Feels like a martini kind of morning

A martini and a new daisy (it's not lopsided!)

If you're not gardening with a martini this morning (gin - not vodka, dirty, cocktail onion - not green olive), you're making a huge mistake. It's Tuesday (hopefully you do not depend on this blog to keep you abreast of the current day of the week) and that means we here at The Nearly Constant Gardener enjoy and advocate a gardening eye-opener.

You'll notice my fancy antique martini glass. I bought it long ago on South Congress. I think it was among my first purchases (maybe even my first purchase) after I moved to Austin. My new greaser, rockabilly neighbor drove by in his vintage truck while I was taking a picture of it in the front yard this morning, and I think he rolled his eyes at me. This is actually a picture of the drink in my backyard where we have the veggie gardens. I transplanted these old daisies to the garden beds to free up some space in my plant containers, and they've started to bloom again, which is nice.

To drive home my earlier bloggings imploring everyone to deadhead their roses, I have some more pictures (because you haven't seen enough already) of my Republic of Texas rose blooming away. I really can't overemphasize how important it is to deadhead if you want your roses to be worthwhile. And I mean worthwhile in the sense that your rose bush isn't just some thorny, ugly bundle of twigs that you waste water on.

Before deadheading all those spent blooms in the background

One of the many clusters of blooms that will appear,
and keep appearing, if you are conscientious about deadheading

In closing, there will be no blogging tomorrow. My American audience knows it will be a holiday (it's the day we Americans - or, at least, the British Americans at the time - renounced mad king George III and set off on our own wonderfully mad path). Check back on Thursday though. I will answer a valued reader (kizzkat) who was a dedicated enough blog audience member to leave a request for information, namely an awesome recipe, in the blog comments. I'll be making the recipe in question for a 4th of July BBQ so I'll be able to get a picture of the finished dish.