Garlic Extravaganza!

My enclosed porch smells like garlic! Ahhhhh, I love that smell. Yesterday I dug up about 20 heads, and I left about 10 heads in the ground to mature a little more. Some of the heads were nice and big, but most were on the smallish side. That doesn't surprise me, because we have had a really cold and rainy summer. Not much sunshine and heat, so I'm sure my tomatoes will take their sweet time getting ripe, too. It's only the middle of July, and we do have almost 90 days until frost, so we have some time to get some warmth and sunshine in. Mother Nature, do you hear me?

With all the rain, a lot of my perennials have gotten twice as tall as they usually do. So, they are flopping all over their neighbors -- especially the yarrow and butterfly bush. This year would have been a great year to prune a bunch of stuff for height control.

I have been grilling up a storm, I just love it. No pots and pans to clean up! Yesterday I made turkey burgers and skewers of zuchinni and onion. The grilled vegetables are fantastic, they get very sweet -- especially the onions. I love summer!!

Earthbox Heaven

Look at how much my Earthbox vegetables have grown! I'm very happy with the Earthboxes, it's been very easy to just squirt the hose once a day to keep the water reservoir filled. It's amazing how much water the tomatoes go through -- 2 tomato plants use twice as much water as 6 pepper plants.

I started these tomatoes from seed under lights. No matter how many years I have gardened, it always amazes me when a teeny seed turns into something like this! Now to keep the squirrels from stealing my harvest. My mother-in-law bought me a huge container of cayenne pepper, and I'm going to sprinkle it liberally all over the tomatoes. I just hope she squirrels aren't Cajun squirrels!

In other gardening news, check out my garlic, keeping company with my Clematis Jackmanii. It's almost ready to harvest, and after I dig it up I will hang the garlic from my bookcase in the dining room to dry. I'll also harvest a bunch of dill and hang it in the hallway, and then my whole house will smell like a Kosher dill pickle.

My Munstead lavender is in full bloom, the smell is wonderful. I felt very sorry for the lavender during our heavy rains, because the poor thing likes it dry and gritty, and it was really looking bedraggled. But once the constant rains stopped and the sun came out for a few days, it bounced back and is blooming like crazy.