Minnesota Midget

Plump, juicy and, oh, so sweet!  Seeds from this beauty will be saved for planting in next year's garden.

Minnesota Midget Melon

We're swimming in pickles!

Dill, bay leaves, and tarragon from the garden, along with the cucumbers.

Water, vinegar, salt, homegrown garlic, dill, tarragon, bay leaves,
black peppercorns, yellow & brown mustard seeds,
coriander seeds, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

It's difficult to believe that the growing season is nearly over.  In preparation for next year I've been reading a book recently borrowed from the library titled The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds by Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough.  The book includes seed saving tips for 322 vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits, trees and shrubs.  For each entry in the book there is a tip for seed collection, seed cleaning and storage, seed treatment (prior to planting), germination (optimal conditions for), and transplanting.  Concise information that will help make me a better gardener.

A detail that will help me this year (and now you, too) is to save seeds from early harvested items versus fruit harvested later in the season.  The logic being that seeds saved from early fruits are more likely to produce early fruit next season, versus fruits that ripen late in the season.  Seems like obvious information but it never occurred to me that there could be that subtle of a difference from seed to seed.

"The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all." -- Wendell Berry




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Diēs Caniculārēs

A basket full of dill and cucumbers, and our first ripe tomato!  A Costoluto Genovese.  These cucumbers will soon be bathing in brine and on their way to becoming garlic dill pickles.

This Black Icicle tomato is nearly ready for our mouths.

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been

 the two most beautiful words in the English language.”  

-- Henry James

A mantis of a different kind.
This wonderful garden stone was made by my pal Judy.

Zinnia

Cosmos

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine

was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”  

-- Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Muskmelon everywhere!

The pumpkin vine is healthy and loaded with dozens of flowers.
I can't wait to make pie and other various baked goods with these squash come fall.

Butternut-ty goodness

The first watermelon.  It's so darn cute!

Burgundy okra.

"Everything that slows us down and forces patience,

everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.

Gardening is an instrument of grace."  

-- May Sarton

Hopefully you're enjoying your summer as much as we are.  Recipes for garlic dill pickles, salsa, and potato salad are coming soon to the recipe blog.

Oh!  In the event you aren't already aware of this yourself, you can click on all of the photos included in each blog post to see them in a larger view.


http://wrightgardenchronicles.blogspot.com
http://wrightgardenrecipes.blogspot.com