Paula saw insect droppings and holes in the basil.Then she saw this jumping spider eating a caterpillar! A healthy yard ecosystem leaves room for some chewing on our food plants because the herbivores have natural predators.
Notes from the Chef: “a cream and wine sauce with basil leaves to cover the onion, zucchini, squash, and sausage mix.” Claire’s note: onion and basil from the garden. “The potatoes were cooked with pecan oil, salt, and garden sage. When they started to crisp on the bottom, I added a cup of chicken stock and white wine with garden lemon balm leaves stirred in to steam.” The pecan oil was a gift from Mom and Dad. Walking onions are the garnish.
Paula’s Escobaria vivipara cactus continues to bloom beautifully in the daytime. It was cloudy. I’m not sure if that matters for it to bloom. A very frilly summer iris begins… I think this one is from Judy?The standing cypress is really going now with multiple plants in full bloom!The Chef made a delicious pizza with fresh basil and oregano from the yard. I believe this is a safflower that sprouted from the bird seed. I believe these are our two different sunflowers species. The one on the left has narrower and wavy edged leaves; we think/hope it’s Helianthus petiolaris (both Mom and another friend have given us seeds). The one on the right has big broad leaves and I think is an offspring of the Helianthus annuus that volunteered last year. Ironweed is starting to bud. Greeneyes is about to bloom!The blackberries are starting to ripen! These are wild volunteers dug from Mom and Dad’s house. Last but definitely not least, on Tuesday morning I woke up and emerged to find Gram happily snuggling the Doggie. Briar seemed to understand she could not move as is the cat rule. She was not unhappy though. Eventually he got up to look out the newly opened window so she was released so she could scratch an itch haha.
I got tired of competing with cats for limited shelf space with still-insufficient sunlight. So I got a plant growing light from online! I’m hoping it will perk up the sad basils which have been spending too much time in the garage and are a pain for us to tote in and out of the garage and house for sunny afternoons. This is safely away from cats in the guest room. Once the peppers and other seedlings are up, they will also get this good strong light.
The rosemary was unhappy near the raised beds as the irrigation leaked there. The roots were rotting. The second plant was almost dead. Hopefully it will be drier here. Basil getting some sun. We’ve been nursing it along with nights in the garage. This Euphorbia maculata is still alive and looking lovely. Wes did some wine bottling today. The muscadine grapes were from the farm share and the elderberries were from our yard!Shackleton was enjoying scritches and sunshine until Briar showed up to gaze admiringly. He does not like the dog.