It's blooming Sunflowers

My sunflowers are finally blooming and I was quite excited when I found them blooming.  So far no red sunflowers, but more have yet to bloom.  These did not grow as tall as most sunflowers and I have come to the conclusion that I planted these a bit late in the season.  Next year I will have to start sooner and then I should have some gigantic sunflowers with large heads of sunflower seeds.  Here are lots of photos to enjoy.

From Garden to Table

There is a huge pressure of air over California this week, causing temperatures to rise all over the state.  With  temperatures reaching over 100 degrees this week, my tomatoes and cucumbers are ripening quickly.  I find a baby Armenian cucumber on the vine and a few days late it's huge!  So I have been trying to find recipes that use my garden vegetables and require little cooking.  Heating the house with a oven or stove just results in more electric use.  And a power outage is one thing we do not need in the neighborhood, so I try to do my part.

The recipes I have tried, besides a typical salad are Tabouli (wheat bulgur and vegetables) and a Panzanella Salad.  Both recipes can be modified depending on what vegetables you have on hand, for instance I added red onions to my Tabouli and left out the celery leaves.  For the Panzanella, I didn't want to turn the oven on so I cut the bread into slices and toasted it.  It may not turn out quite as crispy/crunchy as oven-toasted, but it tastes as good.

Oh and I added a sunflower patch to an un-used corner of my garden.  The seeds were a party-favor gift from a recent baby shower.  So far the Sunflowers have been growing rapidly in height and I can't wait for the flowers to develop and bloom.  It was a mix of sunflowers and the colors should be brilliant.

Yellow Straight-neck Summer Squash

Melon Vines

Huge Cucumber

Pickling Cucumber plant

Honeydew melon

Sunflower patch

Wheat Bulgur and Vegetables

Panzanella Salad

Working in the Garden and Harvesting Lavender

All my hard work has slowly rewarded me with fresh vegetables and fruit from my garden.  A have a small bowl of sweetheart cherry tomatoes, 1 yellow straight-neck squash and a few bell peppers.  The melons have taken over the trellis and are in full bloom.  A few little melons, as pictured below are starting to grow, I can't wait to harvest fresh melons later in the summer.  My zucchini and straight-neck squash have been growing slow this year compared to last year.  I harvested several zucchini's last year before my tomatoes were even blooming, but that's not the case this year.  Hopefully I will have a nice crop to cook with later in the summer though.

There are few additions to my garden this week:  I planted a mix of sunflower seeds that I recently was given and am working on re-planting my lettuces.  The other project that has taken several days of work was harvesting my French and English lavender.  Both were basically done blooming, so I cut off all the blooms then did a bit of trimming on the plant.  It will grow back larger than it was before I trimmed it, so don't be afraid of some trimming, just don't go crazy and kill it.  After cutting the blooms, it is necessary to bundle them in about handful sizes and tie with string or vegetable twisty-ties.  Hang each bundle up in a dark, dry (can be cool) place for a few days.  Once the lavender is dried, you can use the lavender as it is or strip the blooms off and use in crafts.  French and English lavender work well because they have the lovely lavender smell, most Spanish lavenders do not.  Do not use lavender that has been sprayed with any chemicals or pesticides for culinary purposes.

Watermelon

Melon vines

First Eggplant

Straight-neck squash

Early girl tomatoes