Garden's Bounty including Pom Pom Flowers

My veggie and flower garden has been growing like mad. It is yielding squash after squash and there is not a prayer we can eat them all. I've started making some "crock pickles" in a 6 gallon crock that came from my mother-in-law. First time on this and they smell awesome. It is a bit of a leap of faith though. My recipe came from "Putting Food By" but is similar to this one. There is a local pickle company called Real Pickles in Greenfield which makes awesome pickles, carrots, beets and sauerkraut in a similar way. You can check out their website here.

My upcoming weekend is a "Celebration of Color and Flowers." Cleaning lots of stuff up for the next batch of guests and I am still painting furniture and walls. I can't believe how many hours I have spent painting this summer...... It will never be done. I keep finding more walls and furniture that needs new paint.

Here are some lovely "pom pom flowers" from my garden. They are almost all varieties of amaranth but I didn't keep the labels and can't figure out what I have grown. I'm in it for the beauty, texture and the color anyway and these are not disappointing, to say the least. They look smashing in big vases.....

Chartruese Amaranth - How wild. I can never get enough chartruese!


A collection of other amaranths along with a "pom pom cosmos" (my name - they call it "bon bon"). Hey, I'm a knitter and you gotta go with what you love!


A detail shot of a bi-color amaranth.


Zinnias are coming along and I should have some soon. Looking forward to vases full of brightly colored zinnias for sure.