Garden Party

Between us, my Lawn Man and I have five adult daughters. When we met, his Oldest was away at college. During our first year together, his Youngest went away to school too. So my friendship with them has been mostly long-distance.

After the tragic passing of their beautiful mama when they were little babies, he raised his daughters on his own, with loving support from family and close friends.

Both girls are beautiful inside and out, and easy to love.


It's been a busy year for our family, with the Oldest and her College Sweetheart announcing their plans to marry.


The festivities were held in the garden of dear friends of the groom's parents. They were wonderful hosts. It was pure pleasure being in their company.


The gardener/host in this lovely place works with the groom's mother. Coincidentally, they design and maintain gardens for their living, just like me.


This was our table for the wedding feast. And I do mean feast - the food was extraordinary.

We had a wonderful time. Our garden party was a great success.

The weather was perfect.

Every detail was beautifully realized.

This kind of joy is what life is all about.

What a privilege it is being part of this lovely family.

What a joy it has been getting to know the groom's family and friends.

The best things in Life are made from moments like these.

The enchantment, love, beauty, grace, elegance, joy, warmth of this day made memories to last a lifetime.

When children find true love, parents find true joy. Here's to your joy and ours, from this day forward.

Nasty Update

There must have been buds last weekend, but I didn't notice. I'd given up on checking for them weeks ago. I figured they were like the proverbial watched pot. Other than watering them, pinching off yellow leaves, and taking a photo for the monthly updates, the nasties have been mostly ignored. Suddenly, there are tiny buds like this all over. While there were buds here and there even during our record heat, before they developed past this stage, they would yellow and fall off (just like the leaves.)

Suddenly, with our much cooler weather, the buds are holding fast.

We even have blooms. I was so excited yesterday seeing them finally burst into bloom! Now that the weather has cooled off, hopefully we'll see lots more of these brilliant gems. They were worth waiting for!

September Nasties

The 'Spitfire' climbing nasturtiums have been growing in this pot since May. We enjoyed a few blooms early in the season, before the Chicago area experienced one of the hottest summers on record. I've read, and now seen first-hand that nasties aren't particularly fond of hot weather. Ours have continued to grow (slowly,) and produce new foliage to replace leaves that yellow and fall off. While they haven't bloomed much, they have cute round, bright green leaves.

In our area the average first frost happens mid-October, although for the last two years we haven't had frost until mid-November. With fall and cooler temperatures in the air, especially at night, we hope to see more blooms before frost does them in.

I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project. Thanks to Renee's Garden for the seeds.

Things That Make You Go "Hmmm. . . "

Can you guess what it is?

I'll give you a few hints. It was started early this spring from seeds obtained from a swap. Hmmm . . . can't remember for sure if it was Monica's mail swap, or MBT's garden show swap.


I've never seen a variegated form of this plant, and the blooms are normally completely different. Started from seed, it may take up to 3-5 years before it blooms. It would be unusual for this species to bloom the first season. Remember, this seed was started this spring.

Here's an example of another seedling in the packet. All the seeds looked basically the same, with the slight color variations normally seen in these seeds - anything from light brown, to nearly black. (The seed pods are black at maturity.)

Here are more hints: This is a native plant, and the blue-blooming variety was recently (I won't give away which year,) chosen as Perennial Plant of the Year.

Here's more of the plant in question. Initially this seedling had plain foliage just like the others started at the same time from the same seed packet. A few weeks ago a few top leaves suddenly developed the white edges, flower buds formed, and within a few days, the tiny blooms opened.

Did you guess what it is? Have you ever tried starting them from seeds? If so have you ever seen variegation and blooms like this before on your seedlings? I wonder what will happen to this plant if I decide to put it in the garden. Will it continue to develop variegated foliage? Will it survive the winter? Will it have these uncharacteristic blooms again next year? Is it a stray seed of some other plant that has the same kind of foliage as what I think it is that snuck into the seed packet, and not really what I think it is? Do I have some kind of unusual sport or hybrid? Perhaps only time will tell.

Today's Harvest

Yay - the first cucumber! Last year cucumbers were started in the basement around May 1st, and they produced like crazy beginning in early July. We had such a bumper crop I ended up making several jars of bread and butter pickles with the extras we didn't consume or give away. We've been enjoying the delicious (if I do say so myself) pickles since, and the last jar is almost empty.

This year I started cukes from seed in the west veggie bed in mid-May. Unfortunately cutworms destroyed all the seedlings within days of their emergence. So about a week later I started more seeds in the basement, and let the plants grow there until they started vining. They started producing male blooms weeks ago, and finally, finally the female blooms are coming. It will be a late harvest, but I'm thrilled finding the first ripe cucumber of the season this morning. Needless to say, I'll be keeping the cucumber seedlings in the basement in the future until they're sturdy enough to foil the cutworms.

It's been a great year for tomatoes. Every couple of days I gather the ripe ones. The photo is representative of what I harvest several times a week. We really don't need thirteen tomato plants, but I've been enjoying experimenting with several heirlooms I've never grown, along with the usual staples I've loved for years. We've been enjoying them all for weeks. The yellow pears came from a volunteer plant that I left in the east veggie bed. They're not my favorite cherry-type tomato, but they're not bad and they're kind of cute.

Except for a few tomatoes that have fallen to the ground and gotten yucky, not a single one has gone to waste. Several batches of salsa have been made, some have been eaten out-of-hand, especially the cherries, others have made wonderful pasta sauces, and many have been shared with friends and clients. For sauce, after cooking the tomatoes and running them through a sieve, I add a small can of tomato paste to thicken them up instead of boiling them down forever. Adding the paste minimizes cooking time and heating up the house during what has already been a hot enough summer.

There are beets out there ready to harvest, and I even picked a few beans I missed yesterday. The peppers picked yesterday ended up in a delicious Thai curry dinner, made with leftover jerk chicken, organic coconut milk, peanut butter, garlic, onions, herbs, spices, and peas, and served with organic brown Basmati rice. Guess what's for lunch today!

gratuitous dragonfly photo

Speaking of bumper crops, we've had a bumper crop of dragonflies this year. I've had several up-close and personal encounters with them, having them land on me and land nearby. A couple of weeks ago one landed on a daylily in a client's garden, and seemed to be checking me out quite intensely, for a really long time. As I moved around the garden, he followed, and was my companion for at least 20 minutes. I've wished the camera was with me to capture images of the dragonflies encountered this season.

This one was resting here for a nice long time, and was accommodating enough to wait for me to grab the camera. I believe it's a female Green Darner.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!