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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!

It’s The Time of The Season

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  • Too many plants?! Where???

The past few days have been a flurry of planting. And sweating. And complaining about sweating. And happily prancing around the garden, hoping the neighbors aren’t watching. On Friday, the last of the nights in the 40s were behind us, so I started going wild and popping things in the ground. In went the marigolds, zinnias, bachelor button flowers, german chamomile, thyme, parsley, basil, oregano, and the borage plants that were living in the cold frame. I ran out of room in the yard, so I started potting things up into larger recycled containers on the deck.

  • A little bit of mulch really helped snazzy up the new water feature.

The weekend saw several trips to the garden center to acquire more dirt and pots. And mulch. I did a little more grass-removal around the wildlife pond, and started mulching in the area. The birds don’t seem to have found the new watering hole yet, but there’s some new insect larvae in the water, and a few spiders and other bugs hanging out around the rocks. The new plants are all looking happy, including the pitcher plant I added last week. Pitcher plants are carnivorous, and love to feast on mosquitoes, which they should have plenty available to enjoy. I potted the plant up in and actually set it into the water, so the leaves are dry, but the roots of the plant are under the surface. It should really thrive and I’m excited for some more pesticide-free mosquito control!

  • The new Pitcher Plant, ready for breakfast.

Moving along down the yard, the raised beds are now all planted up (finally!). The first bed houses some carrots, parsley, lettuce, leeks, shallots, garlic, and pole beans. I’m going to add some parsnips in a few weeks once I do some harvesting to make room for them.

The next beds are stuffed full of tomatoes. I ended up with 14 plants: 8 san marzano paste tomatoes, and 6 druzba tomatoes. I am elated to finally have them all in the ground. I’ll be less excited once I have buckets of tomatoes to peel and dice for canning season, but that’s really the whole point of this exercise.

  • The tomatoes are in the ground!

Growing tomatoes is sort of a national past time in the US. They are the #1 crop grown in our yards and on our porches, and there are probably more articles devoted to the art of growing them than anything else in the garden. I just have a few tips of my own, for first time (and returning) growers. Tomatoes like sun, a lot of sun. They will not thrive in a shady location. Tomatoes also prefer temperatures between the 60s-80s. A frost or freeze will kill them off, and when it gets too hot for too long, they start looking pretty pathetic (I can’t blame them, I have the same issues).

Tomatoes don’t enjoy sitting in water, but they do require a good soaking on a consistent schedule. Not enough water, or draught conditions between waterings can lead to calcium deficiencies that cause Blossom End Rot, a fun issue where the bottoms of the fruit will blacken and rot out. A good soak every few days, at the base of the plant should do the trick.

But, first, you have to get them planted. Tomatoes do well in containers or in the ground, they just like a soil with some compost and other nutrients. And, any container should have some good drainage holes to make sure they don’t swim around. Tomatoes should be planted with some sort of support system. I like metal stakes, but we’ve used those round, metal cages before, bamboo poles, wood stakes… really anything will work that the plants can be tied to, to help keep them upright. On their own, tomatoes will flop over and kind of spread like a ground cover.

  • Plant your tomatoes deeply for stronger roots and happier plants.

Plant your toms deeply. Tomato roots grow from the sides of the stem, so when you’re putting your plant into the dirt, plant it down far enough so the first set of leaves will be sitting on the top of the soil. This will help your tomato grow stronger roots, and ultimately, better tomatoes for you to enjoy.

Finally, if you’re planting multiple tomatoes, it helps to space them apart by at least 12 inches. Tomatoes like space to breathe, to grow healthier, bushier plants. I set mine too close together last year, and while I ended up with a lot of tomatoes, they didn’t grow very large.

Wrapping up the raised bed tour in the garden is our asparagus bed, which also now houses some herbs: more chamomile, basil, oregano, and parsley. The chamomile is mostly for the pollinators. The other stuff I like to cook with, and I’ll dry some as well for use during the winter and for holiday gifts.

  • The real stairway to heaven

Close observers of this blog may be wondering, why, Sara, didn’t you also grow some peppers this year? Yes, gardeners, I certainly did. I grew six italian sweet pepper plants, in fact. They are all fairly tall already, and flowering. I had planned to add them to the raised beds, but someone grew too many tomatoes and ran out of room. The third trip to the garden center this weekend (%^&%&$#!) was to pick up containers and dirt for them. They now live on the deck steps, as I am running out of room on the deck itself. I’m really testing the structural integrity of our deck boards this year.

Out in the rest of the garden, things are flowering and the heat and rain in this weeks forecast should bring out even more. Our daises, clematis, lilacs, coral bells, allium, irises, and columbines are all in bloom, and the peonies look about ready to pop as well. (Peonies are my absolute favorite flower, so I’m anxious to see them again this year!) The climbing roses are also beginning to bloom, in a brilliant, hot pink. A few years ago, I thought I’d accidentally killed them off, but they stubbornly refused to die. The plant has just grown out of control. I should have started training them a month ago, but I must have had very important things going on then. So, this weekend, the husband helped me put in some eye hooks along the fence where they grow, and we tied some fishing line between the hooks to string the roses through. Many puncture wounds later, the roses are looking much happier, and the lilies and lambs ear that grow below them are happy for some actual sunlight again.

  • Daisies
  • Roses
  • Clematis
  • Lilacs
  • Giant White Trillium
  • Bugleweed
  • Irises
  • Star of Bethlehem
  • Columbines

All that’s left to do now is to dig up the sod in the front yard for the next bed, in the grass patch between the sidewalk and the street. I have some native grasses and plants growing that should be ready to pop into the ground soon, so I need to get digging. Once that’s wrapped up, it will be time to fall into the lounge chair on the deck to enjoy all of this years hard work! I can’t wait to see everything bloom as the days grow longer. The swallowtail butterflies should be here before too long. We have their favorite host plants: dill, fennel, and parsley waiting.

Hope all is well in your garden, and that you are able to get out and enjoy nature this week. Happy gardening!

  • Wild geraniums, brunerra, hellebores, creek sedge and hostas, hosta, dutchman’s breeches, hostas and ferns, jack in the pulpits, and ferns with trillium and hostas

Weather Rants and Herbs

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I sometimes think our favorite pastime in Ohio is complaining about the weather. As a lifelong resident of this state, I’m well trained in the art of turning any conversation into a rant about the temperature. Today’s post will be no exception. As readers of this blog know, I grew a bumper crop of peppers and tomatoes from seed this year. They’ve been cruising along inside, under grow lights, and once the last chance of frost hit for the season, I started hardening the plants off outdoors. I had hoped to plant everything out in the garden last week, but the temps were in the 40s and 50s, which is much chillier than tomatoes enjoy for a high. And, it’s been raining buckets.

  • Our nepeta, clematis, columbines, allium, hellebores, and azaleas are all enjoying springtime.

This weekend, as I gazed morosely out the bay window in the kitchen, the storms continued. Yesterday alone, we had a few inches of rain. The ground is a muddy mess, with flooding and puddles all over the city. The calendar claims that we’re moving into the second week of May, but with temps 20 degrees below normal, it really doesn’t feel like it. Crabby gardener (me) is crabby.

I’m hoping to get everything planted later this week. The skies are supposed to clear, and it will be a little warmer out in a few days. I’m ready for everything to be in the ground already, and out onto the deck. Our kitchen has gone Full Jungle and while “grow lights hanging from your kitchen chandelier” is certainly a look, I’m not totally sure it’s one that will catch on with interior decorators any time soon.

Anyway. Three paragraphs is probably long enough of a weather rant today. I haven’t cussed out any meteorologists, but I hope I’ve managed to hang on to my Midwesterner cred anyway. So. Moving on.

  • I was weeding the asparagus bed and found this guy growing… I dug it up and was surprised to see that it’s a walnut sapling! The squirrels must have planted it. I repotted it so it can keep growing on the deck.

Last week, I acquired quite a few new plants for the garden. I ordered some native plants from Prairie Nursery the other month, and they arrived a few days ago. I was pretty impressed with the packaging- all of the plants were healthy and happy, and nothing was smashed to bits by the delivery company. I’ve been working on pulling up some more grass around the new wildlife pond, and so I was able to plant the new maidenhair ferns, canada anemones, jack in the pulpits, creek sedge, northern sea oats, and wild geraniums there. All of the plants will love living around the wet and shady new water feature. I also nabbed some more blue false indigo, prairie smoke, bergamot, and obedient plants for the sunnier areas around the yard. Each of these are host plants for some really neat pollinators and bugs. I’m excited for everything to fill in and since they are all native perennials, I won’t have to do much with them (including watering) after they get established.

Saturday, our local park held a plant sale. There are few things more irresistible to me than plants (hence the blog), so I took my newly-vaccinated self to fill up a tray with some great natives, veggies, and herbs. I brought home some woodland phlox, nasturtiums, creeping thyme, shallots, garlic, and chives. I also grabbed some oregano, since the seedlings I was growing were a little fried after I accidentally left them in the cold frame on one of the 85 degree days we had last month. Oops.

  • I grew all of this years basil crop from seed, and it’s ready for another harvest!

I really, really love growing herbs, despite my lack of success with this years oregano seedlings. Quite a few herbs are perennials in our area, so I have them scattered about in the gardens and get to enjoy them every year. The others, I tend to grow in pots to keep them from taking over the garden (some herbs are more aggressive than geese and will absolutely charge everything around them with a swift voracity). I like having herbs in pots so they are close to the kitchen for easier collection purposes when I’m cooking. And, I can bring them inside if it gets too cold. Pots also make it easier to control the soil and drainage for your herbs, which comes in very handy with things like rosemary, that do not like to get very wet.

I thought I’d give an overview on some of the herbs that I grow, with a few tips I’ve picked up over the years. When it doubt with most herbs, grow them in the sun, make sure they won’t ever be standing in water, and containers are great to keep them from taking over a space. Here’s some of the finer points:

Herb Growing Tips Harvest Notes
BasilBasil grows well in pots or in the ground. It loves full sun, well draining soil, and won’t be able to handle a frost.You can harvest basil leaves often, by just plucking off leaves. Once it really heats up, basil will start to flower. Remove the flowers to keep leaves tasting fresh.Basil grows really well next to tomato plants. It’s an easy herb to grow, and it’s hard to beat pasta with fresh basil leaves on top!
Bay LaurelBay Laurel is one I’d recommend growing in a pot in climates where it gets cold in the winter. It won’t be able to live through a freeze. It likes to live in something that drains well, in the full sun. We bring our bay inside in the winter and it lives in a sunny windowsill.Harvest bay leaves when they are a few inches long. Fresh bay leaves are amazing in sauces and stews.
BergamotBergamot would grow fine in a pot, or in the garden. It likes full sun, and will get bushy, growing about 2′ wide, with beautiful, starburst flowers.I would not recommend harvesting bergamot. Some parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested. Bergamot is an awesome perennial in our area, Zone 6a. It grows really pretty flowers and is a pollinator magnet!
BorageBorage can be grown in a pot, or in the ground. It’s not a fan of winter. Grow borage in a sunny, well-draining spot.Borage flowers can be used in tea, or as a garnish in things like salads. Both the flowers and leaves can be eaten. Borage is a great herb for attracting pollinators! The small, star-shaped blue flowers are really pretty and taste better if eaten fresh and not dried.
ChivesI recommend growing chives in a container, because they tend to spread all over the place. They are a nice perennial, grow quickly and easily. Chives enjoy the sun, but can handle a spot with some shade.Harvest chives multiple times throughout the year, just wait until a month after you’ve planted them. Cut chives back to about an inch above the ground when harvesting.Chives will flower, luring in pollinators. They taste great in lots of dishes, both fresh, and dried.
ChamomileChamomile grows well in pots or in the ground. It likes the sunshine, but can tolerate a little bit of shade. Once the chamomile flowers are starting to go past their prime, pop them off, dry them, and then enjoy in tea, or a relaxing bath.Chamomile is a great bee magnet, and the pretty flowers, which look like tiny daisies, are great for dyeing up fiber and fabrics.
CilantroCilantro likes cooler weather, and is great for springtime and fall in our climate. Grow it in pots or in the ground. In my experience, it likes a shadier location, with morning sunshine. Pluck off the leaves and stems to harvest cilantro, and the plant will keep growing. Once it warms up, the plant will bolt, sending up flowers. These will turn to seed, coriander, which you can harvest once they start to dry out on the plant. Not everyone enjoys cilantro (for some, it tastes a lot like soap), but if you like it, cilantro is a tasty garnish. If you harvest the coriander seeds, they may be ground up and used in lots of dishes like curry. Yum.
DillDill is a perennial in our area. It grows well in pots, or in the ground, though it likes to spread. Plant dill in the sunshine.Harvest dill leaves before the plant flowers. Dill is great fresh, or dried, and the husband swears by it in his scrambled eggs. Dill is also a host plant for swallowtail butterflies. The caterpillars will eat some of the leaves, but since this herb grows so quickly, it’s easy to share with them!
FennelFennel is a sun-loving herb, that’s easy to grow. I like it in pots, but am trying some in the raised beds this year, too. Harvest fennel leaves for use in things like salads, and after the plant flowers, the seeds can be harvested and dried.I bake with fennel in my breads a lot, and it’s also a must have in many of my italian dishes. Fennel is another host plant for swallowtails. They show up in our area on the plants in late spring, and we love watching the caterpillars grow into new butterflies!
LavenderLavender is a little more particular, as herbs on this list go. It’s a perennial in our area, but needs a sunny spot with soil that drains very well. It will not be happy in location that floods or in clay that holds lots of water. I grow ours in the garden, but it would love life in a pot, too. Harvest the sprigs of flowers by trimming them back to the woody stems. Enjoy lavender in a bath, pop the sprigs in a drawer to keep clothes smelling fresh, or just enjoy their fragrance in a nice bouquet on the table. Lavender is another great plant to attract lots of pollinators- the bees absolutely adore this one! It’s very low maintenance. Lavender requires little water, and you don’t cut the plant back to the ground at any point- just trim off spent flower sprigs after they’ve bloomed. It can be split and moved every few years to keep the plant full and happy.
MintMint is that plant your mother warned you about- it will absolutely take over a garden (possibly, an entire state). Grow it in pots for the best chance at containing this beast. Mint likes full sun, and is a perennial that doesn’t care if winter exists.Harvest mint leaves all summer long. They are great in tea and adult beverages, make a nice addition to a bath, and can also be nice treat in a fruit salad. Mint will flower, and attract lots of happy pollinators. We grow a few varieties, but my favorite is an heirloom, that started life in Emily Dickinson’s garden. A friend gave me a cutting the other year, and it took off right away. I fangirl every time I see it.
OreganoOregano is another herb that loves the sun. It comes in tons or varieties and grows well in pots or in the ground, just make sure it doesn’t get overwatered. Pluck off leaves as they grow, and when the plant flowers, try to pull off the flowers to keep the leaves tasting nice. (Like basil, the leaves will turn a little bitter if the plant has flowers).Oregano flowers are a favorite of pollinators, and the leaves are tasty in lots of dishes. We tend to dry ours, which does dull the flavor just a bit, but it’s also yummy fresh.
ParsleyParsley practically grows itself. It’s hardy, and will take some cold temps. It likes the sun, but will also tolerate a bit of shade. It’s fine in containers or in the ground.Harvest leaves about a month after planting. Parsley will just keep growing. Parsley is another host plant for swallowtail butterflies. We share our harvest of it each year with the caterpillars. It comes in loads of varieties. Parsley is great fresh or dried.
Rosemary Rosemary behaves a lot like lavender, except it’s not a perennial in our area. It hates the cold. Plant it in a sunny spot, and it will be happiest in soil with some rock in it to make sure it drains very well. This plant likes things dry.To harvest your rosemary, trim the top few inches off. I like cooking with the whole sprigs for the flavor in stews and on grilled treats. Rosemary dries well, but is really the best fresh. I keep our plant on a sunny windowsill in the cold months, and move it outside in the summer so we can enjoy it year round.
ThymeThyme is pretty versatile. It grows as a perennial in our area. It loves the sun and will grow well anywhere, though it will tend to spread out in the ground. Harvest thyme by plucking off a few inches of leaves. Thyme is a great ground cover, as well as a awesome ingredient in cooking. The bees love its tiny flowers, and I’ve been using it more and more in place of grass in our yard. You can walk all over it without killing the plant (just watch out for bumble bees!).

I feel like that ending up being a lot longer than I’d intended, but hopefully it’s helpful information. Herbs are so versatile. Many of them are very beneficial for our local insect populations, and there really is nothing like cooking with fresh herbs. Most require little watering or maintenance, and since they grow so well in containers, they are great plants when you don’t have a whole lot of space available. They grow just fine indoors, which is great during the winter blahs, and they don’t seem to attract as many of the pests that destroy plants, like some veggies and flowers do.

  • Some of our lavender: the lighter leaves are last years growth, and the limier green are new this spring. We’ll see flowers by the summer time.

Hopefully the week dries out soon (dang it- I’m onto the weather again!) and I can get some more planting done. I’d like to get the rest of these cold frame herbs in the ground, along with the aforementioned kitchen plant crew. Wherever you are, I hope your May is going well, and that your gardens are behaving.

Happy gardening!

  • Our heirloom mint, from Emily Dickinson’s garden.