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Could It *Be* Any Hotter?

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The garden is full of color, from goldenrod, to madder root, pokeberries, prairie blazing star, joe pye weed, and heuchera

Does anyone else feel like summer is completely flying by?! I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea that it’s going to be August in just a few days. It certainly doesn’t feel like fall is anywhere on the horizon, though. It’s been very hot and humid out, and we haven’t had any real rain in the garden in quite a few days. While I water the veggies and some of the other annuals, it’s hot summer days like these that make me grateful for all of our native plants. They are designed to withstand all the temperatures that Ohio has to offer, as well as a lack of rainfall. Most native plants have extremely deep root systems, so they can weather just about anything Mother Nature throws their way.

Spotted this katydid while watering… they have some seriously good camouflage going on!

Some of my favorite native plants are in bloom right now: the tall, willowy joe pye weed, the deep purple stalks of prairie blazing star, with flowers like fireworks, fiery pink echinacea (coneflowers), and the sunny, bright yellow rudbeckia (black-eyed susan’s). We have quite a few of each of these plants peppered all over the yard, and I love the bursts of color they provide. These flowers draw in plenty of pollinators, too, and it’s a joy to watch all of the bees and insects humming around the garden all day.

There’s lots of cheery golden color in the yard this summer: black-eyed susan’s, nasturtiums, sunflowers, tickseed, and blanketflowers

And, luckily for me, all of these gorgeous pollinators are benefitting the rest of the garden in a huge way, by pollinating the rest of our flowers and vegetables. The veggie garden is blowing me away this year. I’ve grown veggies for a few years now, but feel like, finally, I’m starting to understand what I’m doing. Our tomatoes and peppers have never looked happier, and I’ve been harvesting oodles of each a few times a week. The red skin potatoes have also continued producing plenty of goodies.

The potato and green bean plants are sending us a bountiful harvest this year!

Our two bunches of green beans, the marrowfat bush beans, and green pole beans are also going wild. I check the plants every morning while watering, and have been filling my pockets with piles of each for the past few days. The other night, we grilled up some steaks, and enjoyed the first of the green beans (cooked up with the shallots I harvested a few weeks ago, and some bacon), as well as the first of the potatoes. Being able to pop out into the garden to grab the veggies I’ll be cooking for dinner is such a treat. I love that I’ve watched their entire growth, from seed, to mealtime, and it’s important to me that no pesticides were used on our food.

The other day, while stuffing my pockets full of beans, as one does, I discovered something a little… odd. At the bottom of our steps leading off the deck, there were two plants growing that I had not planted. After a little inspection, I discovered that they were tomato plants. I have no clue how these two plants got there- it must have been from seeds that made it into the compost we used in the springtime? That or the birds have grown must more aggressive in their gardening techniques…

Two of the Rogue Tomatoes

Then, while watering the compost bin, I noticed another tomato plant growing beside it as well. That plant is most assuredly from some seeds that made it into the compost pile. I could pull the plants out, but anything that is fighting that hard to grow where it will deserves to keep at it, in my opinion. I’m curious to see what varieties these tomatoes will be, something that I grew this year, or in year’s past?

Spotted this gorgeous dragonfly yesterday. It was very tough to photograph, but I *think* it’s an eastern pondhawk dragonfly, a native in our region.

It looks like this week will continue our hot, summer weather. I imagine I’ll be outside harvesting lots more veggies and herbs, stalking the local bug population for pictures, and making sure my collection of odd (for Ohio) plants like our banana and lemon trees have plenty of food and water. I’m hoping the skies open up at some point so the neighbors aren’t subjected to my alarming attempts at rain dancing. I have some weeding to do, but have been trying to put it off for a cooler day… at this point, I may be waiting until winter if I keep stalling for reasonable weather.

Hope it’s nice out where your garden lives, and that you are able to get outside to enjoy it this week! Happy gardening!

A Whole New World, Garden Edition

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The deep red hardy hibiscus plant is in bloom again! I love it against the pink echinacea and light purple anise hyssop.

I was away from the garden for a bit, and when I returned, it felt like a whole new space. So many flowers were in bloom, and the near constant rain we had helped add a ton of growth to all the plants. The gardens are looking pretty jungle-ish now, all sprawling with lots of green leaves and summertime color.

The hostas, garden phlox, sunflowers, bergamot, cranesbill geraniums, blanket flowers, penstemon, zinnias, borage, cornflowers, day lilies, and coneflowers are still blooming their little heads off, and the blazing star, joe pye weed, jacob’s ladder, hardy hibiscus, and black-eyed susan’s are now also flowering. Mid-summer in the garden seems to be the time for bold, bright color. Even our amaryllis bulb is about to flower again! It lives in doors all winter, usually blooming a little after New Years’ Day, and I plant it out in the summertime to recharge. I can’t believe it’s about to flower for the second time this year. I must be doing something right!

Met this little grasshopper while watering the pumpkin patch.

With all the flowers blooming away happily, lots of pollinators have been visiting each day. The gardens are packed with happy bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. The black swallowtail caterpillar I rescued from some carrots a few weeks ago made its chrysalis and hatched yesterday. She has gorgeous black wings, tipped with yellow, orange, and blue. I found a second caterpillar on the carrots over the weekend and escorted it into the butterfly enclosure to grow up safely as well. The monarchs should also be visiting the yard soon. I’m keeping an eye on all the milkweed plants for eggs and caterpillars. They always find their way here!

The newly-hatched Black Swallowtail Butterfly <3

In food news, it’s been a bumper crop for all of our herbs. I’m continuing to harvest chives, chamomile, mint, basil, oregano, parsley, dill, fennel, thyme, lavender, and rosemary every week. Some of the herbs are dried, and some I freeze. Many of the things I use most, like basil, I’ll probably bring indoors once it cools off this fall to keep growing. Being able to enjoy fresh herbs year-round is a treat.

Our sugar pie pumpkins are growing! I am SO excited!

When I left, the pumpkin plants were flowering and the vines were winding their way around the deck. They are now taking over the chaise lounge and grill, and we have three baby pumpkins growing! The pumpkins are already about 5″ tall, and still green. I am day-dreaming about the pumpkin pies the husband will be making us to enjoy this fall and through the winter. It seems a bit odd to be thinking about fall crops when it’s in the 90s outside, but at least something enjoys this hot summer weather we’re having!

Somewhere under the green beans lives a trellis. These pole beans are growing wild in the heat and rain! The lettuce growing next to the beans is also a bit unruly. We can’t eat the stuff quickly enough!

Out in the raised beds, I picked our first tomato this weekend! It was one of the san marzano paste tomatoes. The sweet italian pepper plants have also been going wild- I’m pulling off peppers a few times a week now, and dicing and freezing them for use in the family salsa we make up and can each fall. This weekend, I also harvested our garlic, which is now drying in the pantry. The lettuce we have is growing larger than I’ve ever had lettuce grow before- it’s absolutely delicious, and has made for some excellent salads.

The jacob’s ladder flower is in bloom! She lives in the shade, by the wildlife pond. I love her dainty, pale purple flowers.

I also pulled up our first carrots and a leek. The rest could use a little more growing time to bulk up, but the first ones look quite tasty and will be used in some salads this week. It was really nice at the grocery store, just breezing through the produce section- everything I’d normally buy, we have growing in the garden!

Harvest Day! I pulled up the garlic, a tomato, some peppers, red potatoes, a few wee carrots, and a leek. Yum!

Finally, I harvested the first of our red potatoes this week. That was really exciting. It’s my first year growing potatoes, and wow, I will definitely be doing that again next year. What an easy, no maintenance crop. I popped the starters in a grow bag about four months ago, and that was it. I didn’t water them much, no fertilizer, no pruning or trellising… nothing to it, just some dirt and sunshine! To harvest, I just dumped out the bag on a mat, and grabbed my spuds. The first bag had a nice little bounty, and I have three more bags to go through this week. I washed them off, and set them in the pantry to store. Can’t wait to try them out!

The black-eyed susan’s are always so cheery, and the bees love them!

This week looks to be another hot one, but things are drying out a bit. I have some weeding and pruning to do to tame the jungle a bit. I may fertilize the tomatoes and peppers again here and I’d like to do a little clean-up around the pond (the creeping charlie is starting to creep a little too much). It may be about time to harvest the bulk of the basil for some pesto-making as well. That, or I’ll just sit down next to the anise hyssop and bergamot to listen to the bees for awhile.

Hope your week is enjoyable and relaxing. Happy gardening!

The zinnias, blazing star, cranesbill geraniums, hostas, and garden phlox are putting on a real show!

The Other May Snow

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  • Daisies
    Love these cheerful daisies!

When you’re allergic to most things that grow outdoors, and you really like to garden, it makes life… interesting. This is especially true for me in late May, when people start mowing their laws twice a week, and the cottonwood trees go wild, raining little pollen-y poofs of snow down upon everything. Cottonwood is my nemesis. I tend to get hives when I hang out to long in the grass, and whenever I garden without gloves on, but cottonwood goes for an air assault approach. As Colonel Klink would say, “There can be no escape!”

I head out each morning to water. The cottonwoods behind our house stand tall, looking all innocent. Then, suddenly, a gust of wind will hit and I’ll narrow my eyes to find tiny little cottonwood seed clouds, drifting over my arms and face. Apparently, a single tree can release 25 million seeds. I feel like they’ve certainly caused me to go through 25 million tissues.

  • One of the cottonwoods behind our house, along with it’s fluffy seeds and leaves. There’s an invasive bush honeysuckle that’s swarming the bottom of the tree.

The husband suggested I do a little research about the trees, theorizing that they must be good for something. And, they really are. I learned that cottonwoods grow all over the US, being hardy in zones 2-9. They are the fastest growing trees in North America. Young cottonwoods can put on six feet of growth per year, and mature trees reach well over 100 feet tall. The trees drop seeds each spring, on clouds of cottony shields that float on the wind, but only female trees produce these.

Cottonwoods also provide quite a service to the environment. They grow up tall, so quickly, enjoying a variety of soil conditions. Their height and size allows them to give off a lot of shade, which is especially helpful in areas that aren’t heavily wooded. Beavers and deer dine on them, and cottonwoods in the northern states provide homes for migratory songbirds like warblers. Several species of butterflies and moths even require cottonwoods as host plants for their survival.

  • Azaleas
    Azaleas, giving me less to sneeze about than these cottonwoods.

While the wood of cottonwood trees is fairly soft, and isn’t often used for woodworking, cottonwoods are used to make pallets and pulp for paper. Native American tribes along waterways used cottonwoods to build canoes. The soft wood allowed for easy carving for these boats, and the trees became a valued resource. Medicinally, salves and balms were developed from the leaves and buds of cottonwoods. Their sticky sap was also utilized as a glue.

So, from my drowsy, antihistamine haze, I now have a bit more appreciation for these trees. They really are pretty. Their leaves are lighter on the bottom than the top, and they look sort of magical, blowing in the wind. They are one of the first trees to turn color in the fall, a beautiful golden yellow. I collect a few each autumn and do a little eco dyeing, printing them on fabric and clothes.

  • Lilacs, margurite daisies, rhododendron, petunias, daisies, azaleas, dead nettle, clematis, allium

Aside from sneezing a lot, the past week was pretty busy in the garden. It was really hot out, and we didn’t end up with any rain. Out in the flower beds, I try to grow things that don’t require a lot of watering (ie: native plants), but the veggies out in the new raised beds still require a daily watering. The poor tomatoes went from days in the 40s to days in the 90s, almost overnight. So, they’ve really needed the daily watering. I like to go out in the morning, before it gets way too hot and as I water, I get to see what’s new in the yard.

  • Peonies!
  • Our first strawberries, pole bean sprouts, and tomatoes

Despite the heat wave we’re having, with temps 10-15 degrees above normal, the garden is looking really nice. My beloved peonies are starting to bloom, and the first bed we put in, along the back of the yard, is full of life, with bees enjoying the nepeta, salvia, daisies, irises, roses, clematis, and creeping phlox.

I put in the last of this years seeds. The parsnips went in the last available space along some of the tomatoes. And, I put in our pole beans. They started sprouting a few days after I’d put them in. I planted a few more than we’ll need, in case the bunnies find them again this year. Buns seem to really have a thing for green bean sprouts! The tomatoes I planted seem happy in their new beds. I have a few green tomatoes already, and look forward to harvesting the first one once they ripen.

Out in the rest of the yard, I was excited to see some new volunteer plants blooming this week: swamp roses. The name leaves something to be desired, but these native roses are really pretty. They grow in most of the eastern US, and ours popped up between our fence and the neighbors fence. I have no idea how they found their way there, but the branches are now dangling over the fences, and we have pretty light-pink roses in bloom. The bees are enamored, and I am, too.

  • Swamp roses, pokeweed, red maple, and goldenrod

We have a few other plants like the swamp roses, that popped up without my having had anything to do with it. There’s a few bunches of goldenrod, a beautiful native plant that grows tall, and blooms with gorgeous yellow flowers in the last summer and early fall. Goldenrod is a very important plant for pollinators, as it’s one of the last things in bloom in this area. We also have some pokeweed, growing under the deck. This guy popped up for the first time last year, and I was thrilled to see the leaves again this year. Pokeweed is another native, with beautiful dark berries that birds love. They also make a really pretty dye, but wear gloves when harvesting them if you don’t want to explain to everyone why your hands are purple for a week! Finally, we’ve had a few volunteer trees pop up in the yard. I’ve moved a few of them, but one, a red maple, is enjoying life next to the compost pile right now. I’ll eventually have to move it away from the house, but this little sapling is growing like mad, and who can resist such beautiful green-red leaves?

  • Rhodie
    Rhododendron in the shade garden

The week ahead will be filled with lots of weeding and a bit more digging. The new pollinator bed in the front yard hellstrip is about 1/8 of the way finished. Ripping out sod is hard enough to talk myself into, but with the added heat last week, I didn’t get very far along. We’ll see what I get up to this week. Also, over the weekend, my parents split some perennials for me, and these new hostas, day lilies, and buttercups need to be planted. There’s never a shortage of work in the yard! Happy gardening!

May I Start Planting, Please?

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We’ve made it to my favorite month in the gardening calendar. I love May. Everything is green, many of my favorite flowers begin blooming, and I can finally go hog wild, executing the gardening plans. Our last frost date isn’t technically until May 9th, but according to the weather report, we should be in the clear now. (I’m probably jinxing things… last year, we had an uber late frost, and my entire state was outside, panic-covering veggies and annuals with sheets to protect things from the cold).

  • A few of our trees: eastern redbud, red maple, and flowering dogwood

I started hardening off everything that’s been living indoors last week. We’ve made it up to four hours now, over four days. I knew I’d planted a boatload of seeds, but I really do have a lot going on. I moved the grow lights down to the kitchen so I could haul all the plants inside and outside easier. (The seedlings were living on the second floor, and it took exactly one day with 11,000,000 trips up and down the stairs for me to decide that was so not continuing for the full seven days).

  • The Italian Sweet Peppers are flowering already!

The tomatoes and peppers have started to flower, which is kind of blowing my mind. I’m really excited to get these plants into the ground. I also have rosemary, basil, and parsley hardening off, as well as our lemon tree, a (newly arrived) dwarf banana tree, some madder, the ginger and pineapple plants that I started over the winter, some geraniums, and an amaryllis bulb.

The deck is starting to fill up with pots as well. The potatoes I planted have sprouted, and I just potted up the canna and cala lily bulbs that we grew last year. (They were living in the garage over winter, dormant and just waiting for warm days again). I have two pots of dahlias growing this year, well, they are just tubers now, but hopefully, they will sprout soon. And, there’s cilantro, two pots of lettuces, sorrel, fennel, a bay laurel, strawberries, tulips, aloe, mint, and some swamp milkweed. How’s that for variety? The cold frame is basically permanently opened up now so the seedlings don’t overheat and burn, and it’s housing the dropseed, little bluestem, prairie blazing star, zinnias, marigolds, milkweed, bachelor button flowers, borage, thyme, more parsley, oregano, passion flowers, and german chamomile. Things should be large enough to plant out soon here.

  • The calla lilies are growing again and ready for planting. I promise, the flowers look better than the rhizomes here would suggest.

Last fall, after the sunflowers had finished their display, I harvested a few of the seeds to plant this year. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, with nice results. I have Mammoth Sunflowers, and some Autumn Beauty, and I planted both varieties out in the beds this weekend. They both grow quite tall, so I plant them along the fence. I love when they bloom in late summer- they are so cheery, and the bees really enjoy them.

Out in the garden, things are beginning to really fill in. While not even close to it’s full volume, I’m very pleased with our first shade bed. It’s packed full of hostas, ferns, heucheras, great white trilliums, dutchman’s breeches, sedum, creek sedge, hardy geraniums, a rhododendron, hellebores, crocuses, brunerra, speedwell, and along the front edge, by the birdfeeders, are dozens of little sunflower seedlings sprouting up. The birds shake the seeds out of the feeders, and I just let the sunflowers grow, thinning them out a little for healthier plants. It’s not the ideal placement for tall plants- right at the front of a bed- but the flowers the birds grew last year were so pretty. I’m really a sucker for sunflowers, wherever they may grow.

  • The shade garden is popping back up and filling in quickly this spring.

I set up a little pot again this year in that flower bed, filled with some rocks and water for the birds and bugs to enjoy. It was a hit last year, basically a little bird bath, so I thought I’d give it a go again. The dragonflies really seem to enjoy the water features, too, and with the way they devour mosquitoes (an adult dragonfly can eat hundreds of those bloodsuckers per day), I am about anything that lures them into our garden.

  • Some of the sunflower seeds from last falls harvest

This week, we’re expecting quite a bit of rain, but hopefully, once that clears out, I can start in on the next big gardening project: pulling out the sod in the front yard between the sidewalk and the street (the hellstrip). Quite a few of the plants for that project are still growing in the cold frame now, and the other half are things I plan to split from perennials we have around the yard already. Pulling up grass is a pain, literally, but it’s the necessary first step. Any time I can get rid of more grass in our yard is a good time in my book. Once the grass is out, I can plant the new bed, get it mulched, and the next pollinator garden will be in business.

Hope the week is warm and sunny where you are, and that you can spend some time relaxing around all the new spring life outdoors. Happy gardening!

  • Our Giant Allium is blooming. I love these wild little balls of flowers, and I saw quite a few bees enjoying them over the weekend, too.

Counting Down to the Planting Frenzy

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Just a few more days and it will be May! For us in Central Ohio, that means the last frost date is almost behind us, and soon I’ll be deep in the throes of a full on Planting Frenzy.

  • Our miniature daffodils are just opening up this week.

Our plants made it through last weeks freezes and snow with minimal damage. We had three nights below freezing, but the 2″ of snow we received didn’t stick around for more than a few hours (just enough to be depressing as hell before it was on its way). I hemmed and hawed each night about covering things up, but ultimately laziness won out. I hadn’t really planted anything yet this year that would baulk at the cold, but it was still a huge relief when things looked ok.

  • A few Japanese Maple leaves took a little damage from the cold, but the tree will be just fine.

Yesterday, the husband and I picked up the larger stones for the wildlife pond lining. I assembled everything, added a few twigs and branches, and filled the pond up with water. The remaining native plants I ordered should be arriving in a week or so, and then, hopefully, it will be Move In Day for our local critters. I am really pleased with the way things look so far, and as all the plants grow in, and I mulch the area, it will look even better.

  • Ignore the muddy water. Things will clear up once the dirt from the rocks settles.

I tried to pull out all the tricks I’ve learned for attracting and providing safe spots for wildlife. Water is always a draw on its own, and there’s plenty of nooks and crannies for things to live in, between the stone and all the branches. The native plants I chose are host plants for different butterflies and moths, and as it continues to warm up, hopefully, I’ll start seeing dragonflies, bees, and other bugs checking out the space. If we get any reptiles and amphibians, I’ll be over the moon. I’m excited for the birds to notice the pond, too. It’s a nice depth for them to be able to take a bath, and there are worms galore all over the area, so the eating is good.

  • Salads, incoming!

For those of us with more refined taste, the first of our little lettuce patch is about ready to enjoy. We harvested some of our basil this past weekend for pasta, and our strawberries are flowering already. The carrots, leeks, and parsley that I started in the raised bed a few weeks ago are starting to really take off as well.

I’m hoping to begin hardening off my pepper and tomato plants here soon so I can add them to the raised beds after the danger of frost has passed. When you start seeds indoors, you need to put them through a fun little dance called “hardening off” before they can move outdoors. The process takes about a week. On day one, the plants can spend about an hour outside, and I usually start them in the shade. The next day, give them two hours, the third day, three hours, and so on, until a week has passed. This gives your plants a chance to adapt to the different level of sunlight, humidity, wind, and the general “joie de vivre” of life outdoors. (Ok, that last one may not be totally scientific, but the first three are all important). Not doing this can seriously stress your plants, and they may not survive.

That’s all I have for now. Hope everyone has a lovely week. Happy gardening!

  • I can’t wait to enjoy the strawberries this year!