Tag Archives: summer flowers

Hot Garden Summer

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The black swallowtail butterflies are back!

It’s been a minute, so I thought I’d give an update on how the garden is progressing this summer. Since setting things up this spring, I haven’t done a ton of gardening these past few weeks. I don’t plant things that require much maintenance, and also, it’s summer, which means, it’s too hot to even think about doing outdoorsy things. Our June temperatures were higher than average, with less rainfall than normal, which continued into July. In mid-June, we experienced the highest dew point ever recorded in Central Ohio, and the heat index was over 110 degrees F. After a few weeks with little in the way of rainfall, this past week, we had several days with flooding rains, breaking records for the wettest day ever recorded.

Switching from drought conditions to flash floods, with above-average temperatures, would typically do quite a number on a garden, but things are actually doing pretty well here in the yard. Our backyard is situated on a slope, so we didn’t end up with a flooded basement, and the plants weren’t totally drowned. I have been watering almost daily up until this past week, and the crops all seem to have weathered the wild weather so far. We haven’t had a ton in the way of harvest yet, but things are coming along.

Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, and a baby lemon

The snow peas did very well, and I finished harvesting them last month. Our next batch of lettuce took off in the past week, and I’ve been clipping leaves every day. The parsley, basil, oregano, dill, nasturtiums, and mint have also been ready to harvest. I usually go snip a few leaves every week.

We have a few peppers starting to grow, but the majority of the summer crops (tomatillos, tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, beans, and cucumbers) are just flowering at the moment. The potatoes and onions should be ready in the next week here, though. And, excitingly, we have our first lemon growing on the lemon tree! The tree was packed with flowers a few weeks ago, which smelled divine. Only one has made it to fruit stage, so far. I probably go look at it five times a day. I have a lot of emotional investment in this wee lemon. I want some home-grown citrus!

When I’m not stalking my lone lemon, I’ve been glued to the wild bergamot which started blooming the other week. The flowers are native to Ohio, with gorgeous pale-pink flowers that look like fireworks. This plant (also known as bee balm) is a must for a pollinator garden in the Midwest. The flowers are covered in bees and butterflies!

Also in bloom right now are the giant purple hyssop, black-eyed susans, echinacea, prairie blazing star, coreopsis, blanket flowers, and milkweed. All of these are pollinator magnets, hosting caterpillars, and providing food for bees, butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds, moths, and others. I love walking around the yard, watching the bees enjoying all the flowers. And all these native plants add so much color to the garden.

One of the borders, with lavender, coreopsis, echinacea, bee balm, and blanket flowers in bloom.

Hopefully your garden is also bursting with activity right now (more in the way of flowers and pollinators, not so much you, having to do things!). 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!

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Summertime

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The swamp milkweed is in bloom: my absolute favorite smelling flower. It’s light and sweet and an absolute pollinator magnet.

We’ve officially made it to summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere. While I love and adore all of the flowers this time of year, and watching the bees and other pollinators buzzing around the yard, summer is not my most favorite season. The heat and humidity make me cranky, and the planting is about wrapped up for the season, so my excuses to buy more flowers are harder to come by.

Luckily, I managed to squeak in a pit stop by the garden center last week to grab a few stray goodies for the new hellstrip bed out in the front yard, and for a corner out back that needed a little something. I grabbed a hollyhock for some height, and a few more verbena, anise hyssop, nepeta, and thyme for the pollinators to enjoy. The bees found the hyssop and thyme before the plants even made it into the ground, so I would say my selections were a success!

Some of my recent acquisitions: nepeta, growflow lemonade thyme, verbena, and anise hyssop

Out front, digging continues on the new hellstrip bed. I think the project is going to be a little smaller than I’d originally intended, at least, for now. A combination of rain showers, hot days, and arthritis joined forces to keep me from getting out there to dig things out last month like I’d planned. The husband helped me rip out most of the sod last week, and tomorrow, once the heat breaks, we plan to finish the bed. I have lots of plants waiting to go in: the little bluestem, prairie dropseed, prairie blazing star, and some thyme that I grew from seed, as well as the aforementioned plants I nabbed last week, and some creeping thyme and prairie smoke that I picked up awhile ago. Those poor plants need to get into the ground already!

The rest of the garden seems to be thriving. We’ve had a lot more in bloom since my last post. The hostas opened up, the borage and milkweed are all blooming (and smelling heavenly, I might add), the nasturtiums, bee balm, anise hyssop, verbena, and echinacea (coneflowers) are all blooming like wild, and the lanceleaf coreopsis, tickseed, cranesbill, marigolds, blanketflowers, and creek sedge continue to flower away. That’s not nearly everything in bloom at the moment, but it’s a nice highlight of what’s going on today.

I harvested our shallots last week! They are inside now, drying, but I’m dreaming of enjoying them in some beef burgundy. Mmm…

The bachelors button flowers that I grew from seed look to be about ready to start flowering this week, as do the zinnias. It’s amazing how much they’ve taken off in the past week or so. I feel like they all put on about a foot of growth. Out in the raised beds, the bush beans and climbing beans are all Hulking Out. The climbers have runners taking over their trellis. I would say we may see some beans growing here before too long. The tomatoes are still recovering from the over-watering they received the other week when it stormed, but most of the plants have fruit growing already. And, our pepper plants are stuffed full of flowers and peppers already. I’m so excited to see what they taste like- I’ve never grown Sweet Italian Peppers before.

Baby peppers!

Since I can’t seem to help myself, I started some hopi sunflower and loofah seeds the other week. The loofah seed hulls are notoriously tough, so I soaked them for about a week and clipped the outsides of the seeds with nail trimmers. Once they started to sprout, I planted them in a pot on the deck. They seem extremely happy in the heat and sunshine, and are growing quickly. I’ll have to get a support in the pot for them here to make sure they have something to climb, and to eventually, hold up the loofahs that will grow. I am probably more excited than any one person ought to be to ditch the plastic mesh poufs I use in the shower for some homegrown loofah sponges.

Everything else on the deck has been flowering and growing away happily. I’ve been harvesting basil weekly, and am enjoying the weird (for Ohio) plants that I started this year, the pineapple, ginger, banana tree, and lemon tree that I nabbed last season. The deck crops are also thriving, and we’ll be harvesting potatoes here in a month (ish). The sugar pie pumpkin seeds I planted took off immediately, and I’m slowly winding the vines up the railing along the deck. We had planned to do some work on the deck this summer, but with wood prices being so high (when you can find the materials at all), I think that project will be one to deal with next year. So, the pumpkins, madder root, and pokeberries can hide the wonky deck railing for another season. If you can’t fix it, hide it. That’s the expression, right?

Butterfly weed, coreopsis, swamp milkweed, verbena, cranesbill, and hostas

Before I sign off for the week, I wanted to put a PSA out there for everyone with bird feeders and bird baths. An illness has hit our local bird populations in Ohio, and, I’d assume, surrounding states. It’s seriously harming the birds, damaging their eyesight and ability to fly. The US Geological Survey reports that blue jays, starlings, robins, and grackles seem to be the most impacted, but the disease may be harming other birds, as well. Scientists aren’t yet sure what this disease is, but we’re all being advised to take down our bird feeders to keep the disease from spreading. Additionally, make sure to clean our your bird baths with a solution of 10% bleach to 9 parts water, while wearing gloves. If you happen to see any sick birds, contact your nearest wildlife rehab center. In Central Ohio, that would be the Ohio Wildlife Center at 614-793-9453. Hopefully we can all help keep this awful disease from spreading and it goes away soon.

Have a nice week! I give you permission to sit back and enjoy these first few days of summer, instead of crawling around your beds, weeding. Happy gardening!