Yesterday, my neighbor came over to get a dozen eggs, and brought me a bunch of baby’s breath from her garden. It was beautiful and delicate, just right for filling out bouquets. But, now, I had to make a bouquet.

I decided to wander around the yard and see what was out there. I’ve been so busy with fruits and veggies lately, I hadn’t been paying much attention to the flowers.

Without even trying very hard, I found daisies and black-eyed susans blooming along the wild edge of my yard. I snipped a couple of coneflowers beginning to open. I took a couple of sprigs of …yarrow? It’s embarrassing that I don’t even know.

But I do know that, together, they made a delightful collection of the height of summer to take indoors and enjoy.

Do you have a cutting garden? Or an overgrown lot full of under-appreciated blooming beauties like I do? What do you like to gather to include in your bouquets? Do you go for color, smell or form?

Quick! What insect frustrates you most in the garden, cabbage moths or potato beetles?

Me? It’s cabbage moths, hands down.

At first, I was charmed by the little white moths flying around my community garden. Now I am frustrated at all the slimy green grubs getting a free meal off my brussels sprouts. Pulling one or two worms doesn’t make my stomach churn. But, after pulling one or two dozen, I start to get a little queasy.

I also start to feel guilty about all the death and destruction. If only I could turn my lazy cats into super garden pest assassins. (Note: House centipedes freak them out.)

So, what is a gardener to do with an infestation of cabbage moths? It’s too late for row covers. (Do they even make row covers big enough for brussels sprouts?) And, I don’t want to be a bad neighbor at the community garden and spray my plants with pesticides. Is hand picking my only option?

Ew.

Finally! It’s jam time at my house. There’s something about making jam that I just love.I think it’s the whole idea of preserving the harvest at its peak.

Strawberries, for instance, are so full of flavor right now. If I can capture that in a jar, it just delights me. It’s dangerously close to being artistic, too.

We’ve already made straight-up strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, strawberry peach and strawberry with balsamic vinegar jams. Oh, and we tried a rhubarb with vanilla jam, too, but we agreed the lemon the recipe called for made it taste kind of brassy, rather than bright.

Raspberries are ripening now, too. Blueberries won’t be far behind.

Are you a jam or jelly maker? Would you like to be? It’s not as hard as people make it out to be, I think. It’s more an exercise in patience and precision than skill. And it makes eating local pretty easy.

If you do make jam, what are some of your favorites? Do you use recipes from books or do you have versions that are traditional to your family? Fan of gourmet jams (with wine, for example) or not?

Don’t miss the 2nd annual Hennepin County Master Gardener Learning Gardens Tour on July 11!

Visit ten beautiful gardens designed and maintained by Master Gardeners to discover amazing inspiration along with the latest gardening techniques; all clustered in a convenient 14-mile route.

Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer all gardening questions. On-site gardening demonstrations will provide an educational dimension, for both beginning and advanced gardeners, not found on other garden tours.

Learn how to maximize space with vertical gardening, use foliage and texture to create four-season interest, grow delicious fruits and vegetables at home, and build a rain garden to name just a few of the exciting themes on this year’s tour.

The 2009 Learning Gardens Tour has a garden to fascinate everyone with an emphasis on sustainability and productivity whether it is a woodland sanctuary, hilltop oasis or urban farm all nestled in the city.

For more information and to order your tickets by credit card visit www.hcmg.umn.edu.

Last year, I wanted to eat pea pods. I wanted them so badly I could practically taste them. I planted and nurtured and waited for the magical day when all my pea pod dreams would come true.

Only, some critter rudely ate the blooms off them and I got none.

So this year, I planted a kingdom of different kinds of pea pods (who even knew there were several varieties?). Then I  surrounded the garden with seven feet of fence to keep out the marauding riff-raff.

Ta-dum –I have pea pods!

Gallon bags upon gallon bags of pea pods. Pea pods to feed all the serfs in the neighborhood village. Enough pea pods to pile high and climb up to Jack’s beanstalk.

When I was a kid, I remember helping freezing green beans and sweet corn. But not pea pods. There just aren’t any family fairy tales I can refer to for guidance here.

Can I freeze them? Do I blanch them and then plunge them in cold water like green beans? For how long? Or should I just get creative and figure out how to eat them?