Bloomin' July

       By the end of June the roadsides were becoming loaded with bright blue blossoms.  My grandmother always said that the blue flowers bloomed in July.  Chicory seems to be blooming early this year due to the hot, dry conditions here in Ohio.  Usually I have bee balm blooming in time for the Fourth of July, but not this year.  Their red flowers always look like a fireworks burst of color to me.  I should have planted daisies so that I could have a red, white and blue display in the garden.  Maybe next year!  But I certainly do have and abundance of blue with the excess of chicory everywhere.  Gardeners who plant in a clock fashion use chicory as it dependably blooms in the morning and closes its flowers later in the day.  Some of the old-fashioned uses for chicory is that of decorating salad, as it is edible.  The root has traditionally been used for a coffee substitute.  The leaves can be used to produce a blue dye for those using natural dyes with their spun yarns.  With so much chicory available this year, I may try some of those uses for it.  
        It's definitely summertime when the purple coneflowers start blossoming.  Native Americans used the roots under their tongues to treat colds and the flu.  These days we know it as echinacea.  My pennyroyal is blooming, too.  Though it is part of the mint family, it isn't edible.  Using pennyroyal as a strewing herb to keep the fleas from crossing the doorway is more practical.  Using it in a necktie or collar for your pets will help them to fend off fleas and ticks.  Don't use it if they are pregnant, though.  Anything that kills flea larvae and eggs can be harmful during pregnancy to both humans and animals.  My Corsican mint must like the hot weather as it is growing like crazy between the bricks in my kitchen walkway.  Little treasures, big delights.  Mid-summer is a time when less is more for the garden.  Everything slows down its growing until the rains in August.  Although, the sweet corn hasn't seemed to have gotten that memo.  It is growing like crazy and is ready much earlier than usual. I hope we see those rains.  I would like to have a campfire, but it looks as though it will have to wait until fall at this point.  So goes the herbs in my garden.  This is a year for more pots than ;lots!  I'm setting out anything that will catch rainwater to help the garden plants.  Good thing so many of my herbs are draught resistant!  It will be a good year for gathering herbs to dry.  With less rain the essential oils in the herbs becomes more concentrated.  In the long run, that makes the herbs you harvest even more fragrant for drying.  That same principle will apply to the apple harvest this year as well.  I can hardly wait for the cider this year!