July 7, 2024- high summer is officially here

High summer is officially here. We know that because the cicadas are finally here. They are not the freight train as described in some places. That may still come.But they are the regular background noise, at least until the fireworks started, giving off their drum roll from across town.

At least for a few days there has been cooler weather. Actually much of this past week had below normal morning temeratures. Saturday morning it was in the upper 50's as the birds were up at about 5am. So was I. 

The rain continues. We had two inches Tuesday night, complete with tornado sirens. Apparently a barn was damages south of town. 

The orchid cactus continue to bloom.

This pink flowering one has been blooming for three weeks. The flowers last one day. They will bloom during the day.

The yellow one also has a few buds yet to bloom. Two opened Saturday night. This picture was taken about 8pm.

Joining the duo with the much anticipated buds, are the actually cactus. I will look again about 9:30 Saturday evening to see if they are going to open now. 

Here is a picture as dawn arrives today.

The weeds continue to grow. 

Yesterday was a tiring day. I was in garden by 6:15. We are cleaning beds, making them look good for some garden tourists next weekend. A place to start is to clean the edges. If you clean the edges it makes it seem more doable to clean into the beds. 

You want to make every corner of the garden looking its best. Maybe the goal should be to have it all presentable.  

We are still growing seeds for later this year. I planted zinnia seeds last weekend. I had almost 100% germination by Thursday. The 5 flats of ornamental kale are doing well, off site.

I am getting the back driveway cleaned up for the ongoing plant sale for the food banks. We just passed the $5000 mark for the year. Quite frankly I would rather be raising money for Democrats. But I made the decision to be sort of non partisan 5 years ago. 

This week we separated out the side shoots for the voodoo lilies and the sansevierias. Each sansevieria plant is pretty much for sure going to send up at least one side shoot each winter.

The lilium that survived the deer are doing well.

This is Pizzazz. The first of its variety opened yesterday.

This is Conca d'Or. It is listed as blooming in late July or early August. We may be a little early this year.

I think this is Anastasia. It does face down, unlike the previous two lilies.

The blackberry lilies have started. just in the last few days. That is another plant I think of as blooming in August.

I will write more about these plants in the next few weeks. 

I continue to splash the caladium around the garden. I had planted 100 jumbo bulbs. I have sold about 75. The remaining ones are down on the sale table. Those that do not sell are being splashed around in parts of the garden that are weeded.

Of course I have another 50 jumbo caladium bulbs arriving on Monday. I hope to have them up and moving into the garden by August 1. They are really interesting colors. I did not buy the variety named Frog in a Blender. I was actually a little put off by the name.

Julia's recipe

Zucchini Medley

It's farmer's market time, and so there is plenty of fresh produce to combine into tasty side dishes. I had zucchini, onion, peppers, garlic and tomato avaiable recently, and here's what I did with it. Nothing like fresh vegetables.   

The ingredients:

1 medium zucchini (about 2 cups, cut into chunks);

1 cup coarsely chopped onion;

1 cup peppers, cut into about 1/2" squares;

1 tablespoon chopped garlic (no need to smush);

about 1 cup of chopped tomato;

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes; and

1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, as needed).

I started with the zucchini. The problem with this kind of vegetable medley is that it can get really watery. So I decided to dry out the zucchini. 

I cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and seeded it. Then I cut each half in half lengthwise again and chopped the resulting quarters into chunks, about 1/2" across. 

I made this dish when we were in Chincoteague, where there is a microwave. I microwaved the zucchini for about 20 minutes, stopping it from time to time to stir things around. The result was zucchini pieces that held their shape and were kind of dry. 

I don't have a microwave, so I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. I put the zucchini pieces on a silpat-lined 

rimmed baking sheet and baked the pieces for about 10 minutes. 

Further pictures below. 

Next, I cut up all the other vegetables, starting with the garlic. 

Here's the zucchini going into the oven.

Preparing the rest of the vegetables, each in its own little bowl. 

I put the olive oil in a non-stick skillet and added the onion. After a few minutes, I added the garlic with the red pepper flakes and salt...

followed by the peppers.

When the zucchini pieces were a bit dried out, I took them out of the oven. The zucchini pieces were a bit smaller and not wet. It took about 10 minutes. I checked on the zucchini part way through and stirred the pieces around.

I added the zucchini pieces and stirred everything around.

Lastly I added the tomatoes. No need to add any liquid, as the tomatoes were moist enough to do the trick. 

I put a lid on the pan and cooked the mixture for just a few minutes more. 

And here it is on the table. We had lamb chops and roasted potatoes and corn and salad. Great meal.

We had some roast potatoes left over, as well as some of the zucchini medley, so we combined them and they will be a lovely luncheon dish, warm or cold. 

Odds and Ends

We do watch a little baseball. This can be difficult as we are Chicago Cub fans. I had to chuckle at a story in the news Saturday morning. The Pittsburgh Pirates, like many teams, shoot off fireworks when one of their players hits a home run. Well, Friday night the Pirates hit seven home runs. Apparently they ran out of fireworks, before they got to the end of the hitting display.

The deer, after focusing on the lilium early in June, finally discovered a taste for the daylilies. I should have sprayed more. One nice clump of a hybridized daylily was munched the other night. They just eat the buds. Well this clump had one of those ditch lilies growing with it. Those deer ate the hybrid buds and left the ditch lilies alone.

One project for the next few months is to reduce the number of plants in several beds. There are just too many to look good. 

With all the rain the mosquitos are here. I really hate dousing myself with repellant before I go out in the morning. It helps if there is a breeze.

The world remains a scary place. I try not to peak out from under the covers very often. 

Pray for peace. Pray that the bad people do not get elected. Pray for whatever is the opposite of being tired. 

Philip