blooms and pollinators

Came home from a trip, and the borage had grown AND bloomed!

(still not as lush and lovely as my daughter's, but that is ok)

I know I just showed pics of a borage bloom, but it is such an odd bloom that I can't resist showing it again.

Other stuff is blooming, too and attracting those bees/pollinators:
The cilantro/coriander is blooming (guess that makes it coriander now, huh?)

This dill volunteered in the middle of the veggie garden this year (along w/ about a dozen of its'
closest buddies) and I just let them grow, knowing they would attract bees to the garden, too.

Borage

When we first moved to our current home (almost 8 years ago, and we chose it for the yard!),
I was surprised to see these bright blue blooms. I hadn't seen borage before, and was glad to figure out what it was, eventually.

It came back for a few years, and then I didn't see any more borage plants. It is an annual, and somehow must not have successfully reseeded.

So, this spring I bought some seeds and planted some, thinking I'd like to have these pretty blue blooms - and they attract bees.
My 2nd child has a veggie garden this year, too, and so I gave her some borage for her garden. The pic above is from HER garden, my plants look like this:

Love those chewed up leaves, eh?
hard to tell if that is a result of snail snacking or hail damage, probably both.
Her borage plants are about a foot high, and lush looking, with buds and blooms.
Mine are still struggling along, as you can see.
This last pic is the other borage plant that I have.
It is looking a bit better, and even about to bloom!

Guess I shouldn't complain.
According to my Sunset Western Garden book (love this reference book!), borage leaves, although bristly, are edible, 'with a cucumberlike flavor.'
It also mentions that borage tolerates poor soil, as do many herbs.
The flowers are also edible, I remember seeing something about candying t
he flowers in another book, I think.

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY - rosemary

This little rosemary plant stayed in the 3" pot I bought it in. I don't know if it will make it thru the winter, but so far, so good. It is a nice surprise to have it bloom! When we lived in CA, we had some type of trailing rosemary that always bloomed, but I haven't had a rosemary bloom (or live) here in Utah before.

This is the view from our driveway, east towards the mountains. We have had snow fall almost every day since Christmas Eve, so there is quite a bit more, now. We are at 5, 000 feet on the 'bench', so if the valley gets 3 inches and the mountains get 2 feet, we get somewhere in between those two numbers. It is lovely. Maybe we'll go sledding today (I don't ski, unfortunately).