Home and Garden

HOW GROWS IT?: It's been awhile since we've posted any campus garden photos. 

We have dozens of tiny green tomatoes on the vine and plenty of blossoms, as well. It will be interesting to see what they eventually produce. We kind of (well, entirely, actually) lost track of what's planted where, so it will all be a surprise in the end.

Yesterday Annabelle and I transplanted the pepper plants, which seem to be doing pretty darn well. Peppers don't usually really thrive in Seattle gardens, so we'll see what happens with these. 

We have one lone dahlia bush along the driveway. The early June heat was hard on it, but it has managed three OKish blossoms.

These popped up along the driveway, as well. I don't recall them from years past. Google Lens tells us it's Mirabilis jalapa, also known as "the marvel of Peru" or "four o'clock flower." The latter name is apt as its flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (between 4 and 8 p.m.).

Wikipedia reports it's "the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis plant, and is available in a range of colours. Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the state capital of Veracruz in México."  

The plant arrived in Europe in the early 1500s. I have no idea how or when it wound up along our driveway.

And then out of nowhere this four- to five-foot tall giant goldenrod offered itself up this season. 

According to the website illinoiswildflowers.info, "This perennial wildflower is 3-7' tall and largely unbranched, except at the apex, where the flowering stalks occur."

According to the Heart of Uwchlan (a township in Pennsylvania) website, "Goldenrods are an important fall nectar source for many pollinators including the Monarch butterfly, so it is unfortunate that these fall blooming natives are mistakenly blamed for hay fever. The pollen of Goldenrods is transported by insects. The pollen is not airborne does not cause pollen related allergies. Goldenrods are a critical habitat species in the fall landscape. Include them in the garden and landscape for their important ecosystem services as well as their glowing beauty!"

So, I guess we'll let the volunteer goldenrod stay.

We brought some of the outdoors indoors in the form of daises, of which we have hundreds.

They seem just perfect for my VW convertible planter.

ON THE MOVE: Yesterday when I was out watering, I noticed a *lot* of activity around one of our hives. Eventually, the bees started flying in a familiar tornado like cloud, and I knew they were swarming. Our westernmost hive is overpopulated, so the queen and hundreds of her minions took off, looking for more space.

Fortunately, they didn't go far. They would up clumping in one of our umbrella trees. 

Christian rigged up a way to try to get them into a box. The trick is you have to get the queen, so that the rest of the swarm follows. He tried yesterday afternoon, but apparently didn't get the queen, because the bees in the box returned to the tree. He tried again this morning, and the bees seem to be streaming into the box, so it seems like he captured the queen this time. Now, we need to get them into a new hive.

NICE BUNS: Yesterday we had company over for dinner on short notice, so we went with a super easy menu, burgers and brats. 

They were kind enough to bring the meat, so we made a big ol' batch of potato salad and Annabelle made some homemade hamburger buns.

She found a recipe online that promised it was simple and would take only 40 minutes.

We topped some of the dough balls with black sesame seed furikake, and others with Maldon salt.

They looked terrific fresh out of the oven. I didn't eat any, but others report they were great.

I found this video from the Guenther Bakery in Belgium about how they make 1.5 million (!) buns a day.