Home accessories: Garden Week Wrap-Up with Minty Watermelon Lemonade

On the last day of Garden Week, a thunderstorm blew in from the east, courtesy of an abnormal weather system. I'd made Minty Watermelon Lemonade, and you should have seen us grabbing glasses and chairs. But we can't complain: our garden needed watering.

Minty Watermelon Lemonade
Printable Recipe

Serves 4 to 6

Basic Sugar Syrup:

2 c. water

2 c. granulated sugar

mint leaves

Place water and sugar in a saucepan. Stir. Bring to a boil, then lower heat. Reduce liquid until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Add mint leaves. Cover the pan and remove from heat. Remove mint before serving. Store in a clear Mason jar and refrigerate. Use in watermelon lemonade, lemonade, or iced tea.

Watermelon Lemonade:

2 cups water

1 seedless watermelon

juice of 1 lemon

2 or more ounces sugar syrup

Cut 1/2 watermelon into cubes and freeze. Put remaining watermelon in a blender and puree (or use an immersion hand blender). Strain the mixture and discard seeds and pulp. Mix puree with water, lemon juice, and sugar syrup (to taste). Serve over watermelon "ice" cubes and crushed ice. Garnish with mint.

You can also add lavender to watermelon lemonade.

I love to plant lavender along a walkway because the smell is so welcoming, and, of course, if you're cooking, it's easy to dash outside and grab a few sprigs.

The garden bed receives full sun near the walkway, where the lavender is planted; only a few feet away, afternoon shade keeps the hydrangeas from wilting.

Some of my "gardens" are strange and unsightly.

Others are experiments-gone-wrong.

I had imagined a lush, beguiling border along the fence, but I ended up with something else:

The faux cemetery garden.

That's what my husband calls it, and the phrase stuck. Actually, the bed really does resemble something you'd find in old Dodge City. With the three trellises and mandevilla vines, we've got a burial "plot" for each family member.

I won't even get into the background about this strip of land. Okay, I'll tell all. It was a "bag bed" garden, made with bags of Home Depot dirt. Using a box cutter, I sliced huge Xs on the bottoms of the bags, then slit them on top. Though you can't see it, there's a huge, empty dirt bed behind the trio of "headstones," to make sure that the plants would be out of reach to the livestock.