Getting Ready for the Storm

We live in Middletown, Pennsylvania which is approximately 140 miles from Washington, DC and 155 miles from Central Park in Manhattan. We are to get heavy rain and strong winds as Hurricane Irene advances up the eastern coast of the United States. I went out to the flower beds today to assess what needed to be done before the storm hits.

It has been a very interesting week for us. On Tuesday we had an earthquake and now we must deal with the storm.

Normally on Saturday I go along the garden path and cut huge bouquets of flowers and do a fair bit of dead heading. I decided to do none of that today. I wanted as much weight as possible on the plants and keep them as dense as possible.

Of course I took a lot of photos since I'm not sure what the beds will look like after the storm has passed. I hope you enjoy another look and some of my comments.

This photo is of a zinnia at it mature prime. The center is fully exposed with the smaller ring of flowers inside. The outer petals are almost perfect. What a beautiful creation of God!

This is what I aim for every year when I plant zinnias - a sea of zinnias. It takes awhile to achieve this sight but it is sure worth it to me and the neighbors who walk by our yard.

This yellow zinnia is just about to open enough for the center to be seen. I sometimes pick a bouquet when the flowers are at this stage of development because they last a lot longer than when they are at their prime. In the next few pictures, you will see others at various stages of maturity.

The cosmos are spectacular right now. They are varigated in color which is NOT what I expected but I am still pleased with them. I have bouquets of them in almost every room of our home. Some of the blossoms have split petals. Very interesting!

The last thing I did was pick all of the nasturtiums that were in bloom. Some I placed in a ziplock bag for adding to salads this coming weeks and saved about a dozen blossoms to stuff as appetizers for tonight's dinner. I stuff them with softened cream cheese mixed with minced dates. They are so good and always a surprise for friends who have never had them. I pipe the filling into the throat of the flower with a piping bag made from a ziplock bag with a small hole cut in a bottom corner.

August Spendor

The gardens are in full bloom now. Everything has filled in now so the weeds can't find enough sunlight to grow. I love that! Of course using Preen also helped.

August Beauty Along the Path

After weeks of drought, we have finally had some rain and it is a welcomed relief. With the rain, the color burst forth in both vegetable and flower beds. Our Rainbow Swiss Chard continues to provide us with delicious and colorful side dishes. The heavy stems have been diced, blanched and frozen for fall and winter soups.

If you look down the side garden path you will see that my little marigolds and zinnias have grown into mature plants. If you are wondering where all of the zinnia blooms are, I cut them all off today. Yesterday I cut huge bouquets and today I cut the rest of the blossoms. Within a few days, we will have gorgeous flowers blooming. I will post pictures when they all pop.

The front flower bed is all mature also. The coral nymph and lady in red host lots of hummingbirds all day long. The orange profussion zinnias filled in right up to the marigolds.

Here is a close-up of the salvias. They continued blooming right through the drought which was good for the hummingbirds!

The nasturtiums took a real beating in the drought but I've had enough blossoms to add to summer salads and to fill with a delicious cream cheese and dates mixture. Oh so good!