More June Goodness ~ Lavender, etc.

Standing at the one end of the row of lavender, you can see that we've got a lot of weaving to do! We may have to take some bunches along to the event we're doing on Saturday if this silly cold rain keeps up! I can't ever remember using the heat in the middle of June before, but it is cold and wet and not even above 60 degrees. Anyhow... enough whining. This is the Grosso lavender. The flowers are more of a pale, grayish purple. The scent is in the camphorous range of lavenders, I'd say. Still, lovely. The Munstead lavender out front is a bit ahead of the Grosso. The color is a deeper purple, and the scent is a tad less medicinal. These have short brittle stems, so they aren't that good for weaving. They are a delight to dry for the buds, though.

The first Echinacea flower of the season. I've never noticed that scissored effect at the tips of the petals before, but adore the rusty red center of the flower - even if it will become prickly as time passes. It will lure the beautiful gold finches (distelfinks or thistle finches in Lancaster County) to eat right outside my bedroom windows in the Autumn. With the windows open, I'll hear them sing. The Brown Turkey Fig that I was given last year from the garden at The Rosemary House has returned with vigor! Whew! The funny part is that I kept snipping at the end of the stems that had leaves last year. They seem to still be green/living, but there aren't any leaves. I was becoming fairly certain that it had succumbed to the cold winter. Then, one day I was looking at the hardy Hibiscus that is beside it, and pushed away some of the ground ivy. There were about 4 or 5 fig leaves! It was one of those "gee, I hope the neighbors didn't notice me squealing and jumping around" moments. Yesterday I saw that one of the Pawpaws has a single leaf. I may have killed the other one. It seemed dead and I pulled it out, only to realize that the stem was pliant and alive. It was quickly tucked back into the hole, but we'll have to see what happens. Why do these plants torture me so? It is mid-June, for crying out loud! Saint John's Wort. What can I say? This beauty eluded me for years, finally getting large and robust last year, only to die from something horrendous that began as black stems in the center, and expanded. So, somewhere along the way, I've planted SJW in the front garden and in several locations out back. It has decided it wants to be in all of those places. We have lots this year.

This picture is actually to show off my new banner. Vistaprint.com was running a special, and the banner came for the price of (very expensive) shipping. It's pretty cool, and really easy to tape up to a wall. Our other banners are heavy weight, lovely, but too heavy for this kind of action. Oh and check out all my trophies! LOL. Ok. I lied. We were set up at a high school and THEY had a lot of trophies. Pfft... We did a talk on edible backyard weeds, and took along an edible bouquet, passing out sections of it as we talked about the different plants and flowers. No matter how many times I see fields of wild daylilies, I never get tired of their beauty.

That's all for now, folks. I'm off to make some chili and cornbread to warm us up in this icky weather.