Author: Tara Dudley

Recommended Plants

Summer Beauty Onion $12.00 USD Heuchera ‘Caramel’ $16.75 USD Low Scape Mound Chokeberry $37.00 USD Aster ‘October Skies’ $12.00 USD Tussock Sedge $80.00 USD Blue Sedge $52.50 USD

Fragrant gray-green foliage and rich, deep-blue flower spikes on short stems

10 Flat $50.00

Height: 8-12″
Width: 12-18″
Soil Conditions: Dry
Flower Color: Blue
Bloom Time: May, June, July

Ingredients:

4 large cucumbers
2 - 3 medium plum tomatoes
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
5.3 oz plain Greek yogurt
3 T fresh dill, minced
1 T powdered Ranch dressing mix

Instructions:

Wash and partially peel cucumbers for striped look.
Slice into rounds about 1/2 " thick.
Remove seed from tomatoes & slice into small bites.
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, yogurt, dill and 
Ranch powder and mix thoroughly.

Transfer cheese mixture into piping bag (or use a
large baggie with a corner snipped off).

Pipe the cheese mixture onto the cucumber rounds,
then top with the tomato bites.

Enjoy this cool, healthy appetizer!

The name of July’s Full Buck Moon comes from the Native Americans who honor this time of year when deer begin to grow their antlers. Just as deer typically forage between dusk and dawn, it is most desirable for the ‘human’ garden lovers to be outdoors under the summer moonlight as well.  Plant Life Designs’ Moon Garden Kit offers plants that are deer resistant, easy to grow in the sun and lovely to enjoy under the moon!

The name of July’s Full Buck Moon comes from the Native Americans who honor this time of year when deer begin to grow their antlers. Just as deer typically forage between dusk and dawn, it is most desirable for the ‘human’ garden lovers to be outdoors under the summer moonlight as well.   

Celebrate the full moon this month by adding a moon garden to your landscape!

Plant Life Designs’ Moon Garden Kit will offer a mosaic of white blossoms, fragrant leaves of sage and cat mint, fern-like foliage of yarrow and the soft texture of lamb’s ear.   A beautiful, crescent shaped garden bed with blue trap rock provides the perfect setting for white blooming and silver leaved plants.  The assorted perennials in this plan are hardy to our zone and deer resistant! 

Light your lantern and live among your plants under the midsummer moon!

All plants are 1 gallon size.

Qty 3  ‘Big Ears’ Lamb’s Ear    
Velvety silver foliage like a lamb’s ear, soft pink flowers
H 12-18″  W 24-36″
 
Qty 6  ‘Little Spire’ Russian Sage   
More upright, less flopping, aromatic foliage, purple flowers
H 24-36″  W 18-24″
  
Qty 8  ‘Kit Kat’ Catmint     
Mounds of fragrant foliage, spikes of blue-purple flowers
H 8-12″  W 8-12″
  
Qty 3  ‘Floristan White’ Gayfeather    
Multiple wands of creamy-white flowers open from top to bottom
H 24-36″  W 18-24″

Qty 3  ‘Virgin’ Coneflower  
Large, pure white flowers with green cones
H 18-24″  W 12-18″
 
Qty 6  ‘New Vintage White’ Yarrow  
Pure white flower clusters over compact ferny foliage
H 8-12″  W 8-12″

Complete Moon Garden Kit ~ $350.00

For individual plant groupings, please call us @ 515.996.8888

Makes one drink

Need:
Light bodied red wine, lightly chilled
Ice
1 Tablespoon crème de cassis 
Blueberries (for holiday color)
Slice of lime or sprig of crushed basil

Pour the red wine over ice and blueberries.  
Top with the crème de cassis.  
Garnish with a slice of lime or 
sprig of crushed basil. 

Enjoy!

1 gallon size

Celebrate the Summer Solstice by adding perennial sunshine to your landscape! This compact and free-flowering Black Eyed Susan, Viette’s Little Suzy, produces an abundance of golden-yellow, dark eyed daisies from summer through fall. It is an easy choice for the front of the garden as well as in containers.   The blooms attract pollinators and seed heads provide food for songbirds in winter.

Height: 12 – 18″; Width: 18 – 24″. Prefers full sun to partial shade and moist, well drained soil.

For this cross between a tart, a trifle and a fool,
the baked pastry is broken into shards and layered 
with the whipped cream and the strawberries in 
coupes.  Extra pastry can be frozen in individual 
balls for later use or rolled out to make cookies.

Serves Two

Pate Sablee ~
1 c unsalted butter
3/4 c confectioners' sugar
2 egg yolks
1 drop vanilla extract
2 c flour
a little salt 

Allow butter to soften in large bowl. Work in 
the sugar then stir in yolks and vanilla. Add a 
little salt. Gradually add flour until you have 
a ball of pastry. Divide in quarters, wrap in 
parchment paper. Refrigerate the amount you are 
using for one hour. Freeze the rest.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Roll out pastry on 
lightly floured surface until it is about 1/16" 
thick.  Press out several 3" discs with a 
pastry cutter. Place on prepared baking sheet 
and bake until the pastry is golden, about 8 
minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  

Strawberries ~
Rinse, hull and gently dry 1 cup strawberries.  
Mash 1/2 the berries with 1 tablespoon of sugar 
and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.  Cut the 
rest of berries in half and add them to the 
sauce.  Chill for an hour or two.

Whipped Cream ~
Whip 2/3 cup whipping cream with 2 teaspoons of 
superfine sugar.

Just before serving, break 3 of the pastry 
cookies gently into large-ish pieces.  In coupes, 
layer the cookies with the whipped cream and 
strawberries.  Serve at once.