruit from our very own mini-orchard!
Happy Spring!
What I Want
