Gardens and Flowers in July

This has been a challenging year for plants on the farm.  We endured a month-long drought with barely a drop of rain.  Many days were hot with temperatures up into the 90sF.  When that weather finally broke, it was to violent thunderstorms and heavy rain.  We are now about 3 weeks post-drought and the plants are recovering. I had to stake and tie the sweet william stems after several storms beat them down.

During the drought I spent hours watering gardens and perennials to try and save some plants.  I gave up on the lawn.  Many areas dried up until the grass crunched under foot.  Those spots are beginning to green again.  The garden plants were growing very slowly even with all my watering.  It is amazing how quickly the gardens took off once the rains returned.

The hay crop will be poor due to no water when the best forage grass was trying to grow.  The timothy and brome grasses are stunted, hibernating or dead.  The clover fared better, but excess clover in the hay is not ideal.  Now the rain keeps coming so that hay can’t be cut.  Looks like hay will be expensive and in short supply this fall.

The rains came in time to save the day lilies and we are enjoying a beautiful display.  Other perennials such as phlox and mallow have taken off and are blooming well after wilting for weeks.  It seems that when there is a drought and the upper soil layers become dry, the watering I do for particular plants is better than nothing, but not enough.  The water is wicked away by the surrounding dry soil.  It would take so much water to make up the deficit that our well would be drained. We are lucky the well is 300 ft deep and doesn’t run dry.

I was particularly concerned with the welfare of the new perennials established last year and this spring, the purple bee balm, blazing star, coneflower and lavender.  They have all pulled through.I have not given up on growing lupine. It is a tricky plant to start. For several years I’ve been trying and have 3 established plants.  I sowed over 60 seeds this year and currently have 30 baby plants. They are waiting to be reset in larger pots.

Lupine likes sun, but also requires moisture. It does well in bright locations with deep, rich, drained soil and tolerates some shade, especially during the hottest part of the day. I’m hoping to establish a colony of lupine that will spread. If I can just get the little plants to live. Baby lupine are apparently delicious for birds and small mammals who like to snack at my nursery. I keep the babies on top of the cat’s outdoor run to discourage attacks. The vegetable garden also lagged during the drought, even with regular watering.  The corn did well and was hip high on the 4th of July.  It’s starting to tassel now.  The pumpkins were slow to start.  Now they are off and running! I planted field, pie and mini pumpkin varieties.  The drought seems to have affected the squash bugs and cucumber beetles. Their numbers are much lower than usual this year.Sunflowers volunteered and I allowed them to stay in the middle of the pumpkin patch. They are just starting to flower. I also planted sunflowers along the garden fence. These were badly affect by the dry conditions. Some have sprouted and are growing, but the volunteers are stealing the show.The rains set the wax beans growing into a veritable jungle. They have over-run their area and are pushing on the tomatoes. Soon I will start picking and canning beans. Bean season passes quickly, then the plants will be removed, opening space for tomatoes and pumpkins. The purple bean flowers are so pretty.This year I grew only 4 tomato plants. There are 3 of an early variety and one later Brandywine, a heritage beefsteak type. This is the second year for tomato cages. I’m very happy with the way they support the plants, protecting the fruit from maurading rodents. Sadly, just a couple days after I set out the tomatoes and peppers in early June, we were hit by an abnormally late frost. Many of the leaves on the plants were killed, though the stems remained. I left the plants to recover and they have, but the crop will be late and small. Peppers like cool, moist, and partial shade.  I put them near the south garden fence so there will be shade during the hot part of the day. I plant flowers like nasturtiums and zinnia in the garden for color and to attract pollinators. There are some nasturtiums around the peppers. Four bachelor buttons volunteered from last year’s crop.  I transplanted them to a corner near the radishes.  I also put in 25 gladiolus corms, some along the garden fence, some in my annual gardens.  I’m looking forward with anticipation to their lovely spikes of blooms.  This year I tried growing a long, mild cylinder radish with mixed results.  The nematodes have attacked the roots so that many are eaten before I can enjoy them.  A few have reached usable size and they are quite good.  I also planted head lettuce very thickly.  I’ve been harvesting the young plants as leaf lettuce, thinning to leave a few to form heads. My Mantis tiller went in the shop for repairs. When I got it back last week, I gave the garden a good tilling for weeds. It’s time to till again. All the rain is really encouraging the weeds. I’ve hand weeded around most of the plants and use the Mantis between the rows. The Rainbow chard and carrots are growing exuberantly, finally. For a while during the drought I was afraid they would die. A catnip plant grows at the end of the carrot row. Several catnips volunteered. I’ve been allowing them to mature then pulling them to collect lots of stems for drying. The flower garden by the house is graced with a lovely pot of red begonias that keeps exploding with color. These plants do not seem to appeal to slugs and snails. The pests are busy devouring many of my prettiest annual flowers just as quickly as they open.The baby fig tree has gone outside for the summer. It has 6 figs ripening. I wish they would get on with it, can hardly wait to eat fresh figs! The plant needs to be repotted, but I hesitate to disturb it until the fruit has matured.So, I’m happy to say we have survived the drought and are flourishing at the moment. The driest month of summer, August, has yet to arrive. I’m hoping we do not have to suffer another long spell without rain. Some of my plants may not make it through a second bout.

Sweet William

Several years ago I sowed some red Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) seeds in my flower garden.  I have loved this flowers for as long as I remember.  It smells wonderful and holds its bloom for a long time.

The plant is listed as a biennial or weak perennial.  I think in my garden it is a strong perennial!  It is a member of the carnation family and the fragrance to me is a mix of nutmeg and honey.

Every year since I seeded it, the plants have grown and spread.  They do not completely die back in the winter, but keep a low growth of dark green leaves that spring up again each summer.  From just a couple stalks with red flowers the Sweet William has increased to take over half the garden.

I’m not sure how the new colors developed, maybe from the seeds of the original red plants.  Now I have fuchsia flowers with pink centers and fringe and one lovely stalk of salmon colored petals.  In the fall when the seed heads form, I help spread the seeds around, hoping for an ever widening patch of Sweet William.

Early August Garden

August 3, 2015

July 14, 2015

These photos of my garden were taken about three weeks apart. What a difference! The growth of the corn and sunflowers is especially apparent.  I’ve also added a run for my rabbits, an edge of which is just visible in the lower left part of the top photo.  The bunnies LOVE their new 8′ x 12′ run!  All the female rabbits go out together and have a great time.  I will blog about them later.

I just finished a major weeding of the garden and it’s looking pretty spiffy so I took photos to share.  The wax beans are ready to pick!  That gave me a surprise this morning.  I didn’t realize how quickly they were developing.  I can make a meal on just fresh wax beans.  The beans are in the center of the photo on the left.  They have come a long way from the struggling shoots of early June.

I have harvested four tomatoes and eaten one. It was yummy!  Some more are ripening on the vine.  No more buying tomatoes for awhile!

There is an ample supply of greens from the small patch of head lettuce.  As the plants are thinned, I collect bags full of sweet, tender leaves.  Because there is such an abundance, I share a few with the horses and bunnies.

The sweet peppers are not doing a whole lot. There are a few tiny peppers to be found, but overall rather disappointing. The peppers are growing in the open area of the photo at the right.  There are tall marigold plants between them and the fence.  I will try adding some urea to the soil around the peppers.  Maybe that will wake them up.

My zinnias are under attack by Japanese beetles!  The nasty bugs are taking big bites out of their leaves and petals.  I will set up some beetle traps to lure them away from my flowers.

The strawflowers I planted never sprouted.  So I dug up that area and planted a row of carrots.  They will be ready to harvest this fall.  I wonder why none of the strawflowers came up?  The seed was fresh and I planted and cared for them as directed.  Oh well.  That is the second time these flowers have failed me. Guess I’m done with them!  The newly planted carrot row can be seen in the lower right corner of the top photo of the garden.  It is the freshly dug area just beyond the growing carrots near the fence.

The winter squash and pumpkins are making a major growth spurt.  During June they mostly hibernated, but late July saw big gains in size for them.  They are busy blooming and spreading their vines.

I love the sunflowers. The variety I grow has many blooms per plant. This year my sunflowers are volunteers and it looks like they all came from a yellow-flowered plant.  Still they are big and beautiful.  The plants tower above my head, maybe eight feet tall.  Bees adore the pollen rich flowers.

A small groundhog has been spotted several times trying to find a way inside the garden fence.  He better stay clear!

Dreaming of the Flower Gardens

The temperature outside is languishing at six below zero F, all is locked in ice and snow, a perfect opportunity to revisit some of the beautiful flowers of summer.  Above, stands of daylilies fill the yard in July.  Looking at the photo, I can almost hear the scratchy music of crickets, smell the fresh-cut lawn, and feel the sun blazing through the long daylight hours.

Lavender soaks in the heat against the house wall, while memories of lavender fields in Provence flash through my head.  This protected southern spot fools the plant with Mediterranean-like warmth.

This past year, the Sweet William thrived. What started as one small plant several years ago has spread until Sweet William occupies a solid corner of a rock garden.  The long-lasting blooms smell deliciously of nutmeg and cloves.  As the blooms fail I allow the seeds to ripen and spread in the area.

Butterflies flock to the large flower heads, and hummingbirds dip their beaks searching for nectar.  A member of the carnation family, Sweet William is a biennial or weak perennial requiring reseeding to flourish.

A native Eastern North American wildflower tamed to garden life, Bee Balm brings a brilliant show in mid-summer.  There are several colors, the red being most common and nicknamed Oswego Tea by colonists who turned to the leaves after rejecting British tea in Boston.  The leaves and blossoms of Bee Balm are used in tea and cooking and sometimes added to fragrant potpourri.  As the name suggests, bees and other insects favor this plant.  Butterflies and hummingbirds frequent my planting.  Bee Balm prefers sunny to partial shade areas and can thrive in many soils.

Powdery mildew can be a concern for this plant.  Some mildew is evident along the stems of my flowers, although it did not seem to bother the plant’s performance.

There, I have nearly forgotten the winter chill looking at my garden flowers.  Spring, please hurry!

 

Visit To My Spring Garden

Tete-a-tete daffodils

Pink primrose

Yellow jonquils

First narcissus

Pink hyacinth

Welcome to my spring garden.  On a sunny day the fragrance of the flowers fills my dooryard.  The bulbs got off to a late start due to chilly, cloudy weather through much of April.  Now with a little warmth and sunshine, the blooms have exploded.  Around my front door I have several rock gardens and a raised bed filled with a selection of perennial flowers that bloom throughout the season.