Tea Rose

This little tea rose is growing in the corner of my herb garden.  One winter, five years ago, a friend brought this small potted rose as a gift.  When the weather warmed up, I planted it outside and it has continued to be a flowering delight every summer. 

 

Dwarf Delphiniums

Dwarf delphiniums are also known as Larkspur.  These are in the front yard, as filler amongst the red hot pokers, foxglove, shasta daisies, coreopsis and giant delphiniums.  I love how they reseed themselves every year, and as they are coming up their green thread like leaves appear so delicate.

Bee Balm

Bee Balm is a tall, light, airy perennial every garden should have.  I use it as a back drop for my purple and white coneflowers.  This picture doesn't do the color justice.  The flowers are a brilliant shade of pink.  However, it only flowers for a short time, so you really need to appreciate it while it's in bloom.

Fairy Tale Eggplant

These are miniature eggplants, that produce bicolor fruit. They are planted in a 15 gallon pot, along with flat leaf parsley and another eggplant, Gretel, which produces small finger sized white fruit.  Eggplants do very well in pots, as long as they are planted in full sun.

Gazpacho

I roasted 4 lbs of hot house tomatoes, and a couple of romas on the grill so I could make roasted tomato gazpacho. It was wonderful.  I chopped 2 fresh garlic cloves, 2 Tb each of fresh thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper and 1/4 C of extra virgin olive oil, then tossed all that with the tomatoes.  Cooked them on high heat on the grill for about 12 minutes

just until  they started to blacken; turned them about 4 times, kept the grill covered. Put the tomatoes back in the left over marinade, and let them cool;  pureed it. Then added all the veggies you would with a typical 

gazpacho. Yumblina!!!!

Raspberries & Fritters

I can't believe these  

raspberries, just picked 

them out of the garden

this evening.  I make a 

killer Raspberry Brown 

Butter Tart, won't be 

making that tonight,

but will soon and then 

I'll post the picture.

Last night we cooked 

these fresh sweet corn

and basil fritters on the

cast iron skillet on the grill. 

  Delicious.

Back Home

After a long weekend away from home, I am very anxious to get to the back yard.  As a matter of fact, coming home from a trip, picking up the dog from her 'spa kennel', my husband says to me as we pull into the driveway " you just go into the house and out into the backyard and I'll bring things in."  I walk the perimeter slowly, checking for changes.  To my delight, everything is good, all is well, some have grown.  The ORBIT'S SPRINKLER CONTROLLER  worked again, in addition to my in ground system.  (Of course, the vegetables need more water than the lawn and flower beds.)  As pictured above, the grapes were still growing and untouched by the birds or squirrels.  The red cabbage, which I have planted  amongst the flower beds along with broccoli and brussel sprouts in order to maximize my veggie garden space, is thriving.  And the golden beets are shoving themselves out of the garden bed.  So, it looks like going up to the 10th Mountain Hut System at 11,000 feet  near Aspen to volunteer for 3 days to ready the 24 bed hut for winter was a good thing for all..

Nesting robins

Can you see the Robin?  She is sitting on her nest in the weeping cherry tree in our front yard.  We like this.  Last year, another robin, made her nest above the light fixture on the garage wall.   What an odd place for a nest, not protected or hidden and completely exposed to outside elements.  The year before that, we had left our live Christmas wreath on the front door a few months past the holidays (since we live in Colorado, and there is snow through spring, the wreath was festive).  Anyway, we discovered that a house wren made a nest in the wreath on the front door in late March.  Talk about odd.  We attempted to use the garage door for the next month.  Sometimes we would forget and walk out the front door, and the mama bird would fly off the nest.  She actually had 5 babies, and was out quite a bit searching for food.  But I'd rather the birds make their nest in the trees.

Wheat Grass

This is wheat grass growing in my backyard.  It is a perennial in Colorado.  I plan on drying the wheat chaffs to use along with my dried hops in the Wild Grain Soap Bar for my Natural Soap line.

Tomatoes

You can see that my Roma tomato's are coming on, so I am pleased.  I also planted San Marzano, Yellow Pear, Sweet 100's,  and  Patio

tomatoes.

Rain, rain and more rain

We are getting a lot of rain here in the Denver area.  I took a picture from my front porch looking out to the street.  I wanted you to get a feel for how it was pouring.  Now this doesn't go on all day, it's usually in the afternoon, but it's a good amount.  Don't know if you can see the water running down the sides of the street or not.  On the bright side, the plants are LOVING it.   There are so many wonderful nutrients in rain water.  The weather people are saying that it should subside tomorrow evening, meaning one more afternoon of rain.  What I find amazing is when I get up at 5:30 in the morning, I can hear my neighbors sprinklers ch..ch..ching along.  What is wrong with these people?  Don't they know how/when to shut off their sprinklers?  They will be the same people that wonder why they have mushrooms coming up in their yards.

FRONT PLANTER

 
These tall flowers are in the front yard by the split rail fence.  Yellow coreopsis in the background on the left,  then red hot pokers, two different colors of delphiniums followed by daylilies.  When the sunlight hits these flowers they seem to sparkle.

Apache Plume

What a terrific perennial. 
I love this Apache Plume
in the middle of my Stella d'oro
day lilies (which, by the way,
bloom all summer).  It is such 
an underused shrub. You only 
need one, it's a show stopper, 
and this is only it's second year.

Garden Goodness

Freckles romaine, spinach, kale, swiss chard and snap peas from the garden.  It can't get any fresher or faster to the table than that.
Bon Appetite

Summer is here!!!

Welcome to my backyard. 
It's going to be 90 degrees
today. Everything 
is watered, the poppies are
blooming, the veggies are
growing... life is good.