Dahlia delight

Five years ago (who can believe it?!) I bought an adorable old farmhouse with a white picket fence.  I bought it in August when the garden was in full bloom.  It looked easy enough, right?  Just a little wedding here, some watering there.  Oh boy, was I wrong!  As soon as the house was mine, I was convinced I would ruin everything, especially the amazing dahlias out front.




I'm happy to report, they're all alive...















...and growing so well!














The trees in the parking strip are growing vigorously, shading the row of dahlia plants along the fence.  I fertilized them this year and it's been a really wet, cool summer, so they're doing ok, but not blooming as much as the ones in the sun.  I may have to replace a few of them but I can't bring myself to do it.

I just love the way they look in vases around the house.

The great scape!

Last fall I decided to plant garlic to overwinter.  I wasn't really very excited about it because garlic is cheap in the store, it all tastes the same (I thought), and I don't use all that much of it.  But I have a fond memory of braiding freshly-harvested garlic stalks with my friend Nancy at her beautiful Chicago home one summer, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I bought a head of hardneck and a head of softneck from the Ballard Farmer's Market, broke up the cloves, and planted them in mid-October.

I was extremely excited when they sprouted, all in their perfect 4" rows, within a few weeks and grew a few inches before the winter really hit.  There they stayed, a few inches high, for about four months.







In April they started growing taller.  I got excited: garlic, soon!  Alas, I read the internet and realized it would still be a few moons before the harvest.










But in June, the scapes arrived to distract me!  These flower stalks grow out of the hardneck varieties and are edible themselves.  In fact, many gardeners believe cutting the scape results in larger, more flavorful heads.  The scapes have a mild garlic flavor themselves and can be made into pesto.








So when life gives you scapes (and a lemon, some pinenuts, and parmesan cheese), make pesto!

I also had some shelling peas in the garden by this time, so I harvested them and made delicious Pea Pesto Pasta.  I was so pleased!









Notes for next year:
--Grow more garlic
--Plant them closer together to save on watering
--Plant two heads of hardneck for more scapes and to give some away, one head of softneck for storage.