Vibrant, Cheerful Yarrow

The garden is getting more colorful.  There are the pinks of the foxglove and geranium and the purples and blues of the salvia and catmint.  There are the huge irises, right by the patio, but today what stands out is the yarrow.  It is almost fluorescent.

Achillea – Yarrow.  Here is another attempt to show the yarrow with the three patches of blue from the salvia and catmint.  If you zoom in to the salvia way in the back of the picture just to the right of the tree this is what you will see.

Blue hill salvia.  Salvia has a very strong odor I dislike, but the bees love it and frequent it all summer.  I love these huge bumble bees that zone in on these spiky flowers.  When the salvia stops looking good it can be cut back so that it blooms again later in the summer.

Another patch of yarrow is in the vegetable garden.  I tied it up earlier, which is fortunate since this plant can smother other plants.  Here I have put up some cages to prepare for cucumbers and tomatoes which are starting to grow taller.  It could get to be a tangled mess!  Also in this picture are yellow kale flowers, sage flowers and purple clematis.

Close up of yarrow with tiny red spider.

Veronica – spike speedwell – royal candles.  The spike speedwell are turning a brighter purple.  In the background is black-eyed susan foliage, miscanthus – morning light, red-hot poker foliage, and between the spike speedwell clumps is pennisetum little bunny ornamental grass.

Freshly picked strawberry.  Organic strawberries are $5 a pound at Whole Foods.  I have been picking between a pound and half a pound of strawberries every day for the past few days.  Every once in a while I get a really funny looking strawberry like this one.  I love eating them right out of the garden and thinking about all those vitamins I am getting from eating them fresh!  I have made rhubarb-strawberry sauce a few times, too, which is great over a little ice cream!

Solidago fireworks goldenrod tied up to keep it tidy.  I pinch off the taller plants to keep them from flopping over and to get them to bloom a little later.  I finally finished pinching off the goldenrod, phlox, and sedum.  I also pruned the dry flowers off the lilacs.  My back is a little tired, but that is done for this year!

Getting ready for an extended winter harvest!  We pulled up some more sod, put down sand, compost, manure and good soil and mixed it up.  Now we will let it sit for a month to settle and get the biological life boosted up before we either plant vegetable seeds or transplant in plants that we will harvest under a low plastic hoop in the fall and winter.  We thought we would start small and see how this works.

Centaurea – cornflower.  I called this bachelor’s button last week, which it may be, but I purchased it as cornflower.

Seen in the garden this week:  A black swallowtail butterfly of some kind.  I could not tell if it was a spicebush swallowtail or not, as it was flying around wildly.  Also, we have had many visits from the hummingbird, who seems to especially enjoy the pineapple sage and the catmint.

Garden eats: We have a lot of leaf lettuce, a good portion of which is arugula, which has quite a strong flavor.  Dan has been putting it in his smoothie, but Phil and I think the strong flavor is not muted by all the berries and fruit, so we seek out the less bitter lettuce leaves to gobble up.