Bonfires and Blooms: Summer Solstice in the Garden

This Saturday will be the Summer Solstice, otherwise known as Litha, which celebrates the longest day of the year.  Aside from the traditional bonfire, (which seems counterintuitive in summer heat, but is lit to celebrate the power of the sun at its strongest), one important activity is the gathering of herbs on this day.  The powers of herbs are supposed to be at their peak on Litha, so it's a perfect time to gather them for drying and using throughout the rest of the year.  I have my eye on a lovely dehydrator that I found online, but in the meantime, I'll be harvesting the herbs and hanging them to dry in a dark, dry place with good air circulation (so they don't get moldy).

So many things are blooming right now that it's hard to list them all.  The Rose of Sharons are one of the lovelier things blooming right now; these are not roses at all, but large deciduous shrubs that have single or double flowers of various colors.  Some people refer to these as altheas, although their botanical name is Hibiscus syriacus.

Hibiscus syriacus, otherwise known as Rose of Sharon

Hydrangeas are another wonderful thing that are starting to bloom now.  Both oakleaf hydrangeas and mophead hydrangeas are in bloom; I can't decide which one I like better.  The pink one below is in bloom today at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  It's hard in Atlanta to get pink blooms on a hydrangea because of our acidic soil (acidic soil produces blue flowers on hydrangeas).  There are a few new varieties that stay pink despite the pH level, though; the one pictured below is evidently one of these.

A pink hydrangea macrophylla

Oakleaf Hydrangea

One of my favorite flowers, the daylilies, have started blooming in earnest, and even though each bloom is only open for a single day (hence the name), the succession of blooms is such that you don't notice the spent ones.  I have two new ones in my garden this year (H. 'Butter Curls' and H. 'Golden Prize') that I got at the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Garden Envy auction in the spring.  The 'Butter Curls' is already one of my favorites because of the ruffly edges of its creamy yellow petals.

Hemerocallis 'Butter Curls'



'Kwanzo Double' daylily

H. 'Golden Prize'

A zinnia that came up in the walkway; I didn't have the heart to remove it.

The roses are lovely again, and the bee balm is finally in full display (The bees are ecstatic about this last development.).   Bee balm, or monarda, is the herb used to brew Oswego tea (named for the Indian tribe who taught the colonists how to make it); use the small leaves just before the flower blooms for the best taste as well as the most potent medicinal value.  Paracelsus called this plant the "elixir of life;" it's good for uterine disorders, dysentery, nervous disorders, and is supposedly a safeguard against senility.


Bee Balm!

Use the extra light of the longest day of the year to enjoy your garden for as long as possible.  Plus, it's so much more comfortable than standing near a blistering bonfire. 

Wishing you happiness in spades,

M.R.S.

Don't Fear the Reaper

Harvesting vegetables, especially root crops, can be tricky (at least in my opinion).  How do you know when that perfect moment arrives, the day when your beets or carrots are at their peak of tender sweetness?  Maybe you learn by experience, by growing the same varieties over and over again.  Or maybe you mark the calendar according to the seed packet's harvest date.  I have a hard time discerning that moment in my garden, so I have to do a little test every time.  When I can't stand it any longer, I pull one up to see how it looks.  And tastes.  And only then do I know if I'm too early, or if I've waited too long and the vegetable is already past its prime. 

This weekend I was pretty much right on target harvesting my beets.  They were the perfect size and shape with a sweet taste that was perfect in the Harvard Beets  recipe I made for Sunday dinner.

Beets, cut up and ready to be steamed for dinner

The Tall Top Early Wonder beets were a beautiful pink color with stripes that held their color well after being steamed.  The sauce for the recipe was a lovely magenta that went perfectly with my side of fresh-harvested English peas (Peas are so easy; you can see and feel when they're ready to eat).

I got lucky with the beets.  I wasn't so lucky with the broccoli, which has bolted due to the heat.  I focus so much on the growing of things that I forget about the narrow window during which they need to be harvested.  I guess I think that once I plant my beets, they'll become a permanent part of the raised bed.  Makes me think of the Byrds' song "Turn Turn Turn."  To everything there is a season... a time to sow, and a time to reap. 

Speaking of reaping, a visitor has been enjoying my parsley.  I don't mind this intruder eating his weight in herbs, though, because he (or she?) will turn into a swallowtail butterfly one day.  I always plant a little extra parsley so there's some to spare for the caterpillars.

Other things being harvested right now are Bullnose Peppers, English peas, and young carrots.  The tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers are ripening, along with blueberries (I hope I get some before the birds do!). 

Spicy bell peppers growing in a container

Tomatillo

'Blue Berries' cherry tomatoes

Blooming things this week include the snapdragons that I started from seed, yarrow, roses, sedum kamschaticum, spiraea, amaryllis, beautyberry, and the marigolds I planted to be buddies for the tomatoes. 

Sedum kamschaticum

 

A real bloomin' onion

Antirrhinum majus

Tagetes erecta 'Crackerjack'

Perfection in the garden is an illusion, the daily change being the only constant.  I know I shouldn't look upon the harvest and decline of certain plants with as much apprehension as I do.  After all, there will always be something to take its place, at least until the frost puts most of the garden to bed in the fall.  And if I were smart, I would have anticipated the harvest, and planned a better succession of edibles than I did, to camouflage the new gaps.  I started a new tray of seedlings this weekend as a consolation: the holy basil, hyssop, borage, and tansy seedlings will distract me long enough to forget the yellowing pea bed and the bolted lettuce and broccoli.  Was I humming old Byrds' songs as I prepared their seed flat? It's quite possible I was.

Wishing you happiness in spades,

M.R.S.