Thursday 13: Around the Yard

There’s so much going on in the yard this time of year, so I thought another Thursday 13 featuring things around the yard was in order.

I apologize that the light isn’t the best in some of the photos.  It has been HOT here, and it was just too miserable to go around taking pictures until after the sun started going down.

1.     This week, we’ll start with the white hydrangea that’s just starting to bloom. 

Here’s a close-up. 

2.    Next up, we have the Shasta daisies, which aren’t looking good at all. 

The free-range chickens like to dig in the front flowerbed, so I thought I’d chicken-proof it with some decorative fencing.

3.    Clearly, the fence failed to keep them out.  I’m working on another solution.

4.    We’ve recently put a birdbath on a shepherd’s hook next to the front porch.  It’s in direct sun, so I’ve been trying to put ice cubes in it at least once a day.  The birds are definitely using it.  We’ve seen several, and we have to refill it every night. 

5.    The rose of Sharon trees are blooming. 

6.     We have full flowers.

7.    We have buds.

8.    And we have some that are right in the middle.

9.    We have a birdfeeder in the backyard now.  It’s solar and lights up when it gets a little darker than it was when I took the picture. 

10. Next, we have the flowers in the planter on the rain barrel next to the birdfeeder.  I can’t remember the name of these flowers.  I always think of them as mini petunias. 

Here’s a close-up.

11.  There are more flowers that look like mini petunias in the planter on the second rain barrel.

12.   There are also some regular petunias in that planter.  I think these look absolutely perfect.

13. Lastly, in answer to Live & Learn’s question about the groundhogs eating plants we don’t want them to eat, here’s what’s left of the basil.  They ate most of it two weeks ago, and it had started growing back some earlier this week, but they feasted on it again.  Apparently, they’re not planning to share the basil with us.  

Thursday 13: Around the Yard

Between flowers and the backyard animals, there’s a lot going on in the yard right now, so this week’s Thursday 13 is a little look around the yard.

1.     We’ll start with some zinnias.  I don’t think I’ve ever had zinnias before, but this year, they’re one of my favorites.

2.    Here’s a closeup of one of them.

3.    And here’s the yellow one. 

4.    These are all in pots on the front porch, along with a pink geranium. 

5.    There’s also basil, that looked like this on Wednesday morning.

6.    The basil looked like this by Wednesday evening.  I have no proof, but I suspect the groundhogs feasted on the basil. 

7.    We also have a shepherd’s hook with two hanging baskets of petunias and a suet feeder in the front yard.  

Here’s a closeup of the flowers.  

The suet feeder is very popular.  It was eaten down this much in just a little over twelve hours.

8.    A friend gave us these beautiful hydrangeas.  We have a white hydrangea, but I’ve wanted pink and blue ones for a while, so I was very excited to get these.  We’re still deciding where we’re going to plant them.

9.    Here’s a closeup of the blooms.

10. I put mums in the pots on the porch during the fall and two of them came back.  I think of them as more of a fall flower, so I moved both of them to this big pot.  I’m planning to tuck it in a corner of the backyard and hope that the mums are big and blooming by the fall.

11. In the backyard, the blackberry bush has lots of berries that aren’t quite ripe yet. 

12. There’s also a second blackberry bush now.  I suspect the birds are responsible for planting this one, which I appreciate. 

13.   And no yard tour would be complete without a groundhog video, so here’s a video of one of our groundhogs enjoying a peanut butter cracker.

What’s going on in your yard now?  

Lime Basil Water

Basil is the one herb that consistently thrives in our yard.  It doesn’t matter where we plant it, or how much we neglect it.  We always end up with lots of basil.  I’m not complaining.  I love basil, and I love finding new ways to use it.  My latest way of using basil is incredibly simple, and incredibly delicious.

We all know we need to drink plenty of water, especially during the warmer weather, but sometimes it’s hard.  Plain water can be a little boring.  Adding lime and basil brightens it up a little bit, but the flavors are still fairly subtle.  

Lime Basil Water:
1 gallon of water
½ cup basil leaves, rinsed
1 Tbsp lime juice.

Combine all three ingredients in a pitcher, stir, and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

Recipe Notes:
I like to use this style pitcher because the ice guard keeps the basil leaves in the pitcher, and out of my glass.  The basil flavor gets stronger over time, so if you don’t drink all of the water within about 24 hours, spoon the basil leaves out, otherwise the flavor becomes a little too strong.  I use plain tap water.  I know it’s not the case everywhere, but the water here tastes good and doesn’t have any strange odors.

Drying Herbs

Lime Basil ready to dry

As I posted earlier this year, I planted my first herb garden this spring.  We planted basil, parsley, oregano, lavender, sage, cilantro, garlic chives, and lime basil (which I hadn’t heard of before this year).  The lavender didn’t make it, and the cilantro didn’t thrive.  Most things did fairly well.  The basil and lime basil flourished and thrived.

Lime Basil just out of the oven

I came to love the lime basil during the summer.  I love how it smells, and it adds such a nice flavor to stir fry, salad, fruit dishes, and lots of other things.   However, the temperature here has been dropping steadily over the past couple of weeks, so it seems that my supply of lime basil will soon come to an end.  We actually had our first frost warning last night.  Fortunately it didn’t freeze though!  I decided it was time to look into drying the lime basil for fear we won’t escape the next frost warning so easily.

I found a few articles on drying herbs on Google.  The general consensus seems to be that hanging herbs tied in bundles up to dry is the best way to dry them; it’s natural, not too much work, and doesn’t require any sort of power source, so is very economical and earth friendly.  For us, with a cat who eats string, and a cat who gets into everything, this seemed more like a recipe for disaster than an intelligent, economical plan to enjoy home grown herbs through the winter. 

The finished product! 

We decided to go with the oven drying method.  This involves placing the washed and dry herbs on a baking sheet at 180 degrees.  The times mentioned in the articles varied from two to four hours.  Ours were dry in about an hour, though this may be because the lime basil leaves are fairly small.  I suspect the traditional basil will take a little longer. 

It was fairly time consuming to pat all of the leaves dry and lay them out on the baking sheets, but I think the results are definitely worth the time.  And the house smelled amazing while they were baking!  I’m pretty excited about drying the rest of our herbs.  We’re having something of a warm smell over the weekend, so now I have a little more time to pick and dry the rest of the herbs. 

 Today is also Day Four of the 30-Day Photo Challenge I’m participating in, which is “Leaves”.  It’s a little early for the great fall colors here, so I’m sharing pictures of my lime basil instead.  I think the little leaves are very cute.