Garden Phlox

Daisies and Geraniums

"Becky" Shasta daisies and Rozanne hardy geraniums

Hydrangea Blossoms

I love the subtle pink and white coloring of these new hydrangea blossoms.

This is the young new hydrangea plant that I found at the the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club plant sale this spring for just $2.00!  It's nestled in between a number of strawberry plants in the front yard. 

Asters

Aster x frikartii 'Monch'

Home Grown Fresh Mint Picnic Coleslaw

I harvested one of our savoy cabbages and made this delicious mint coleslaw.  It's a recipe I adapted from The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook by Jennifer R. Bartley.  Along with the cabbage, the recipe includes carrots, green onions, fresh mint leaves, flat-leaved parsley, and a light dressing. It's delightful!

Root Crops!

Early Wonder Tall Top and Touchstone Gold beets, red potatoes, and rainbow carrots!

I thinned the beets and carrots today in order to give the remaining crops a bit more space.  Some were good size and some still young.  I also dug some of the red potatoes so we could enjoy a few for dinner this week.   So delicious!

It's great to have such a sturdy basket for bringing it all to the kitchen.

Snacks for the Day

Baby rainbow carrots and still more raspberries and strawberries!

A New Bed for Fall Cabbages

 This is our newly-planted bed of fall cabbages. The first one in the row is a savoy mini-cabbage called Alcosa, and the other five are Marner Laggerot cabbages, a red savoy variety.  In the front of this bed, the rosemary and sorrel are thriving. 

Potatoes and Poppies

A bed full of potatoes and a few nasturtiums, with pink poppies and carrots on the left.

A lovely bed of poppies grown from seeds gathered from Kal's garden last summer. 

Nasturtiums

Nasturtium flowers are tasty and beautiful!

Snap Peas

Summer Seedling Shade Cloches

These simple summer garden cloches offer a small amount of shade and protection for the new broccoli, radish, and lettuce seedlings that just sprouted up. Before the seedlings emerged, they were covered with a sheet of burlap to help keep the moisture in so they could germinate during the hot weather.  I found this idea in a great new book for year-round gardening in the Pacific Northwest called Backyard Bounty written by Linda Gilkeson.

Ladybugs!

It's so nice when the beneficial insects feel at home in the garden!

Scarlet Runner Beans

Lots of new scarlet runner bean blossoms!

The vines are slowly winding their way up the tipi trellis.

Savoy Cabbage & Nasturtiums

This beautiful savoy cabbage is almost ready to harvest. 

Onions and Carrots

Walla Walla sweet onions and rainbow carrots

Bolting Radish Flowers & Seed Pods

Bolting radishes make pretty purple flowers.

After the radish plants flower, they create crunchy seed pods that are quite tasty!

Flowers in the Espalier Apple Tree Bed

This espalier apple tree bed is now overflowing with flowers: sweet peas, alyssum, nasturtiums, and calendula.

Sweet peas and nasturtiums trailing over the rockery

Seasonal Renovation

It was time to give this square foot garden bed a little renovation for fall plantings. Last week, it was full of poppies, onions, and flowering kale as seen in the photo below.  I harvested the onions and composted the poppies and kale.  Now you can actually see the tomatoes and herbs that have been growing here since early June. In the newly open spaces, I've planted Giant Winter spinach, Cylindra beets, Yaya Hybrid carrots, and Pink Punch radishes.  It's a couple weeks later than would be ideal for planting the root crops, but if all goes well, they'll be ready to harvest before the average first autumn frost. 

Wildly colorful spring garden bed before renovation...

Raspberries, Blueberries, & Strawberries

I went out to pick raspberries today, and came back with a bunch of raspberries, a few blueberries, and lots more strawberries!

The largest berry in this photo was the size of a golf ball!