I Love It!

I love it when I catch a bee mid-flight. I have a few of these photos and each time I capture one it just makes me smile, I don’t know why. I think it’s perhaps because their little legs are dangling or perhaps because these bumble bees look as though they shouldn’t be able to fly.

When I downloaded my photos yesterday this one brought a smile to my face, I thought I’d share a smile with you today!

What brings a smile to your face?

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Quote of the Day: Lee May

A child who learns from gardening is a child who is unlikely to robotically walk around with dead eyes.

-Lee May

I grew up gardening, when I was younger we grew most of our own food. To be honest I hated gardening when I was young, most of the time. I liked picking interesting things to plant out of the catalogues, my mom always let us pick fun stuff, like blue corn or blue potatoes.

Do you think gardening is good for kids, for those of you with kids, how do you get yours involved and interested in gardening?

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My Favorite Pepper: Cayenne

I picked this great cayenne pepper in the garden yesterday, I thought it looked like a big waxed mustache. I tried to get Lucy to oblige me for a photo, but she doesn’t like to have her photo taken, so this is the best I could get as she tried to bite the stem.

I grew cayenne peppers this year because I love love love hot food, and I find myself often adding cayenne powder or red pepper flakes to my food. I’m not a huge pepper fan, they give me terrible indigestion, but cayenne peppers are a different story.

I’ve been drying them whole and in slices dehydrator. I’m planning on crushing them all to make red pepper flakes.

I also dried some jalapeño slices. I’m still harvesting and drying, but I think I should have 3 cups of pepper flakes before the end of the season. That should last me till next year.

Have you ever grown one of your favorite spices/herbs?

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Three Sisters Garden Harmony

So far my 3 sisters garden has been doing really well at my mom’s house. The beans started blooming a few weeks ago, so I snapped this photo because I thought it was quite lovely how they work together.

Since the corn is planted close together I can’t get into the middle of the patch to pick beans. So I decided to let the beans mature into shelling beans. When I harvest the corn it should be time to harvest the shelling beans as well. Since it’s our popcorn it will stay on the stalks until it’s dry.

Anyone else trying the 3 sisters garden, or another method of companion planting?

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Volunteer Marigolds

I have these volunteer marigolds that grew up in the same spot I had some planted last year. They’re just starting to bloom prolifically and they’re so nice. I’m not a huge fan of marigolds, but they’re so pretty this time of year, they really look nice with all the fall colors that are starting to appear.

As you can see these are growing in a raised bed that I have a makeshift fence around since I have my late beans planted in this bed. I know the deer and the groundhogs would love nothing more than tender bean plants, so I have some chicken wire panels leaned up around it to protect my bean harvest.

When it comes to colors of flowers, I’m much more of a pink/white/purple lover. I’m really happy that my ‘Endless Summer’ Hydrangea is blooming now, despite being mauled by deer this past winter. I was thinking I wouldn’t see any color from it at all.

What colors of flowers are your favorite?

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