June 19, 2022- mid summer approaches

We are almost at the longest day. It has been a long several months. It has been a busy time with much work that needed to be done. I am only partially talking about the garden.

I do love this time of year, when I can get out into the garden very early in the morning. That can be as early as 5:15. It does mean that sometimes you get out to the garden at 6:15. and feel like you are already late.

After a week of hot dry weather, a number of plants, particularly the annuals, are starting to be stressed. The sprinkler is back in use. We had over two inches of rain the previous week. That provided a decent amount of moisture, for a while. That meant that weeds in some parts of the garden will still come out.

It is actually not that hot. Friday evening it was comfortable spending 20 minutes outside, weeding.

It is 5:15 on Saturday morning.

The early morning bird shift has begun. I just turned on the backyard sprinkler. With no rain in sight for 5-6 days, the sprinkler will get some regular use. I rotate the sprinkler around the yard. I let it go on one area for perhaps 90 minutes and then move on. It makes you feel somewhat productive to have your machines doing work early in the morning. 

Last weekend we went to the dump. Julia actually went along as we had some recycling to do there. I got a refill of the city compost. With four recycle tubs of compost in reserve at this point, I have had the ability to pot up some of the nicer hosta that were too close together. These hosta have been selling quite well,  in the backyard plant sale to feed people. One day this week we came home over the noon hour to find $100 in the mailbox. I do think there is a fair number of people who just stop by regularly.

I wanted to write about one of my new favorites- the Martagon lilies, also known as Turk's cap lilies. They are blooming now. They seem to fill in the flower card for early to mid June.

The first two pictures are of Guinea Gold. I got it in the fall of 2020. So this is its second year. The literature says that sometimes the plant does not do well in the first year. OK. Sometimes apparently it can not do so well as to not come up. But you must wait for the second year. This means marking the location is important.

Ordering plant labels is one more thing on the to do list.

The goal is to have many flowers, lasting a few weeks.

This is Mahogany Bells.

This is Golden Green.

This one is Arabian Knights.

Martagon lilies are their own species, within the genus lilium.

I find about 10 varieties in commerce. I have 7 of them with a few more coming.

Other facts:

They are suppose to grow in the part shade. I have a lot of that. 

They are described as highly toxic to cats. You would think that would mean that cats should just not eat the plant. But no - it's worse. It can be a problem if the cat brushes up against the plant getting the pollen on its fur. That can then be ingested when the cat cleans itself. 

They are listed as deer resistant. Maybe. For the moment the deer have left these beauties alone. Perhaps it is because I do not put them right on the edge of a path. I will take nothing for granted. I have had deer eat Christmas cactus. 

I have gotten about 3-4 of these Martagon lilies each of the last 2 years. I just ordered another 3. One of them is all white.

They do seem to get bigger each year. I do not know why I find that surprising.

The orchid cactus are blooming.

This plant is one of the larger ones. It has had maybe 6-7 blooms in the last 2 weeks, with maybe another 2 still to come.

Its neighbor is a yellow one. So far it has only one big bud. I read about fertilizing. I should do more of that. Sometimes there is just too much to do.

The amaryllis are living up to expectations.

I will have to get over to the sunny garden plot in the next few days. I expect all the plants will need water.

This nice waterlily bloomed yesterday. 

Julia's recipe

Buttermilk custard

Several months ago, I goofed up when making yogurt and so I ended up with 2 quarts of sort of sour but uncoagulated milk. This was not the plan, but one adapts. Philip made panna cotta with some of it, which was delicious (regular milk works too). I looked around for a dessert to use some of the rest of the failed yogurt, and I came across a recipe for buttermilk pudding, in an old cookbook called The Spice Cookbook. The Spice Cookbook is the source of the acorn squash (or pumpkin or other winter squash) pudding which has been posted herein. 

The ingredients;

1/2 cup soft butter (one stick);

1/2 teaspoon mace;

2/3 cup sugar;

3 eggs;

3 tablespoons flour;

1/2 teaspoon salt;

1/2 teaspoon lemon rind;

2 cups buttermilk;

2 teaspoons vanilla; and

a bit of freshly grated nutmeg.

Mace is good. A mixture of nutmeg and cinnamon totaling 1/2 teaspoon would work. Lemon rind is nice, but not essential in my opinion.

I sprayed a souffle-type baking dish and set the oven for 325 degrees. 

I started by beating the butter until it was creamy and

then adding the mace and sugar and beating some more. 

When the butter mixture was smooth, I added the eggs one a a time (not pictures), beating after each egg.

Then I added the flour and the lemon zest and the salt and beat that in too. 

Next I added the vanilla to the sour milk/failed yogurt. I then poured this mixture into the butter/sugar/flour mixture, beating while pouring the liquid in slowly. I mixed it well to make sure the flour was thoroughly incorporated.  

I poured the mixture into the prepped baking dish, and I sprinkled some freshly grated nutmeg over the top. 

When the oven was preheated, I put the baking dish into a bigger baking dish. When the whole rig was in the oven, I carefully poured an inch or so of hot water into the outer pan. 

I baked the pudding/custard for about an hour. As with all custards, the way you know it's done is when it doesn't slosh (no wave action) when you pull it out of the oven. And when a knife (like from the dinner table) stuck into the middle of the custard comes out clean. 

This took about 55 or 60 minutes. Your oven may be different than mine. Keep an eye on it after 45 minutes. 

 And here it is. It needs to cool for a bit. Take it out of the hot water bath so it cools off more quickly. 

There is a thin slightly cakey layer at the bottom with the buttery custard on top. It's good plain or with fruit. 

Odds and Ends

There is still the occasional deer damage. They got some nice lilium the other day. On the other hand I made an interesting observation the other day. There was a group of fat lilium buds right next to a clump of summer phlox. The phlox were topped and the lilium was not. Maybe phlox are tastier.

We got to the greenhouse west of Wellman on Friday. Julia had a court date in Washington, a town in that direction. The greenhouse, Reha's,  is a family owned business about 30 miles from Iowa City. We had not found the time to get there this garden year. They are less expensive than Iowa City stores. They have good succulents and a selection of hoyas, in addition to the usual greenhouse selections.

I got another flat of impatiens. By this time of year the plants are a little leggy. I will top them all, putting the cuttings in little jars. They take about a week to start roots and can go into the ground in about 3 weeks. Then you have twice as many plants as you started with.

I really should stop writing and get outside. It is a little cool which is a lovely sensation.

This was odd. Any idea what it is? We encountered it on out walk.

It was a mushroom, unlike one I had ever seen.

I encountered a vendor at the farmer's market yesterday who sold me a pot of alstroemeria. While I had always enjoyed the cut flower, I had never seen the plant for sale. At $4 what could I lose. It wants sun and is zone 6. That means it might survive the winter, if it was mild. It is suppose to bloom all summer.

I will close again with Shirley poppies. They are suffering from a lack of moisture, but managed to provide these pretty pictures.

Pray for peace in the world and peace in our own country.

Philip