I’m loving all the color in the garden at this time of year from the sedum, false indigo, blanket flowers, and the aster.
We’re about a week out now from the official start of fall, but summer is still doing its thing. It’s back into the 90s, with higher humidity, and it’s been a minute since we’ve seen any rain. I ought to be out watering in the mornings, but at this point in the season, my motivation is seriously waning. Most of the crops I planted have either been harvested already, or they are having their last hurrah.
I’ll haul quite a few of the deck pots back into the house once it does finally start frosting at night again, but some of the annuals, like the german chamomile and the zinnias, just had this one season, and I’ll compost the plants once the cold air wipes them out. A few things, like the basil, I let flower, and once they throw out seeds, I’ll harvest those, dry them, and save them to plant next springtime.
The marigolds around the tomato beds are looking quite happy.
I’m trying to keep my Seed Starting Plant Spreadsheet up to date with notes about how everything did, and which varieties I’d like to try out next year. For the most part, I’m pleased with everything that I planted, but there were a few duds. The san marzano paste tomatoes have been growing like mad all season, and every day, dozens more seem to ripen for harvest. But the larger druzba tomatoes that I’d tried never really seemed happy. I did harvest a few, but most of the ripened tomatoes were split. We had an awfully hot summer, with temps about 10-15 degrees higher than they really like, and there was more rain than usual, with flooding rains happening often. Next year, I think I’ll try a different variety and see if they fare a little better.
Most of the native seeds I tried out using the winter sowing method (seeds planted in milk jugs and left outside all winter) did really well. The prairie blazing star, little blue stem, and swamp milkweed, especially took off and were able to join their brethren out in the flower beds. I plan to try this method out again for seeds that need a cold, stratification period. Mother Nature does all the work, and no grow lights or watering are required (unless it’s seriously dry where you live).
Our dahlias are finally starting to flower, and there’s been lots of activity around the garden, with sulfur butterflies dancing around the aster and bees galore buzzing around the sedum.
Another top performer were the herbs that I’d planted. For example, the borage, basil, thyme, and parsley, to paraphrase Tom Petty, “grew up tall, and they grew up right.” The parsley can withstand a bit of cold, so I’ll let that keep growing in the deck pots and the raised bed. The thyme should be a perennial in our area, so I’ll plant out what growing in pots now, so it can continue to grow. Some may end up in the kitchen for easy harvesting throughout the winter. I’m envisioning some delicious roasted chicken dishes on cool nights, starring fresh sprigs of thyme… mmmm…
In addition to the aforementioned plants, I’m really pleased with how well the flowers did that I’d started from seed, like the “Happy Days Marigolds,” and the “Berry Basket Zinnias.” They were easy to start growing, and took off quickly in the cold frame this spring. I plan to grow both again next year. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds have been enjoying the zinnias almost as much as I have, and any plant that gets that much attention from pollinators is a winner in my book.
Late summer and early fall is a great time to check out the local population of black walnut trees. Their gorgeous leaves start to lighten and then turn to gold.
The rest of the garden seems to be doing pretty well still. Our aster and goldenrod are really the stars right now, flower-wise. I’m seeing lots of different moth, butterfly, and bee species on each daily. Next year, I’m thinking about widening the plant border a bit that wraps around the entire back yard. This way, I’ll be able to fit a few more plants in between the tall asters and goldenrods and the grass. I feel like some more perennials, like black-eyed susans, coneflowers, little blue stem, anise hyssop, and sedum would do well. I have all of these in the garden already, and the pollinators love these species. Also, they each provide some interest all year long, so even in the winter, they will offer something nice to look at, in addition to providing more food for the birds to enjoy.
Another expansion project that would actually be wise to start here shortly is the pollinator bed that I’d planned to add in this year on the side of the house. I have a wildflower seed mix that I want to plant, and prepping the bed now so I can drop those seeds this fall would be very well timed. With so much grass to remove, a nice way to tackle this space will be by covering the grass with some cardboard and dirt, through a method called Lasagna Layering. The carboard and dirt block out the light, killing the grass. And by keeping the area wet, the organisms that grow in the compost will help break down the cardboard, leaving me with soil for the plants. Plus, by not actually doing any digging, I won’t be disrupting the organisms and critters that currently live in the soil. I’ll go into more detail about the benefits of “no dig” planting in another post, but as someone with arthritis, I know I feel gleeful any time I am encouraged not to dig a hole in the ground.
Anyway, that’s all I have for today. Hope that your garden is thriving, and you enjoy the end of the season of summer. Happy gardening!
The cranesbill, maidenhair ferns, and pokeberries are all looking happy in the shade gardens this year.
There’s quite a lot blooming in the garden, like these lettuce flowers, coral honeysuckle, goldenrod, new england aster, black-eyed susan’s, blanketflowers, cranesbill, autumn joy sedum, sea oats, and sunflowers
Lately, I feel like I’ve almost been more excited by the visitors we’ve had in the garden than the plants and trees that live there all the time. Maybe that’s because it’s been too hot to really enjoy the yard for more than the five minute bursts I’ve had, racing out to harvest tomatoes before retreating into the sweet sanctuary of the air conditioning. It feels like it’s been months since I’ve been able to sit outside, and properly experience everything that’s growing. I miss lizarding out on the deck.
The entire summer has felt blazing hot and miserable with very few breaks. I’m not handling the weather terribly well, though, a little warm air shouldn’t make me complain when so much of the country is battling devastating wildfires and hurricanes. Even the tornadoes that we usually see haven’t occurred here this year, which is odd, now that I think about it. And, while we’ve had some flooding and drought conditions, our crops and plants are mostly hanging in there.
Our loofah vines are starting to flower. I planted the seeds back in June, and the vines grew very quickly. The flowers, once pollinated, will start growing loofahs, that I’ll dry and be able to use in the shower. Score!
Anyway, enough wallowing. As I mentioned, we’ve had quite a lot of wildlife visiting and moving into the garden lately. All but one of the monarch butterflies, which I didn’t expect to see until just about now, have already hatched. We’ve had an even mix of males and females, and I was able to release them all, happy and healthy. They will likely go off to make the next generation of monarchs, and that group may be the one that starts the migration back south before fall temperatures drop off here in Ohio this fall.
It’s such a joy to meet them when they break free of their chrysalises. It usually takes a few hours for the butterflies wings to fully stretch out and dry, and then they will fly off to the woods. We have quite a few late summer flowers around for them to enjoy, natives like new england aster and goldenrod, and other perennials like autumn joy sedum. Most of the garden is still blooming away, but it’s important to have plants that bloom into fall for the monarchs and other pollinators.
Marcus the Monarch hatched last Friday, and spent some time on the sedum before flying off in pursuit of lady monarchs.
A visitor that I’ve enjoyed a little less have been the squash bugs on our pumpkin vines. The bugs look a little like stink bugs once they’ve grown up, and they will take out squash, pumpkins, and cucumber vines if left unchecked. The bugs usually arrive in June, and will spend the summer on the underside of squash plant leaves, where they will lay tiny little brown eggs, which hatch in around 10 days.
Once the bugs hatch, they start munching on the plant leaves, sucking out the sap, which causes the leaves to yellow, brown, and then die. While the babies, called nymphs, will die after a frost, the adult squash bugs are able to shelter and make it through the winter temperatures, to lay the next years generation of villains.
On the left are some squash bug eggs on the underside of a dead pumpkin leaf. The right picture shows a group of the little nymphs, munching on the pumpkins before I let forth a battle cry and started spraying them with soapy water.
So, they aren’t great guests to have around. Fortunately, they are very easy to spot, and take care of, without having to resort to pesticides which would also kill off the good bugs that eat them and, of course, would cover your yummy veggies in poison. If you do happen to spot some on your plants, remove any dead or dying leaves and other debris. And a simple spray bottle, filled with liquid dish soap and water will kill the bugs on contact. Now, your plants will be free of squash bugs and squeaky clean.
The monarchs chrysalis is actually clear, so when they are about ready to hatch, it’s really easy to tell!
Out in the rest of the garden, I managed to spot a little black swallowtail caterpillar on the carrot leaves. I moved it into the butterfly house with some fennel and the monarch chrysalises. I was so excited to spot this one- usually by this time of year, I don’t see many swallowtails floating around the yard, but they’ve been out and about more now than earlier this summer. The carrot crop I planted was the swallowtails favorite crop to lay eggs on this year. I’ll have to plant more again next year, for the butterflies, and for us. Those carrots were quite tasty!
Our newest black swallowtail caterpillar
Next to the raised beds, the wildlife pond is still doing its thing. I introduced you to Stanley the Frog in my last post, and now, we have a second frog, that we’re naming Stan Lee. (The names are a play on a 30 Rock reference that’s so obscure it’s hardly worth mentioning). Anyway, Stanley and Stan Lee hang out together on the rocks around the pond in the late afternoons, and are helping control the local mosquito population. I hear them singing ballads in the evenings. While they hop into the water, hiding under the plants and brush nearly every time I try to take a picture, I’m hoping to identify their species. They look an awful lot like northern green frogs, but they don’t sound like them. I’m stumped, but determined to figure out what they are!
We’re supposed to have some more rain in the coming week, with slightly cooler weather. I hope to get outside a bit to do a little work. A few beds could do with some weeding, and I’d like to pick up some stone to finish edging our newest bed in the front yard. I also have a few more seeds I’d like to start: some prairie dropseed grass for said front bed, as well as some purple prairie clover. Hopefully life cooperates!
Happy gardening!
The female monarchs, especially, are super vibrant and colorful. I feel lucky that we’ve been able to help this group of butterflies safely make it to adulthood.
Our calendula and marigolds, autumn joy sedum, lantanas, zinnias, coral honeysuckle, and nasturtiums continue to bring the color this year.
August carries on. The heat probably won’t really break until mid-October here, and the humidity makes just standing outside an unpleasant experience. Last week was filled with rain, sheets of it would come down every day. At least I didn’t have to water at all. And rain at this time of year usually makes for pretty autumn color from the trees come fall.
The cicadas are out in full force, screeching over the hum of the grasshoppers and crickets. This time of year is tough, for me. I really love autumn, and it feels so far away on these endless hot days. Summertime is probably my least favorite season, which is probably a weird thing for a gardener to say. I think I like fall and springtime best, though. I like the changing- the new life in spring after winters long, cold days where everything is finally wake up again. Then, in fall, where all the colors change and the air feels so crisp and cool. I like the feeling that a big shift is on the way.
The wildlife pond has been surprisingly easy to maintain. I haven’t had to add any water, and the bubbler is keeping it all moving around. I don’t touch the space at all, other than weeding as needed.
But, for now, it is definitely still summertime. Our monarch caterpillars have all finally made their lime-green and gold chrysalises. We could have our first hatching this upcoming weekend, though it will probably be next week before we see butterflies. The rest of the life on the deck seems to be thriving still. We have one last baby pumpkin ripening on the vine, and all the flowers are doing well. The other day, I saw a gorgeous tiger swallowtail hopping from zinnia to zinnia and enjoying the lantanas. It was looking a little beat up, but still flying fine. I checked the dill and fennel for eggs, but the butterfly was either a male, or it just didn’t have any eggs to lay. (Usually, you’re able to identify the gender of a swallowtail by their markings, but this one was missing pieces in the spots where I would normally do that).
I also saw a hummingbird on the deck yesterday. They’ve been all over our nasturtiums this year, as well as the zinnias. I’m definitely going to be growing zinnias from seed again next year- they’ve been a wildlife magnet this season.
This tiger swallowtail was a treat to watch!
Out in the yard, I’ve been continuing to harvest tomatoes, peppers, and green beans daily. The freezer is filling up with veggies, and the Family Canning Day for our salsa has been scheduled for the fall. It’s been a great year for tomatoes so far. I don’t want to jinx myself, but even with the extreme heat, I haven’t had any issues so far with blossom end rot like in years past. We seem to have had pretty steady rains, and when we haven’t, I’ve been keeping up with the watering and fertilizing. We’ll probably have at least another month/month and a half before there’s even a chance of frost, which is plenty of time for me to have to TETRIS the freezer contents to make everything fit.
The wildlife pond doesn’t have a lot blooming at the moment, but there’s lots of happy plants around the water. I see birds stop by every so often, and there’s usually a dragonfly or two hovering around the rocks. This past week, I had a huge surprise: a frog was sunning itself on the rock edge! When I put in the pond, my goal was to help attract wildlife to the area. I was so hoping for a frog, but the closest water to our house is a creek, some 100 yards away. I wasn’t sure any would find their way through the field, where the hawks and neighborhood cats hunt, to my little fenced-in water feature. But, this one made it. The husband named it Stanley, and Stanley likes to hide in the brush swimming all day. In the afternoon, Stanley sun bathes on the rocks, warming up and maybe grabbing a bite to eat. I hope Stanley tells its friends and they all have lots of lots of little froggo babies.
Stanley the Frog, soaking up some rays on the rocks around the pond.
Around the pond, I managed to do some weeding last week. Our original shade garden was looking extremely scruffy and there were SIX rogue tomato plants growing beside the compost bin. I removed them (seriously, I can barely keep up with all the tomatoes I planted on purpose) to inside the compost pile, and cleaned up the space.
The black-eyed susan’s in the front yard are looking extra gorgeous in their second year. Just beyond them is the new native plant bed.
In the rest of the beds, the mid-late summer plants are really starting to flower and come in, like the new england aster, black-eyed susan’s, and goldenrod. I do really enjoy these plants that stretch into autumn, giving the pollinators the extra boost they need for their flights south or to overwinter in the yard here. The swamp milkweed, which flowered earlier this year, is seeding already. The seed pods unfurl, revealing a bunch of dark brown seeds on tiny wisps of silky fluff that fly on the wind to carry the seeds to new homes. I collect most of mine to plant out the following year.
It’s easy to remove the seeds, and to get them to grow. The seeds just require the winter cold to break their dormancy and to open up their tough outer shells. You can either do this by placing them in the fridge, or simply planting them in the ground in late fall, the winter, or early spring. Last winter, I grew a bunch in milk jugs on the porch, using a process called winter sowing. It works shockingly well, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to grow native seeds in their spaces (if you have winter temperatures where you garden).
The milkweed starts looking pretty scruffy by this time of year. You can see the columns of brown seeds in the newly-opened pods, and a gaggle of tiny, yellow aphids, which usually haunt the milkweed in July and August. A few visits from a ladybug or a praying mantis will clear them right up!
Well, that’s all the news I have this week. Hopefully, Stanley will have a buddy soon, and we’ll see some more rain so I don’t have to get back to my watering schedule. I imagine I’ll see some more wildlife around the yard this week while harvesting herbs and veggies, and I might try making up a little flower arrangement. I don’t pick our flowers too often, but I always enjoy seeing them on the table when I do manage to put together a bouquet. I also have some dark purple pokeberries to harvest for use in dye projects later this year. Our poor freezer is going to be stuffed to the gills…
The deck is really looking extra colorful lately, since the zinnias, german chamomile, calendula, and lantanas are in bloom.
It’s almost July, which doesn’t seem possible. I started this blog in January, when the gardens were sleepy and cold. Things couldn’t look, or feel, more different outside right now. The summer heat and humidity continues, and the garden is full of life. The yard is a blaze of color, with bees and other insects working hard. The bees seem to take a break in the midday heat, but in the mornings and evenings, they are pollinating away, bouncing around from flower to flower. I’ve spent some time this past week just sitting in the grass watching them. It’s fascinating and peaceful observing them “at the office.”
The bees are really enjoying the echinacea this summer.
We had a few days with nice, cool weather earlier last week. The husband helped me dig out the rest of the sod for our final project of the season: the new pollinator bed in the front yard. Once the lawn was out, I planted up all the flowers and grasses that I’d been growing on the back porch and mulched the space up. I am pretty pleased with the final results. There’s little bluestem, prairie dropseed, prairie blazing star, prairie smoke, nepeta, two types of thyme, candytuft, and some daisies. The space will have color and interest all year long, and provide shelter and food for the local pollinators. Most of the plants I put in are native to our area, and everything in there is a perennial, so the bed will continue to grow and thrive without much of any work from me.
I plan to add a little rock border, and then the new bed will be all set. Sayonara, sod!
In the back yard, all of our crops are filling in nicely. The lettuce is about finished for the season (it just gets too hot here in the summertime, and it bolts), but the other veggies seem to be enjoying summertime. Our peppers, tomatoes, carrots, beans, pumpkins, leeks, potatoes, parsnips, and garlic seem to be growing well. Actually, I was able to harvest a few garlic scapes this weekend, which I am really excited to eat. All of the herbs are looking nice, too. I’ve been harvesting parsley, chives, oregano, mint, and basil every week, and each are still growing strong.
Found this little lady cruising around in the kitchen, so I escorted her outside.
Out in the wildlife pond, the cheap little solar fountain I’d bought decided to stop working. I replaced it with a bubbler under the water, and so far, I’m liking that even better. It really moves the water around, and hopefully the sound will attract more birds to the space. There’s lots of spiders around now, probably enjoying the bugs that pop by for a drink. I saw some really pretty green orchard spiders, hanging under their webs. Spiders kind of give me the heebie jeebies, but I respect their work ethic, and, as someone who also likes to weave, I am pretty enamored with their gorgeous webs.
The new little bubbler, gurgling about under the sticks and stumps.
I’ve been keeping an eye out each day for some of my favorite butterflies, the black swallowtails. I’d seen a few flying around, but hadn’t found any eggs yet. This morning, while watering the veggies, I happened to spot a tiny little black swallowtail caterpillar! I quickly escorted it into our mesh butterfly house on the deck, with some dill to eat. The butterfly house lives outside, and the caterpillars I move into it are protected from predators. They grow up fairly quickly, especially in warm weather. I’ll track this ones progress as it grows up and then forms a chrysalis before transforming into a butterfly. The whole process usually only takes a few weeks, and is definitely the highlight of my summer.
This black swallowtail caterpillar will grow into a much larger caterpillar, with green and yellow stripes, before forming its chrysalis.
It’s ironic- the garden looks great and so much is in bloom right now, but there’s very little work to be done, for me, at least. The plants and flowers have grown to keep weeds out (mostly), and I don’t have any more planting to do at the moment (though I’m sure I’ll come up with something). It’s warm and sunny, but I can relax. And, actually, that’s kind of the point. I do really enjoy the planting and the work- I’m a process person. However, being able to slow down for a bit to watch the flowers grow, and all the birds, insects and critters that I share the yard with, is a real treat. Hopefully you are able to take some time out this week to sit back as well. Happy gardening!
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!
So, I realize that there’s about a five degree temperature range that I consider acceptable for summer weather, but really. Things have gone a bit out of control around these parts. Upper 80s with humidity levels the local meteorologists refer to as “soupy”??? To top that off, it’s been a week of mostly rain showers. May was dryer than average, but Mother Nature seems to be trying to make up for it now. The tomatoes are yellowing from all the excess showers, and while the tropical annuals on the deck seem overjoyed, I’d rather have a nice tomato harvest later this summer, thank you very much.
The echinacea (coneflowers) are just starting to bloom. Loving spying on them in the morning sunshine!
In between storms, I’ve spotted a few new visitors to the yard. We had a pair of mallard ducks scoping things out one morning. The must have a nest nearby, because I hear them squawking at passers-by most days. There was also an adorable little black cat, rolling around in the catmint and batting at the floating fountain in the wildlife pond.
The dragonflies and damselflies have also been out and about, enjoying the flowers and smaller bugs. They seem determined to avoid the pond, (at least, when I’m out trying to find them swimming), but I see them all over the plants each day. I’m surely tempting fate, but I’ve yet to get a single mosquito bite yet this year, and I’m crediting this their presence.
Papa Mallard, taking flight to get away from the weird lady in her pjs taking pictures
Plant-wise, things are kicking into high gear for summer time. The cone flowers, marigolds, blanket flowers, cranesbill, nepeta, heuchera, penstemon, lavender, speedwell, salvia, buttercups, lamb’s ear, and day lilies are all blooming wildly, and the hostas, zinnias, and milkweed should be ready to flower here in the next few days. Normally at this time of year, I’ve had a bit of a slump, flower-wise. The spring flowers are all spent, and the summer plants aren’t yet in bloom. But this year, I think with our hot weather and some more planting, there’s a lot in bloom for all the pollinators and spectators (me and that black cat) to enjoy.
Edible-plant-wise, things are trucking along well. I planted the last of the beans, which have sprouted and are growing huge leaves. The lettuces are about finished for the season, but the herbs are really bushing out. I harvested a bunch of basil and chives to dry this week. The nasturtiums have tripled in size… which reminds me, I need to add a support structure to that pot for them… and the peppers are flowering and growing as well. We should start to see some baby peppers here soon! The pumpkin seeds I planted the other week are taking over their container. I thinned them out again, so the ones that are left will have plenty of room to grow. I also thinned our carrots, fennel, and leeks.
The asiatic lilies are always pretty striking in bloom!
So, for the most part, things are looking well out in the yard. But, that hasn’t always the case. I’m sure we’ve all had some gardening blunders, it’s how one learns, after all. I thought I would share a few of these… mishaps… the scenes that I don’t post on Instagram, and the stories I tend to keep to myself when trying to appear wise in the ways of the garden.
Most of my mistakes in the garden can be boiled down to a lack of impatience, not doing my research ahead of time, and/or trying to fight nature. In the majority of these situations, a simple trip to Google could have saved me a lot of headache. Knowing when to plant what, where things like to live, and how to water them seems pretty basic, after all, it’s advice I often share here. But, I haven’t always heeded these plant edicts. Some things, we just need to learn by doing.
The damselflies have been zooming all over the garden this week
I’ll start with a few situations where not doing my research ahead of time came around to bite me. A few years ago, I was assembling a little pot on the deck. I wanted to add something to the pot that would spill over the edge, and found just the thing, an annual (I thought), called Creeping Jenny. After the season had ended, I dumped the pot of annuals onto one of the empty raised beds, where I figured things would break down over the winter. The Creeping Jenny survived. If anything, the winter weather only seemed to make it stronger. I decided (why, oh why, Past Sara?!?!) to plant up That Which Cannot Be Killed as a ground cover in a few spots in the yard. Turns out, Creeping Jenny is a perennial in our area, and a beast of a perennial, at that. The groundcover spreads like wild, and is, to the best of my ability, impossible to kill. I rip out bunches of the stuff every time I weed the yard, but this stuff lives to take over. It’s even managed to hop the stone border wall, and is now growing in the grass in a few places.
Another time I wish I’d done some simple research ahead of time was last year, when I planted my first garlic. It was late September, and garlic bulbs were all over the garden center. I grabbed a few, excited at the prospect of my first harvest this spring. Last year, we had a particularly hot end to summer and start to fall. Temps stayed scorching hot, but in went my garlic. A few garden friends I’d spoken to mentioned that they hadn’t planted theirs, but I didn’t think the jumpstart would hurt anything. Apparently, it did. None of my garlic, which was still looking perky over the start of winter, made it to springtime.
The bees have been all over the penstemon lately, zooming up into the flowers to collect pollen.
My next garden blunder can be attributed to my lack of patience, especially when it comes to waiting for the last frost date to pass before planting. A few years ago, I was assembling another planter for the deck, and I fell in love with a group of dahlias. It was still April, a few weeks from our last frost date, but the day was warm, so I went ahead and planted up the flowers. Within a week, we had a frost, and the dahlias were… displeased. They didn’t die off completely, but they looked quite sickly all season and I didn’t get to enjoy many flowers. Just waiting a few weeks would have made all the difference. Plants that don’t enjoy the cold will not enjoy the cold even if you’re impatient and stubbornly plant them out too early!
I didn’t quite learn from that mistake and planted out my tomatoes and peppers a bit too early last year. Last Frost Dates are a guide aimed to help gardeners, not something set in place to invoke my oppositional defiance, but I was so sure that things would be ok last year, so in went the veggies. No surprise, we had not just a frost, but a deep freeze, for a few days. I spent hours outside, covering up annuals and veggies with blankets and cursing myself for not just waiting.
There’s so much in bloom! We have coral bells, geraniums, blanketflowers, salvia, penstemon, cilantro, lavender, marigolds, cranesbill, speedwell, ohio spiderwort, and calendula flowering.
The last of my gardening mishaps (that I’m owning up to, anyway!) all have to do with some foolhardy attempts at fighting nature. Traditionally for humans, when we try to best nature, things don’t go terribly well. She’s going to do her own thing, and plans go much more smoothly when we learn to accept that. My first major run in with this philosophy took place about three years ago. I was planting tomatoes for the first time, and I wanted them to live in a particular location in the garden: a corner spot, with full sunshine. These crops love sun, so I figured that I had this one in the bag. I went to dig the holes for my plants, and I can still imagine the smile I must had had on my face, imagining the late-summer BLT’s.
As my shovel made impact with the ground, it was stopped, rather bluntly, by what felt like concrete. I had the husband come out for the hole-digging assist, not realizing that that corner of the yard was made up of straight clay soil. I don’t know if you’ve experienced gardening with clay, but it’s not ideal. Clay basically turns into an impenetrable fortress when it’s dry, which for our climate, is most of the summer. It’s tough, and many plants don’t enjoy living in it. I knew this, but I stubbornly forged ahead. I was so heavily relying on my knowledge that tomatoes liked sunshine, that I decided to ignore their watering needs, and the fact that their roots would not enjoy the clay at all. True to form, the tomatoes were extremely unhappy. They didn’t grow well, and I had no tomato harvest that year. I’ve since learned my lesson and am now using raised beds, where I can amend the soil content.
The best-dressed bug in the garden is definitely the candy-striped leaf hopper.
Another time I tried fighting nature, to no avail, involved the same spot in that garden. A few years ago, we lost our beloved cat, Miss Pickles. I wanted to plant a tree in her memory, and so I picked out a little dogwood. I managed to get it into that corner spot, in the awful clay. I knew dogwoods only liked some sun, but that spot really is in full sunlight most of the day. In went the tree, anyway. It seemed like a nice location, visually, for a tree, so I figured things would work themselves out. (I know, I’m rolling my eyes at Past Me, too). The tree stayed there for about two years, before I finally had mercy and moved the thing into a shadier location, with loamier soil. It lives by the compost bin and finally flowers every spring. It’s grown a lot, and is so much happier in its new space. I’ve since added a slew of native prairie plants to that sunny corner which the tomatoes and the dogwood hated, since they grow just fine in clay soil.
We all make mistakes when planting, and sometimes, plans go awry. But, hopefully, like me, you’ve learned what works and doesn’t in your garden, and why. (Even if it took a few rounds of discovery). With just a bit of research and planning ahead of time, you’ll save yourself time, money, and effort. And isn’t it worth it, for a happy garden? Hope you have a great week!
A recent garden acquisition: coral honeysuckle, a native climber and hummingbird magnet
