Coffee

[digitS']

What about lemon balm? I’ve never grown it or had lemon balm tea, just wondering how it would compare to the lemon verbena.

I probably overstated my thinking about lemon balm, Bay'. It was a good number of years ago that I tried it. So, I tried it again -- dried twice and then, once again, fresh. Very, very similar -- light lemon flavor with a background mint flavor.

It's okay. Tastes are very subjective. I'm delighted to have a 2nd lemon verbena plant that arrived in the mail, yesterday.

Coffee with granola for a second breakfast .

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I am still drinking coffee. I have been rushing around getting ready for DD and kids to come over. My brother brought the old swing set back to life that he had built for DD and DS 20 some years ago. The wood was in good shape. He cleaned it and stained it and put all new hardware and bought new seats. They are coming over to try it out.

My garden is looking really good. The beans are looking good and I am starting to hang strings for them to climb. Lettuce seems slow this year. I planted some earlier and it did not look that good, so I bought some new seed and planted in a different place and it is slow growing too.

 

[Zeedman]

You don't have to go across the pond to get it; the Fentiman's brand is sold right here in the US, at both some supermarkets and (almost certainly) online.

Maybe I could find it here... but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, and I'm looking for excuses.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Maybe I could find it here... but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, and I'm looking for excuses.

One thing I should have said, depending on the laws of the area, you may have to have ID on you to buy Fentiman's. Because it's done the old way and gets its carbonation via fermentation, it actually does have an alcohol content. It's pretty low, but different area have different rules about what constitutes an "alcoholic beverage".

It's a bit like how, for a while, If I was in Connecticut, they wouldn't sell me any Tulsi tea, since New York classified it as a drug and didn't allow it into the state (and the Connecticut stores knew that.) That changed eventually.

Or how some stores won't sell me horehound drops unless I produce ID, since they count it as medicine, not candy.

 

[digitS']

Good Morning. Cheerios, blueberries & banana in the bowl. Oolong in the cup, with lemon verbena & anise hyssop steeping in the kettle.

Right back out to water, today. It is just too hot and the plants are just too small. They cannot shade the ground and their roots are very shallow. Besides, I haven't run the sprinklers enough this season to wash the topsoil below the gravel to create that "stone mulch."

Yes, it helps. There has to be some advantage to gardening in rocky soil.

I think that I had better take a close look at the peppers out there this morning. If they look like the "one" in the backyard pot, they are too small to be flowering and developing fruit. @heirloomgal 's comment on her peppers and pruning off flowers made me take a more critical look at the potted one.

It is a first time for me to try a pot through the season. I have read often how peppers do well in cooler climates when grown in pots. I don't know how this rates for "cooler" but we have cool nights - semi-arid, fairly high elevation. Anyway, I had one Big Bertha left over after fitting others in the distant garden. Nice big plants (a new-to-me variety) but it has just sat there doing nothing for several weeks. The potted tomatoes nearby are growing with some vigor! So, there's quite a contrast, however, I'm quite sure that the peppers in the big veggie garden are doing no better and may be on their own route to low-production. That wouldn't be much of a contrast with normal years but it's a frustrating scenario. The only time I have grown peppers that must have come close to their potential was the Summer I had a row of them in a greenhouse bed. A bother to keep those things watered. But, they grew so well it was difficult to move around in there (when I had to brave the HEAT)!

Steve

 

[baymule]

Finishing my second cup of coffee. I’ll get morning chores done soon.

 

[Phaedra]

Let's have some piggy buns today!

 

[baymule]

How cute! I never would have thought of that! I love it! What did you use to make the eyes and nose with?

 

[Phaedra]

How cute! I never would have thought of that! I love it! What did you use to make the eyes and nose with?

The eyes are black sesames, noses and ears used the same dough, and the nostril was done with spaghetti

 

[peteyfoozer]

Let's have some piggy buns today!
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Omg those are the cutest thing ever!! Recipe?