Sunday morning, I didn't really feel like making gluten-free biscuits, but I decided to anyway because, last week, I harvested fifteen beautiful jars of honey from my three hives. This is my third year of beekeeping. Because we purposely grow clover and lots of other wildflowers, we have wildflower honey. Wildflower honey is one of many reasons gardens matter. Little Cedar Honey made by my honey bees from the wildflowers Bill and I grow. I wasn't up to anything too difficult before my second cup of coffee, so I pulled down one of my favorite cookbooks by Marion Cunningham, The Breakfast Book. The Breakfast Book, by Marion Cunningham, is probably my favorite cookbook. It is definitely tattered and torn. I've written about her fabulous cookbook before, and I shared another favorite recipe on this blog for her nutmeg muffins. This time, I used her recipe for cream biscuits, one she...

Want to keep your garden blooming into fall? Here are seven easy steps to achieve a beautiful fall garden. After all, splendor in the fall garden begins in spring. Part of the back garden in September. 1. Look for plant holes in your landscape. Plant holes, everyone has them. It might be from a plant that died, or, maybe, a perennial didn't grow as expected, and you now have more space than you intended. Install a fall-blooming perennial in that space. In coming years, it will delight you each autumn, and you will be on your way to creating a beautiful fall garden. Goldenrod, Solidago spp., is just starting to color up in the upper meadow. I hope all of the pollinators find it. It is a great source of pollen for them. Solidago rigida (rigid goldenrod) which doesn't appear rigid at all in my garden. In fact, I prop...

This is the first season I've grown white Cuban buttercup, Turnera trioniflora. I planted it in a large container on my back deck as the spiller portion of the thriller, filler, and spiller planting technique. Pretty little Turnera trioniflora, white Cuban buttercup, growing on my deck in a container. Flowers that open and close I love how white Cuban buttercup opens early in the morning as soon as the sun hits it. It closes up shop around Noon or so. Of course, if we have a cloudy day, it stays open longer. Flowers that only open for part of the day add a little mystery to things, and I find I look for their presence in the garden more. Mirabilis jalapa, four o'clocks, Portulaca grandiflora, rose moss, Ipomoea alba, moonflower, and Ipomoea purpurea, morning glories, are other flowers that quickly come to mind with specific opening and closing times. I...

Not much seemed to be blooming, but I was wrong. Not much seemed to be blooming for this August Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but there were more meadow flowers for pollinators than I first thought. Heirloom Phlox paniculata in one of the beds facing the street and next to my hobby greenhouse. See the Snowberry Clearwing moth in the center of the photo? Phlox is a great pollinator plant. All the usual suspects Many of Bloom Day's usual suspects like tall garden phlox are in flower as the summer garden waits for fall. A lot of rain fell in July--in the last 60 days, 9.84 inches--and the grass remains green. I don't water most of the upper and lower pastures. I do water sections of the upper pasture meadow. The field runs beneath the trees and up by the road.New septic field lies across the lower pasture. New septic field...