Summer in the Garden

Summer in the Garden

 

Take advantage of the warm days, cool evenings and ample morning dew to complete your late summer plantings. With two strong growing months ahead to root out, mid to late August is a very successful time to plant your gardens.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are low-maintenance plants that every garden should have. Largely drought resistant once established, ornamental grasses are available in a wide variety of sizes, colours and many are evergreen.

Pruning

The pruning of grasses is simple.  For deciduous grasses prune to within 18″ of the ground in early spring once new growth is starting to emerge.   Evergreen grasses do not require such aggressive pruning. In the spring simply pull the dead grass out with gloved hands. If individual stems or tips become damaged, simple remove them with a pair of shears/snips/secateurs, at any point in the year.

Fertilizing your ornamental grasses is easy. A bi-weekly application of 20-20-20 and a six week application of granular 18-4-8 will give you grasses that are healthy and quickly drought tolerant.

Miscanthus Morning Light
Japanese Forest Grass
Our Beautiful Blues

What a Season!

High yields, fantastic flavours, this has been a stand out year for our u-pick blueberries. There is still a bumper crop of berries left to pick!   Our mixed variety fields will be producing into September this year and thanks to the blistering past couple of weeks the berries are sweeter than normal.   Our field is open Daily 9 – 5 but we will be closed this holiday Monday to celebrate the day with our families.


August Recipe

Paradise Blueberry Cinnamon Buns:

 

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast – 21/4 tsp
1 cup warm milk
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups flour

Filling
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup butter
¾ cup Paradise Blueberries

Icing
8 tablespoons butter
1 ½ cup icing sugar
¼ cup cream cheese
½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Dissolve Yeast in warm Milk
Add sugar, butter, eggs and flour, mix well.
Knead into a large ball using flour to dust your hands.
Let rise in a covered bowl until double in size, about an hour.

Roll out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 12” long by 16” wide
Should be ¼” thick.

Combine filling – sugar and butter and sprinkle evenly over surface.
Sprinkle with berries.   Don’t use too many or it will get soggy.

From the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
Cut the dough into 1 ¾” slices and place in a lightly buttered 9×13 pan.

Cover with a damp towel and let rise until double – about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until light brown.
When cool, blend icing and beat until fluffy – spread all over the rolls.
Share the beautiful Paradise Buns you have created (or eat them all yourself…)