June 3, 2018- Summer is here

Welcome

The bird shift in Iowa City goes to work now about 4:45 a.m. The fact I know this bit of information  means I was up that early. I need to start writing at that time, before it is light enough to go work in the garden. It is Saturday morning and time to reflect on the garden as June arrives.

It has been hot, with four days this week in the 90's. There were two days where the official temperature was 97. It is sufficiently hot that you did not want to be out in the garden after mid morning.

Then there have been the bugs. Gnats have been around for a few weeks. The mosquitoes are here too. They will bite me, but not Julia. It has something to do with Mediterranean blood, or so I am told. (The bugs do not like the taste.) And when I get certain bites, it seems like they itch for days. Oh, April, how little we appreciated you at the time.

Saturday morning there was a little cool outside. It was 66 degrees with a band of rain coming, maybe by mid morning. This week it going to stay in the 80's. This is good. (The rain never did materialize.)

We did have several nice rains this week. They came every 3-4 days. They measured at least a half an inch in my unscientific bucket measurements.
There was one early Wednesday morning. I had planted some zinnia seeds the evening before. With the rain and the hear, they had sprouted by Saturday morning.

It is time to get serious about mulching. I will mulch annuals and daylilies. I try not to much hosta. They can get bugs that like all the plant material near the base of the plant.



Let me take you to some of the best pictures of the week.
#1     The color of this poppy is out of this world.

#2
Here is one of the dogwood flowers on our new little tree. I am pleased with that little tree, which is actually close to 8 feet tall at this point. It was at least 7 feet on arrival last August.
I am prepared to declare that it is worth paying the extra money and getting a tree from a regular nursery, rather than a box store. I think it had a 2-3 year warranty, which I gladly paid for.

#3  Here is the first Asiatic lilies. That does mark some point in the season.

#4 Little white orchid
This is one of the little orchids blooming at the moment. It is called falcata neofinetia. It actually blooms several times each year.

#5 Orchid cactus continues
This lovely plant continues to have wonderful flowers. There must have been about 8-9 flowers this year. I think 2 of them are still to come.

#6 Allium about to bloom

#7 A late lupine

#8 Poppy closeup

There is no voting this week again.
But I do like to hear from you. Tell me which pictures you like, or what is going on in your garden.

Bonus Pictures

It was a two waterlily day, yesterday.

Sometimes when a flower is covered by a leaf you want to move the leaf.
The pond, like the rest of the backyard, is littered with linden tree seeds. They have been particularly heavy this year.

Here is the Asiatic lily group.
They do add a splash of color.
Those lily splashes will be with us for the next two months.

Julia's recipe

Chicken/asparagus/mushroom stir-fry

About 3 weeks into asparagus season, the question of what else one might cook with asparagus surfaces. At that point, we have eaten poached asparagus and roasted asparagus, several times. We have cut up leftover asparagus and used it as part of an omelette filling. What else? Chicken/asparagus/mushroom stir-fry, that's what.

This recipe is ancient. I cut it out of the Des Moines Register, probably in the spring of 1977. I know we were living in the little brick house in Riverside, IA at the time. It's pretty fast (under an hour), and it has nice flavors and textures, and it uses asparagus as an essential ingredient.

Here are the major players: about 10 ounces of skinless, boneless chicken breast, mostly thawed out, cut into 1" to 1-1/2" chunks; 2 cups of sliced white button mushrooms; a little less than 2 cups of washed and trimmed asparagus, cut on the bias in about 1-1/2" pieces; 1/2 cup of washed and trimmed scallions, cut on the bias in about 1" pieces. Plus a marinade made of 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1-1/2 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger, and 1 tablespoon of smushed garlic. Additional ingredients: salt, pepper, cornstarch, chicken stock or water, vegetable oil.

It really is sensible to break off the tough end of an asparagus stalk wherever it breaks. The asparagus will tell you where the tough part ends. Trust the asparagus. I don't ever peel asparagus or cut off the little purplish bits along the stem. Too fussy.

Sometimes I buy whole mushrooms and slice them. Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit peaked, I buy sliced mushrooms. It's okay.

After mixing the marinade and cutting up the chicken (mine was partially frozen which facilitated chunk cutting, but completely thawed chicken is fine too), I put the chicken in the marinade and stirred it around a little and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, I heated 2 tablespoons of oil in a big skillet and added the mushrooms and the chicken, which I fished out of the marinade with a slotted spoon. I kept the marinade.

Stir-frying is not so much stirring or frying, really. I cooked the chicken and mushrooms on medium high heat stirring now and then until the chicken was no longer pink, maybe 5-7 minutes. I sprinkled the meat and mushrooms with a little salt and pepper as it was cooking.

Then I added the asparagus and the scallions and continued cooking on medium high heat and stirring now and then for another 5-7 minutes. I sprinkled in some more salt and pepper.

While the asparagus and scallions were cooking, I put 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into a little jar (with a lid) and added about 1/2 cup of cool water. If you have 1/2 cup of chicken stock on hand, by all means, use that. I screwed the lid on tight and shook it up to mix. No lumps!

Then I added the leftover marinade to the pan and brought it to a boil and boiled (gently) for a minute so any chicken-y essence in the marinade would be cooked at a boil. Then I added the cornstarch mixture and the sauce thickened up quickly. Voila. No gluten! No dairy! But of course there is chicken.

We served with American rice (not basmati). Philip added some soy sauce at the table; I did not. Personal preferences. We had a nice green salad and a surprisingly good early season watermelon. We ate with chopsticks because we can, although salad can be a challenge.

This recipe fed the two of us with leftovers for lunch later in the week. If you are feeding a crowd, the recipe can be expanded by simple arithmetic and works just fine.

Odds and Ends

Pictures can be deceiving.

Here is the corner by the house garage where there are all the lupines so far this year. That is daylily Ruby Spider right on the corner.

But if you use the panorama function on the camera you can show this result.









I planted the first caladium in the ground today. I got three varieties in April. The white ones came up first and now go in the ground first. The others are coming but, my, they have been slow.

The Project Green garden walk will be on June 23. That is three weeks from yesterday. The list of things to do before then is somewhat smaller.

The cactus are mostly in their place.
The ropes are set at the right height.
A few more annuals have to be planted.
2-3 beds still need weeding.

But the days are longer, and this week promises to be cooler.
Did I mention that Christopher, our grandson is coming for a visit? That will be in less than two weeks.
June will be a busy month.
Come by if you have a chance.
The Summer Garden is just around the corner.
Philip