Summer Sunflowers

I have two volunteer sunflowers this year. They're so cute! The top would be a mammoth sunflower - the variety is called Pike's Peak. The seeds are edible. I found them pretty delish after a light roasting and salting. If you've never pulled sunflower seeds off the heads in the fall, it's truly satisfying!

The bottom sunflower is a Van Gogh variety. The petals are large and soft, the seeds aren't necessarily developed for eating so you probably won't find them delish or satisfying. Because this is a hybrid, I was actually surprised to find this in my garden again this year growing so similar to last year! I thought when I saw it that it might revert to one of the parent seed traits instead of another year of Van Gogh. I will let this go to seed and drop the seeds in my front garden beds where either the squirrels can get them, or I wouldn't mind if they grew tall for people passing by on the sidewalk.

I have one other variety that is a maroon and gold (GO GOPHERS!); I purposely am growing those for my husband - he mentioned his favorite flower is a sunflower so I'm happy to accomodate that preference! Sunflowers are fun to grow and I love watching the birds try to land on the tall stalks.

Happy August!

 

Recipe - Roasted Garlic

Roasted Garlic:

Just toss all the garlic cloves, peel and all into a small oven proof saucier with salt, pepper, 2 bay leaves, and 2-3 thyme springs. Put in enough olive oil to cover everything. Put into a 325 degree oven for 35 minutes. Let cool. Separate cloves from oil - save oil in a glass jar. Smash the garlic and save that in another jar.

 Awhile ago I mentioned in my Instagram stories that Phil wrecked my garlic.

Phil, my lovely, rambunctious Labrador decided that his favorite spot to lay in the garden was right on top of my German Red Garlic. He handily destroyed it in under 2 days rolling and sunbathing. DOGS. I pulled what I could to cook with it immediately and then I left what was there to maybe give it time to mature. German Red Garlic is delicious. When it has time to mature, the cloves are large and easy to peel - and the garlic taste is fabulous. I always add 3-5 cloves of garlic into whatever I cook (because anything less is... not garlic. LOL).

First you have to pull the garlic and peel it. Because it had already fallen over from the dog, the bulbs were easy to pull from the ground and I left them outside in the sun for a good 3 days. I wanted the first few layers of the peel to dry to make it easier to work with. All the discards will go back into my compost pile.

I used a Le Creuset saucier. Separate and smash the cloves from the bulbs, don't worry about the paper peel - just toss all the cloves into the pot. Cover with a hefty layer of olive oil until everything is covered. Add salt, pepper, 2 bay leaves, and a couple sprigs of thyme. Put into a 325 degree oven for 35 - 40 minutes. Your house should smell amazing.

It's still bubbling here when I took it out of the oven. Wait for the pot to cool. You wil have to handle each clove with your hands, so give it a good amount of time to cool.

Then, I used a strainer to separate the majority of the infused garlic oil into a separate jar.

The garlic is soft enough that if you prefer, you can just smash it with a spatula. 

I will cook with the infused garlic oil, make salad dressings with it, drizzle over salmon or chicken or beef or vegetables. The infused oil is DELICIOUS, it ups your cooking to the next level. With the roasted garlic, I will add it to anything that I normally make with regular garlic - this just adds a different and more delicious flavor. I especially like to make soups and stews with it, I feel like it adds depth and a better garlic flavor.

Enjoy!

July Flowers in My Garden

I am embarrassed to admit that I don't know what these fun annuals are. But they're fun, bright, and they keep blooming through these super hot July days.

Yellow Snapdragons 

Strawflowers. This is my second year growing them and I absolutely LOVE them! They're easy to start from seed, easy to plant, and easy to grow. I do water deeply every few days though because they are annuals I feel as if they need a little extra attention in the garden.

Big bumble on my milkweed

Coleus. I started it all from seed this year, like last year and ended up with too much. That's ok though because I have enough shade that I was able to fit it all into my yard. I truly love coleus because it gives my shady areas pops of color - usually shady areas are very green and this helps to give it a variety of color.

Daylily

Daylily

 

Starting Cool Weather Crops in the Heat of Summer

 It's really difficult to start cool weather crops when it's 90+ degrees outside. Right now we're in the middle of a cyclosporis outbreak - it's in lettuce and other greens sold by a large corporation. This particular poop lettuce is contaminated by feces, specifically HUMAN FECES. So lately in garden groups and on sites like Threads I have seen many, many people commenting to "grow your own" and "it doesn't take long." Well, let me tell you... these are cool weather crops and they don't like to grow in 90 degrees.

I started this lettuce outside in the shade about 3 weeks ago. The temperature, including overnight lows has not been any lower than 75 degrees. Cool weather crops like the lower end of spring temps which means lows at night can be in the 40's and these babies THRIVE. I should probably bring this in and put it in my basement for the cool basement air but I did this as an experiment to show people that you can't just plant seeds expecting them to do what you want them to do. Each variety you plant has needs, and they don't necessarily align with your particular microclimate.

So during this outbreak, don't worry, it's not just YOUR lettuce that's not growing - the cool weather crops don't like the heat of summer!

I started Spinach, Arugula, and a heat tolerant lettuce where I pulled out garlic today. I also sprinkled in some radishes - my family doesn't like radishes but I do. I will happily snack and munch on radishes along with adding them to tacos and any salad bowls I make. The spot where these are planted is shaded until about 11 am; then it gets shady again around 5:30-6pm-ish. If these do well, I'll have to make a note to succession these in this spot again.

I also did another succession of cilantro. These seeds were planted two weeks ago. I keep this pot in part shade ALL DAY. Even in the shade, the cilantro struggles because it is a cool weather loving herb - the heat tends to send it to seed extremely quickly. I haven't found a good heat tolerant variety yet.

And I do have to water it twice daily. For being an herb easily found in grocery stores, it sure can be a picky one to grow!

For those wondering, I'm a Zone 5B grower, in St Louis Park, Minnesota. This summer has been rainy to start, and the heat at 90+ degrees has now been on every day for the last two weeks. It has only rained once in the last week and a half. I have now had to deeply water a few times over the last few days because it has been so dry!

If you're starting a succession of cool weather crops, just remember that in their ideal conditions (think early spring) the weather is VERY different - cooler and wetter - you can imitate those conditions by starting under grow lights in a basement, but if you want less work, just start outside in a more shady area. You can start in pots in shade, then move to a sunnier spot as fall moves in. But don't be hard on yourself if they don't grow - succession gardening is pushing the boundaries of the varieties that you're growing and not always growing in ideal conditions. I see every year as an experiement to grow more of what we eat and more of what I love to look at and what brings me joy. 

If you're planting lettuce, radishes, arugula, and other greens - good luck!

Tiger Lily In July

My Tiger Lily is just gorgeous this year! Last year as a thank you gift, I received a gift card to Bachmann's so I bought several perennials. I used to want to plant natives only, but I have found that all plants make me happy and I will just choose whatever I want... damn the garden groups to the back shade! Plus, isn't this beautiful? 

You can see the progression here of the blooms. This plant is at least 6 inches taller than me - it's supposed to be about 48 inches tall but it's at least 12 inches taller than that. I'm pretty pleased with its growth considering this is the first full growing year in my yard.

I put rabbit fencing around it and it is in partial shade. It is fully shaded until about 11 am when the sun comes into the backyard. 

It's so fun having something that doesn't bloom expectedly. I love catching glimpses of it when I'm out in the backyard. Tiger lilies are so fun to see and watch progress over the couple weeks they are in bloom. I'm hoping for a second stalk to grow next year. I'm not sure how much of a spreader this one is, so we'll have to wait and see next year.

 

Wildfires in the BWCA; Smoke Where I Live

 There have been wildfires in the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota over the last few days. The wind finally carried all the smoke our way. It is truly a terrible sight to see. As we were driving to the Minnesota Zoo last night, we actually saw the wall cloud of smoke moving into the Twin Cities. By the time our Wanderlight Trail experience was done at the Zoo, we were definitely breathing in smoke and you can taste it too. It's not fun. I woke up with a terrible headache - it didn't occur to me to turn off our window AC unit, so that was pumping in the hazardous air all night (and part of this morning until I realized what was happening and I turned it off). I will probably edit this post later to add my screen shots of the temp and AQI - it's currently well over 300!

This is driving home from the grocery store this morning.

Here's what I woke up to when I opened the curtains. It's not humidity haze... it's smoke!

And the bright red sun. Quite a few years ago I was reading an article and some science-y journals about what makes the sunsets and sunrises so pretty - and the consensus came to pollutants in the air. My mind was blown. And here's picture proof - the sun is a gorgeous red coming up in that smoke and it makes me so sad.

We have one more day of temps in the 90s - I think 96 is our high tomorrow and then the heat dome finally collapses and we're back down in the 80s for usual July temps here in St Louis Park. It's too rough to even do the pool today, I'm hoping it gets windy overnight enough to move the smoke or if it rains, it will bring the particles down to the ground and move it out of the atmosphere.

Stay healthy, friends!

Hiking & Biking with Cows

 We visited family in Colorado a few weeks ago. Usually while we're there we do hiking and biking. There was a fun trail in the open space behind the AirBnB we stayed in that was open to cattle ranchers for grazing their herds. We saw cows and calves AND a bull. It was a fun surprise to find cows on our path! We made sure to hike and bike it to be able to experience it both ways. What a fun way to start our days. Loved it - it's the open space by Costco & Target in Superior, closer to Eldorado Canyon.

Family Hike to Lost Lake via Hessie Trail

 

Brief Stop at Mount Rushmore

 

This year's annual trip to Colorado was a little different. We're so used to driving 169 south to Nebraska but we've driven it so many times that we decided to drive through South Dakota and Wyoming instead. 

 

We enjoyed a very, very brief stop at Mount Rushmore on our way to Rapid City for the night. 

 

 

It's sort of a bucket list item and also not. Historically speaking, Mount Rushmore is a pretty big deal but modern times... we forget the history of America. The people who built this needed money and were hired to construct it... and also died. I found the environment and where it's located and the views to be incredible, it was so pretty to drive to and drive through. I would actually go back to stay to see more of the land and national park around it.

 

Also to note: you do not have to enter the park to see Mount Rushmore. There's a little pull off area on the highway. 

 

Fun Summer Herbs

 

 

 Red Rubin Basil is such a fun variety to grow. However, if you cook with it - it doesn't always look as appetizing as the green Basil. I have learned the hard way. LOL. It does taste good, but it does look like a wet, limp, rotting leaf by the time you serve a salad if you serve it dressed. Also, looks wet and limp and sad when served in place of green Basil in pasta dishes if you do not inform people of what it is. Again, I have learned the hard way, always tell people it's purple Basil. Grows the same as the other green varieties, and will bolt unless you keep it trimmed and well watered.

 

 

This is pineapple mint. In the school garden we plant mint every year because for whatever reason it doesn't actually survive. I KNOW. Usually it takes over everything and I happily planted oregano in certain spots to take over where invasives were starting to creep in. That worked, but oregano also takes over. This pineapple mint is not my exact favorite for eating but it does taste good in infused water and also over pancakes if cut extremely small with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. It's sweet and minty with (obviously) and hint of pineapple flavor. Smells divine!