The flower field and the garden have finally exploded into beautiful colors, textures and delicious foods! Like any year, we’ve had successes and a few failures too. While we were on an early vacation, the heat here became intense with little for rainfall so we lost some of our dahlias and other plants (I know, we must get an irrigation system for the flowers!). But, all in all, there is so much to celebrate! Here is a glimpse of the beauty on the farm right now…
This is my first year growing snapdragons and I am smitten with them. The colors are so lovely and the spiky aspect they add to bouquets has become a favorite of mine.
I love Zinnias because they do beautifully direct sown and are quick to flower. Plus, the newest color combinations are to die for. They just seem to add happy to any arrangement.
Chocolate Ammi is one of my very favorite flowers to add to arrangements! On one plant you will get several color variations, from almost white to dark chocolate. It adds a beautiful wispy and airy quality to anything it’s added to and the dramatic color is perfection.
The hydrangeas have finally started rolling in and some of them are huge. I find that one of my favorite ways to use hydrangeas is massed together. It doesn’t get any simpler than that!
In addition to all the flowers we have rolling in, we have lots of vegetables and fruit too. I’m a big believer in growing beautiful food and I often pick varieties that taste wonderful but are pretty too. Such is the case with the swiss chard I grow. While I do grow the most popular variety of swiss chard, Rainbow, my favorite one to grow is Peppermint. I mean just look at that color!
By far, the thing that has delighted me the most this year are the peaches that we’ve gotten off of the peach tree that we planted three years ago. It has cranked out so very many peaches and they are delicious! There is something crazy satisfying to me about going out to our tree and picking fruit.
The blackberry bush has also outdone itself. I keep picking basketfuls of the berries with the intention of making my favorite blackberry and sage jam, but they keep getting eaten before I even have the chance!
We’ve also harvested the lavender. Unfortunately, a fair amount of our lavender did not survive our wet winter and spring but those that did produced a wonderful array of lavender that we will dry and debud to use in all sorts of different ways.
So tell me, what’s beautiful that’s growing in your garden?
