Here's my summer solstice idea for you: John Scheeper's Kitchen Garden Seed Celebrate the Solstice Seed Collection at www.kitchengardenseeds.com. Because, if you're like me, just as the first day of
summer arrives, well, you're just about sick of it. Usually, by June 21, ninety to one hundred degree temperatures have moved in. The long, hot slog of summer, with its usually-uninterrupted-by-rain string of brutally hot and humid days has set in for the long haul, until fall that is. Your sunglasses fog up when you walk out the door. The shady parking places are always taken. Your sunscreen tab is about as high as your electric bill. You could cook...........ahem, where was I?
The wonderful seed selection to celebrate the solstice from John Scheepers. If you're not already
familiar with this wonderful family of catalogs, let me introduce you. Get to know them by ordering
one of their beautiful seed catalogs, and lusting after each and every selection described there. Those who know me and my garden well, are aware that I have a thing for foxglove. I adore them. My soul requires them (so does my vanity). In good years and in bad. And not the demure (I think wimpy) 'Foxy' variety. No, I like the tall towering kinds, just like the Excelsior Seed Mixture available from Scheepers as part of their Solstice Seed Collection.
They are spectacular aren't they?
I especially like how their color PERFECTLY complements the peonies that bloom with them
and the way their height can stand up to the elegance of a painted tuteur.
And, no, those little blotches inside the tubular blooms are not because they are diseased (as one
garden tour attendee once inquired). They are meant to attract and guide those pollinating bees who use them to locate the good stuff inside. I am very attracted to those seductive blotches myself.
If you are likewise smitten, why don't you order some to direct sow now or in the fall? It will
give you something to look forward to during these ever so dogged days of summer.Labels: Fresh Picks, Garden
