What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.
~Gertrude Jekyll
The roses have begun to bloom, and while some are quickly fading in all the rain, others just keep blooming away. I have several Knockouts and a variety of climbers and rose bushes, but most without a name.
My favorite is ‘William Baffin’. A climber that acts more like a bush. This beauty has grown 7 feet tall and about 6 feet wide. It occupies the back corner of the bog garden chock full of blooms for weeks. It is the first rose to bloom in my garden.
You can see the semi-double deep pink roses in the front half of this vase (in the top 3 pictures). I added white allium blooming later in shade along with a few left over blooms of Goatsbeard. I added a couple of other pink roses (bottom picture) from the Side Garden. I am not sure if the tags are still on them, but I will have to hunt in the soil to see if I can find them. I placed the blooms in a small milk bottle prized by my husband.
So why is this vase such a rosy surprise? I put this vase of roses together in honor of my Aunt Mary…Mary Rose is her full name. She just turned 93 in March. Some of you may remember the story I wrote about my Aunt 5 years ago.
Two years ago, I submitted a story about Mary Rose in response to a call for memoirs dealing with women who helped in the war effort. They came to be known as Rosie the Riveters. And although my Aunt did not work in a factory during WWII, she did work as a civilian supporting the war.
I found out several weeks ago that my story was accepted, and that it is going to be published online on July 5th through Women’s Memoirs. Once I have the exact web address where you can read the story, I will publish it on both my blogs.
I also put together an additional small vase for my special room; my sanctuary. I love just walking out my front door and snipping a few Echinacea, lavender, Anise Hyssop leaves and a persistent mini Hollyhock (Sidalcea hybrida) that I thought I had removed from this garden.
In the middle of spring, my garden starts to deliver its bounty of veggies and herbs. And although I have a post about my veg garden coming up on Wednesday, I wanted to share a few interesting harvests. The first is chives, or more specifically chive blossoms. I love adding chive blossoms to salad, but I recently saw a few recipes for chive blossom vinegar, and thought I would try it. The one that seemed easiest was from Rachel@Grow a Good Life.
Pick the blossoms and fill a jar. Heat vinegar and cover the blossoms. Store in cool dark area for a few days. The strain out blossoms and use.
Here is the finished product…a beautiful purple color with a wonderful chive flavor. The peonies in this vase were grown from buds snipped outside that bloomed a couple of weeks later indoors. A bit smaller than what they would be if left on the plant outside to bloom.
I used the chive vinegar in salad dressing, and then I thought I would use it to pickle the garlic scapes that I snipped this past week.
I saw several recipes last year for pickled garlic scapes, but after I had already used all mine in skillet meals, sautéed veggies and scrambled eggs. So I decided this year I wanted to set several aside to pickle. And as I had an abundant crop again, there were plenty to pickle and use in other dishes. Here is my easy recipe for Pickled Garlic Scapes.
[yumprint-recipe id=’4′]
Well I hope you liked these simple vases, and simple recipes using what might be considered scraps instead of harvest. I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks how the pickled scapes taste.
I am joining in with a few memes this week as I prepare these vases: Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday, Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.
So what are you harvesting from your garden now?
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Next up on the blog:
Wednesday I will be updating my veg garden. And Monday it will be time to review my June garden.
I am linking in with Michelle for her Nature Notes meme at her blog Rambling Woods. It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every week.
I am also joining in I Heart Macro with 
Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.
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