Midsummer garden....

[Dr Mordrid]

Midsummer in our garden....

Lilys








Daisy's




The picnic area evolving


Tomatoes coming in - these are a 16oz sandwich variety



Still figuring it out


continued.....

[Dr Mordrid]

Coneflowers


Hosta


And - of all things to be in Michigan - a 2+ meter yucca plant, something more common to the south and southwest. We think this one is a variety called Adam's Needle. We have several of these around the yard, all for some reason planed in part or full shade - bad because they like full sun. They'll be transplanted somewhere brighter this fall. Once there 3-4 meters with several flower stalks is very possible.

[TransformX]

Beautiful

[Mehen]

Lookin good!

I'll have to remember to take some pictures of our backyard (when it's light out).

[Dr Mordrid]

BTW: our coneflowers are a variety more commonly known as Echinacea, a prairie plant often used as an herbal medicine by Native Americans - a practice that continues in herbal medicine today. The NA's observed elk would seek out the plant when ill and eat the whole thing including the root, hence their name for it - elk root.

The yucca (not to be confused with the similarly spelled yuca, or Cassava - the source of tapioca) is edible - its flowers pedals can be used to make a nice tea or used in salads and the tubers can also be eaten (and they are available in many grocery stores here) and are used to make flour or prepared as you would potatoes - though it can also be used to make a soap. The flower stalk is also edible - bake them in an oven, though you can also make a soap from it.

Yucca's can also produce an edible fruit if the flowers are pollinated, but this cannot happen without a specific species of moth, its only pollinator that only lives in its native range. No fruit for us - but the upside is that when a yucca fruits it dies soon after so ours will be around a long time (they're a perennial evergreen).

The leaves are very fibrous and were often used by NA's to make cloth - a practice that also continues because of yucca's high renew-ability...they are very easily propagated from tiny root segments and grow quickly. Yucca based clothing is readily available in stores like Macy's.