Here’s a pic of the whole a/c garden. The trees are getting so big. Time to trim them again. You can see the Gladiolus stems sticking up behind the tree. My daughter planted them behind the trees and Iris’s all along the back of the garden. Yea, my weed wacker is slacking, so just ignore the weeds in the front, ok? 🙂

The Honeysuckle is blooming all over the property!

I fondly remember picking the blossoms when I was a kid and “drinking” the “honey” from them. I’ve tried to teach it to my kids, but they don’t really want to “drink flower juice”. lol It’s a shame. I have such fond memories of doing this every summer. They just don’t know what they are missing!

The Wild Roses are also blooming everywhere.

I even have Wild Roses growing by the clothesline in the back yard. I love their sweet scent while I’m hanging clothes on the line. There’s Honeysuckle back there, too. Some days, you can smell both of them at the same time. What a blessing! And what a shame that most people would cut these two plants down as weeds. They are so beautiful!

We made an exciting discovery this week. The Hawthorne tree has haws on it! My husband transplant this tree from out in the field to down by the yard about 12 years ago. Last year it bloomed, but no haws. So we were extremely excited to see haws this year. See the small round green fruit?

The Hawthorne tree is distinguished by the thorns on it. Can you see the thorns on the branch going across the middle of the picture?

Here are a couple of links for more information about Hawthorne trees and the haws: Hawthorne tree on Wikipedia , Tips for Growing a Hawthorne Tree – it also lists numerous uses and benefits of the haws.

The Comfrey in our garden is getting big.

It’s blooming now. Such pretty flowers. Except we’re not supposed to let it bloom. oops!

I’ll do a post on comfrey later this summer. We use it for animal feed. The goats and chickens love it. They can eat it fresh, and we can dry the leaves for feed for both in the winter, too. The goats love it. See?

Samson

 The buds are pretty, too.

Last week, I shared a link for information about plantains. We have this “weed” growing all over the property. I thought it was especially nice that some started growing right in the middle of my herb garden. How convenient!

I always take at least one of the kids on my “picture walk”. This time Calen went with me. He’s weeding the plantain so I can take a picture. It’s nice to take a kid along to do the work. lol

The plantain. Now that I know about it, I’ve instructed the kids to come and get a leaf if they get stung.

We also found an almost ripe strawberry!

There are only a couple of little plants, so it’s going to be interesting so see who gets to eat the first strawberry. Me, one of the kids, or a chicken!

Here are some links I found helpful:

I really need to make a Gathering Apron. How cool would it be to wear one of these when harvesting?
Fun Funky Garden Markers
Using Herbs in Food, as Nutritional Supplements and for Healing

Grab The Saturday on the Farm Button!

<a href=”http://lindaslunacy.com/search/label/Saturday%20on%20the%20Farm”><img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1001/4608457251_49ba7771a6_o.jpg” alt=”Saturday on the Farm at Linda’s Lunacy” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

Saturday on the Farm is a blog carnival that lets us share links to our blog post. It’s fun to visit each others farms.

To participate in Saturday on the Farm:

• Write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat. 
• Add the link to your post (not your main page) below. 
• Please link back to me so others can join the fun, too.

For more Farm & Garden posts, please visit:
Homestead Barn Hop
Bloomin’ Tuesday
Frugal Gardening 101
Fertilizer Friday/ Flaunt Your Flowers