My LOST & Found Garden in JULY and Banana Pudding Picture & recipe

Guess whose artistically talented child made this for our 4th of July cook-out lunch ?

Mine...and yes, he is wearing his very favorite Spongebob t-shirt again. He does have other shirts, but he only wears this one and maybe 3-4 more...all the time. He wanted to make a centerpiece with a star, which he cut out and colored, then he found a stick in his dad's workshop, then I helped him get some red-white -blue flowers from the garden.

He taped his star on a stick, and put it in the vase with the flowers himself.

We had a great centerpiece and he set the table himself, he made placemats of paper with everyone's name on them. He also put a stylish-practical paper towel decorative element under his vase. Plus he made flags to decorate , and he made a welcome sign for the front door.

That'sa-my-boya.

Let me finally show you some garden shots I took last week and today. 

Coming down the steps again...what do I see in my picture frame that is not supposed to be there ?

Ah-ha !

A discarded bicycle from last night's walk with Mom and Maxine, a basketball...and I'll allow Maxine as she is cute in most shots.

I trimmed back some bushes and vines yesterday here.

I attacked with the hedger this Confederate jasmine vine that had overtaken this statue, the lattice accent I like behind it, and pretty soon was going to take over the tree beside it. Sort of like the blob of vines ( the 1950's movie where the Blob eats everything ).

This is how it did look, makes a neat picture...but all I saw when I looked down the back of the yard was a blob of vines. I never could figure out that I could cut the vines way back. The thought never crossed my mind.

Dumb-bunny here.

Then I got in attack-mode and cut the daylights out of it and one in the next bed.

Sometimes we just have to get vicious out there.

Now it will be better, it will grow back, but  now I can see the statue and the lattice with the vines. I know you super-smart gardeners are laughing, thinking...duh...vines grow like crazy ! It will be overtaken again before you know it.

I do know that...but I love when it flowers, so it will stay and get regular haircuts courtesy of the yardlady.

 Look at the  cannas. I have been considering what to do with these cannas.

Happy, towering cannas. My husband hates them , as I planted some where he walks in and out of his workshop/palace as well,  and they fall and get messy.

My poor calla lilies that I need to move into some shade. I only got about 3 blossoms.

 White Phlox , sage, and there is verbena, and coreopis, and some more blue plumbago in front of my heart.

Here is one of those weird plant stories, I bought this bottle brush plant at our local plant show that comes every spring. I paid 10.00 for a 3 foot tall plant. I bring it home, cannot figure out where in the heck to plant it. I think I carried it around my yard for 5-6 days. Then I decide to plant it back here, at the back of the garden.

It promptly turned brown and died in about 5 days. No lie.

I was shocked, and sad, as I had bought it because my Mom had one in her yard. It would remind me of her.

I then watched it be dead for about a week or so, watered it, tried to coax it to life again.

It just sat there looking dead at me.

So I pushed back some of the mulch around the base, thinking maybe it needed it's base to be exposed more...and chopped that three foot dead plant to about 3 ins.

Miracles of miracles ...it came back to life in about two weeks.

This white phlox is one of my new favorites.

Tiny 3rd blue plumbago that came back after last Summer in the back of my garden.

So the bottle brush plant and the blue plumbago will be decorating this back view for my black lady-ex-fountain statue to see.

These thug cannas may need to be taken out. They really can overtake what they are near, plus they shove their way around a garden. Persistent mafia style  plants. I just cannot make myself do it, as they add something back here.
But, a nagging feeling is making me consider their removal.

My ever-trusty blue plumbago that I have had for about 5-6 years. Just cut it back to the ground at first frost.  It comes back everytime.I have the three in my garden now. It will get about 3-4 feet tall.

Maxine chillin' under the fort .

I see that I am running long on this post, so I will stop this one...and do one tomorrow with the few other pictures.  I will leave you though with a few shots of my delicious, gigantic batch of home-made banana pudding I made for our dessert today.

Lookee here..

I don't put any fancy meringue on top...I like to see the crunchy cookies. I like desserts in glass bowls.

Chilled and ready to serve.

Sweet Flowerlady asked me for my recipe. I do not make it completely homemade from scratch with cornstarch and all. But I do cook it , etc. Here you go :

Banana Pudding for 10-12 people


3-4 boxes of COOK & Serve Vanilla pudding mix ( do not use instant )


1 box of low-fat vanilla wafers ( or buy 2 boxes to have enough )


1/2 gallon  or 1 gallon ( or 9-12 cups of milk per how many boxes you use ) of 2 % lowfat milk ( do not use skim or it won't cook properly, use 2 % or whole ) It is typically 3 cups of milk per box. so 3 boxes, 9 cups of milk. 4 boxes 12 cups, etc.

6-8 bananas , just ripe, do not use mushy bananas

Get everything out on your counter, as when the pudding is cooked, you will need to work fast getting the wafers and bananas in , in layers before it starts to set.


Start at the bottom of your bowl and layer it solid with wafers ( flat bottom down ), then banana slices.

Cook your pudding, stirring almost constantly until it bubbles. Turn off heat...take it off burner even. Get ready to layer now. You have your first layer down, use a large ladle and spoon about 3 cups or so on top of the first batch of cookies and bananas. Then stop and repeat, about 3 times. Do not worry about your cookies floating some or the bananas. That is fine. Once you get to the end of your pudding that is left in your pot...then put a final topping of cookies down on the top to decorate.
Let it cool for about 3 hours or overnight.
I like to cover mine when I refrigerate it , use foil or cellophane wrap on top of the bowl.
You can always cut the recipe to make it smaller..I think this surpasses the instant recipe without a doubt.
The way I do this with lowfat milk, and lowfat cookies, and nutritious no fat bananas make it a nice cool Summer dessert that is fairly low in calories.

Hope you guys had a good 4th, have a good evening, afternoon or morning...wherever you are ,

Gina

" Therefore do not worry about tomorrow , for tomorrow will worry about its own things . Sufficient for today is its own trouble. " Matthew 6:34