Spearmint and Summer Song

Just a quick mid-summer garden update. Spearmint is flourishing, thanks to its amazing ability to root almost overnight in water. Since early June, I’ve been clipping spearmint from the Guilford and Clinton gardens, putting them in jam jars, letting them root, and then planting new clumps everywhere. We have spearmint far and wide! The other day, I made spearmint sun tea. It is mouthwatering. I also made a black sun tea infused with sprigs of lavender from the garden. Refreshing and sweet. Cucumbers are in abundance, tomatoes are finally turning red, flowers are blooming and need a little pruning now, the brown turkey figs are starting to weigh down the tree (can’t pick them until they’re ripe!), sunflowers are opening, the new bean plants are climbing the poles, jalapeno, cherry and banana peppers are plumping up, last winter’s geraniums are making a comeback (we lost one), and I planted 3 new San Marzano (sauce) tomato plants given to me by a coworker (thanks Jess!). Lemon balm is getting leggy in its pot, but the ground patch is thriving. Lemon verbena is radiant (I’ll try to overwinter it again this year), and pineapple sage smells heavenly. This weekend’s project: Lavender cookies! I cut a handful of lavender flowers last week and they’ve been drying. I’ll grind them up in the coffee mill and add it to a basic sugar cookie dough. The essence of summer. Finally, the crickets are buzzing their hot afternoon song. Thank you, Mother Earth!