August in the Backyard Patch Garden

The weather has been a bit weird.  We had a Derecho and a Tornado in our neighborhood this past Monday, causing lost electricity for 21 hours.  I have been picking up sticks and branches for days.  We were out at the herb garden and found that branches from the forest preserve ended up breaking off the tops of a few plants, but no major damage.  The joy of herbs, they are very resilient.  

At home we were blocks from the Tornado that came from Wheaton into Lombard and ended in Villa Park.  The park at Grace and St. Charles lost the tops out of every tree.  The tornado jogged across the railroad tracks and ended up in Villa Park where it took out every tree in a baseball field and decimated the trees in the neighborhood.  I am pretty sure my neighbors in that area do not have electricity yet. We were very lucky, because if that powerful wind ended up in our yard, the old elm in our backyard might not have survived. If you want to get some info, read the Patch article 

My hops were the most injured, with a branch falling on the arbor and side branches being blown off the arbor.  The hops are just maturing, so I do not want to move the branches back into place and risk breaking them and loosing the hops that are almost ready for picking.  But you can see that the arbor is no longer thickly covered with branches like it was earlier this summer.

Don't the hops look wonderful?  I think the harvest this year will be twice that of last year. I might be able to make a ferment this year.  I am going to prune the hops this year because I do not ant them to overwhelm the arbor which cannot support a huge amount of weight.

The herb harvest is a bit delayed this year, but the fruits of the garden are abundant.  This week I cut lemon balm, lemon verbena, stevia, scented geranium, lavender buds, apple mint, chamomile, which to my surprise bloomed a second time, tarragon, basil and others.

I made some honey and flavored sugar, and will be working on herb vinegar in the next day or two.

My tarragon at home has flowered, so I harvested it to make into wreaths.  Some are formed on wire, others are only herb.  Those on wire will  be ornaments and those with no wire will become soup wreaths and used with my soup mixes this fall and winter.

I learned that a spot at home I thought got enough sun did not actually get that much.  This purple basil you can see is dark purple on the top which grew after I moved it and the green leaves at bottom are what grew in it former location.  Purple basil will turn greenish purple if not given enough sun.  So now it is going back the the rich purple I like to see!  And it should do so just in time for me to make herb vinegar with it!

The most exciting thing I did this week was make flower arrangements.  The zinnias are great for cutting and the cosmos, phlox and coxcomb are all ready and the sunflowers are getting there, being a bit behind the rest.  I made more arrangements than my hose is used to.  Here are examples.

Yes, my desk is a mess.  It keeps the cats off, allowing me to actually work!

Happy Gardening!