Garden Bloggers' Book Club June-July Virtual Meeting

Welcome to the June-July virtual meeting post for the Garden Bloggers Book Club. Our selection is My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner, which is also available on Google Books.

Find a comfortable place on your front porch, back deck, screened-in porch or wherever you like to sit and relax in the summer, and plan some time to immerse yourself in the nineteenth century world of Warner and his book My Summer in A Garden.

Let’s start with some background on Warner.

There’s a brief biography and picture at this link.

If you enjoy books written by Mark Twain, you might be interested in The Gilded Age, a book that was co-authored by Warner and Twain. They were neighbors for a time in Hartford, Connecticut and at this link, you can read an interview with Mark Twain when he was in Hartford in 1900 for Warner’s funeral.

I also found a picture of Warner’s residence in Hartford on eBay while looking for a picture of his garden.

That’s probably enough background, don’t you think? Let’s get on with the book reviews and reflections on the My Summer in a Garden. In the order received…

Nan at Letters From a Hill Farm

Lost Roses at Lost Roses, of all places

Bev at Bev’s Colorado Garden

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago

Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening

Kris at Blithewold

Jodi at Bloomingwriter

Annie at The Transplantable Rose

Entangled at Tangled Branches: Cultivated

Gloria at Pollinators-Welcome

OldRoses at A Gardener's Year

Thank you all for participating! If you have a post for My Summer in A Garden, please let me know, and I’ll add it to the list above. We have room for everyone.

Please also join us for the August-September selection, a garden mystery. You can read the garden mystery A Hoe Lot of Trouble: A Nina Quinn Mystery by Heather Webber, which is what I'll be reading. Or if you have another mystery you would prefer to read, that works, too. There are several different garden mystery series available, including the Nina Quinn series by Heather Webber, the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert, Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, the Abby Knight series by Kate Collins, the Louise Eldridge series by Ann Ripley and probably several others. If you don't see your favorite garden mystery listed here, let me know and we'll get it added to the list. And finally, if you don't want to read the same garden mystery, or any other garden mystery, you can participate by telling us about a real life mystery in your own garden.

See you later, I’m heading out to hoe up the vegetable garden.

Food From The Jungle

My aunt sent me an email Saturday titled "Food from the Jungle". Their garden does indeed look like a jungle.
They live in zone 6, so I think they are usually two weeks ahead me on blooms and frosts. I don't know how they even got in that garden to pick anything, but they did. Look at their harvest.

I thought my harvest on Sunday was pretty good, too. After all, I had to get an extra bowl for the beans and a second basket for the peppers.
But my harvest is sadly lacking in tomatoes. There are just a few smaller tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes down under those peppers. I had previously picked six or seven tomatoes and briefly thought when I took pictures of this harvest that I should get those tomatoes to add to the picture to make it look a bit more tomatoe-y and balanced. But it would be wrong to make my harvest appear like something it's not, just to compete with my aunt's harvest. After all, gardening isn't a competitive sport, is it? And I couldn't compete with that tomato harvest, anyway.

While I was out in my garden on Sunday, I saw the rabbit again. I was sweet and nice to Mr. Rabbit because it seemed he wasn't really affecting my harvest all that much. I've already picked ten bowls of green beans, more than I've picked in the last ten years combined! As long as I get plenty from my garden for ME and don't really know what I'm missing that the rabbit is eating, I'm happy to co-exist with it in my version of a garden jungle.

Which brings me to this evening. I went to the garden to check for tomatoes and found three that were ripe and ready to pick. They look good, don't they? The one on the lower left is my favorite variety 'German Johnson'.
But they are not good. The rabbit had been eating two of them.I caught him in the garden again this evening and scared him off before I realized he had been eating tomatoes. When I saw those half eaten tomatoes, I picked them with the intention of throwing them at the rabbit.

But I paused to think it through. If I threw the tomatoes, I'd probably miss and they would make a mess when they went splat on the fence. So I decided to chase the rabbit away. He ran the long way around the yard before he escaped, so I ran the long way, too. Yes, gardening is good aerobic exercise, especially when you chase after rabbits. (I just hope the neighbors weren't watching).

Then I took the two half eaten tomatoes and used them to bait my rabbit trap. If he likes tomatoes, let him eat them in the trap!

And this time when I catch him, and surely I will, he won't get away!

In the meantime, while I wait for more tomatoes to ripen and for the rabbit to enter the trap, I'm going to see if my aunt will send me all their secrets of growing tomatoes, all of them. Varieties, fertilizer, watering, caging versus staking, starting from seed, all their secrets. It's my heritage! I want to know!

Don't Let Your Flowers Bloom Alone

I almost missed the blooming of the Resurrection Lilies.Luckily, I walked over to this side of the house while they were nearly at their peak. While I thought these were early this year, they are blooming almost exactly, to the day, on the same day they bloomed last year. I'm glad I got to see these now and not when they were all done blooming, because no flower in a garden should bloom and not be noticed.

I have been subconsciously, and maybe consciously, avoiding this side of the house because with the drought and the "ten year itch" that some gardens get, it has turned from "decent enough looking" to "down right embarrassing".

It is my garden of shame.

If you were to come over to see my garden, I would never take you back via this side garden. I don't have a picture to prove it, but trust me, the other side of the house is much, much better looking.

My excuse? This is where I planted some passalong plants that someone gave me when I moved into my house, and I just needed a place to put the plants until I figured out what I was going to do. Then for several years, it didn't look too bad, so I left it.

Now this HAS to be my fall project to clear this out and replant it as a proper garden. Hold me to that, insist on pictures later to prove that I did clean it up and replant!

In the meantime, though, don't you think the Resurrection Lilies (Lycoris squamigera) and the coneflowers are a good color match for the gray of my air conditioning unit?

Remember, don't let your flowers bloom alone! Go out and see them in your garden today, wherever they may be.

My Summer in a Garden Thoughts

I first read My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner, the current selection of the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club, a few years ago.

I do agree with some earlier reviews that it takes a few pages to get used to the rhythm of the book and the “nineteenth century” English, along with the differences in how work (manual labor) and women were viewed in 1870. As I re-read sections of the book this summer, I soon recognized several often quoted passages, familiar to me now, and perhaps more interesting to me now because so many of them are related not just to gardening, but to hoes and hoeing.

From his chapter on the tenth week:

“In half an hour I can hoe myself right away from this world as we commonly see it, into a large place where there are no obstacles. What an occupation it is for thought! The mind broods like a hen on eggs. The trouble is, that you are not thinking about anything, but are really vegetating like the plants around you. I begin to know what the joy of the grape-vine is in running up the trellis, which is similar to that of the squirrel in running up a tree. We all have something in our nature that requires contact with the earth. In the solitude of garden-labor, one gets into a sort of communion with vegetable life, which makes the old mythology possible. For instance, I can believe that the dryads are plenty this summer: my garden is like an ash-heap. Almost all the moisture it has had in weeks has been the sweat of honesty industry.”

Shown by itself, I think there are a few gardeners who would be surprised to find out that this paragraph was written nearly 135 years ago. It shows why Warner’s book is not bound by the time period it was written in and is worth reading again.

Who among us, even without a hoe in hand, has not gotten lost in their garden, lost in thoughts of all types, not especially related to the garden itself, but to life in general? I have solved many problems and made many decisions in the garden with no particular effort to force myself to do so. You can lose both thought and time in a garden!

And at times it does seem possible that “the old mythology” is possible in the garden. For Warner that life was in the form of dryads (tree nymphs), and for me in the playful idea of garden fairies communing at night with the bunnies, planning how to trick me in my own garden.

Some might read the following paragraph and point it out to me especially.

“I need not add, that the care of a garden with this hoe becomes the merest pastime. I would not be without one for a single night. The only danger is, that you may rather make an idol of the hoe, and somewhat neglect your garden explaining it, and fooling with it.”

Really, it’s not necessary to discuss what it means to “make an idol of the hoe”. I think I have control over my hoe collection, and have it all in proper perspective. Really, I do.

Join the book club!

If you would like to join us for the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club, post your own review on your blog of the book selection, My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner, which is also available on Google Books, and send me a comment or email so I can include you in the book club post on July 31st. Or if you haven’t read the book, write up something about your own summer in your own garden, and I’ll include that. All are welcome!

Behold! Food!

When a gardener grows flowers, it is not expected that every flower be picked and put into a bouquet to be enjoyed outside the garden.

Even if the gardener has a cutting garden, it would be unusual for every single flower to be cut and brought inside to enjoy.

In fact, it is often seen as a good thing to actually let some flowers go to seed, which can provide food for the birds in the winter time. It is okay to let flowers fade and then deadhead them and throw the spent flowers in to the compost bin.

But when a gardener grows vegetables? Behold! They have grown food. Food!

And once we have food out there in the garden, it is necessary to pick it and either eat it now or preserve it in some fashion to eat another day or give it to others to eat. It's food! The gardener can't let it go to seed on the vine. It's food! The gardener can't decide it is past it's prime and toss it into the compost bin. It's food!

And today, my table is loaded with food from the garden.
I gave away more zucchini at work today, and it was readily taken, so I probably should have taken more to give away. My zucchini has apparently not worn out its welcome at work.

I have not picked a lot of peppers yet, though there are peppers ready to be picked. I'm just not ready to deal with them and I know they will keep longer out in the garden, still growing. Once I pick them, growing ceases, and something not growing is starting the process of slowing rotting.

Truth be told, I don't really like peppers as a food eaten on its own. I do eat peppers cooked with other foods. But I don't cook that often, so I wonder each year why I plant as many peppers as I do. But a proper vegetable garden ought to have peppers in it, so I grow peppers.

Now I need to find enough people to take some peppers off my hands, at least until I get enough tomatoes to make salsa. Then I will use some of my own peppers.

All this talk of growing food in the garden and deciding what to do with all the food one grows reminds me of a quote from My Summer in A Garden by Charles Dudley Warner, taken a bit out of context...

"A garden is an awful responsiblity. You never know what you may be aiding to grow in it."

I've been aiding food to grow in my garden, and now that I have food, I feel a responsibility to use that food wisely and not waste it.

Behold! Food! It's an awful responsibility to make sure none of it goes to waste. How do you feel about the food you grow in your garden?

He's Okay!

It's okay, the toad's okay, he'll be fine.

A few days ago, the toad was in an accident involving my foot. Since I hadn't see him in a few days, I thought he had gone off to die. I felt bad about it, but it was an accident.

And then I saw him again yesterday evening, and just like before, he paused long enough for me to give him a shower when I watered the nearby containers, then hopped away from me and my foot.

I also startled a rabbit yesterday when I went out the back door. He was eating something in my bed of hostas. Bad rabbit!

And over the weekend I saw a little meadow vole run across the patio. They are bad for the garden, too!

I hope that's all I find out there, but I suspect there are a lot of critters making a good living in my garden, right behind my back and sometimes right in front of me!

Who's living in your garden, right in front of you? Hopefully not rabbits or voles. Hopefully you have a garden full of toads and birds and other good critters!

Hoe and Harvest Update from May Dreams Gardens

At first glance, you might think my new hoe is not a hoe, but I assure you it is. It has moving parts so I'm tempted to call it a hoeing machine or a hoeing contraption, but its primary purpose is to break the soil and chop down the weeds, which is what a hoe does, right? So it's a hoe.

Here it is... The "Ro-Ho Gardener".
Isn't that something? I got it from my former neighbor, the one who is moving after 45 years of living next door to where I grew up. I did an online search and didn't get any "hits" for the Ro-Ho and can't find another one for sale on eBay, so I think it is pretty unique.

I did get a few hits for the manufacturing company, but mostly for obituaries for people who worked there at one time.

So I'm not only very happy to add this to my hoe collection, I'm also pleased to put information about it on the world wide web, via this post, so if some other lucky gardener happens to find one or have one, they will get a "hit" if they search online for it, and maybe we can compare notes.

Here's the business end of it.
You push it forward through the soil (dirt, if you aren't fancy about your gardening talk) and the wheel with the teeth turns and chops down the weeds and then the tines in the back turn the soil (dirt) over. I can tell you that if you push this regularly through the garden, you'll get a good work out!

My neighbor first showed it to me at the same time he commented about some weeds in the garden I had planted over there. I got the hint and took a turn with this through that garden and can report it does a pretty good job knocking down weeds. I think he also knew that once I saw the Ro-Ho Gardener and tried it out, I would have to have it. He was right about that. We negotiated a bit, arrived at a fair price (the price he named), and now it's mine, part of my hoe collection.

Have you ever seen a hoeing contraption like it? Do you have one in your tool shed?

Here's what the weeds see right before the Ro-Ho Gardener chops them down.I'd sure be afraid if I were a weed and saw the Ro-Ho Gardener heading my way. It means business!

And tonight I was a little afraid to look at the squash plants to see if I had more zucchini to harvest. I did. But I also suddenly have tomatoes! Isn't that the way it goes? We wait and wait and it seems like forever before we harvest the first big ripe tomato and then suddenly the tomatoes all start to ripen at once. The tomato in the lower right hand corner is a 'German Johnson', my favorite. I'll let it sit a day or so to further ripen and my-oh-my will it be good.

And I'll keep watching for the Perfect Tomato, and when I harvest one, and I know I will eventually, I'll pull out all the stops and rituals for it, so check back for that.

Wait, something is missing from my harvest trug.

I forgot to check the 'Cue Ball' squash. Yep, there were four more round zucchini squash.

I'm having a very good squash year.

How's your squash doing this year?

Please Verify I Am Not The Only One!

In my neighborhood, in my family, in my circle of friends and co-workers, I think I am the only one. Perhaps, hopefully, if I post about it, I'll find out that I am not the only one, after all.

Yes, I feel confident I am not alone in the garden blogging community in having more clay pots than one could ever use. And I can't seem to turn down an opportunity to get more old clay pots from others.

A few weekends ago, I laid claim to another stockpile of clay pots from my former neighbor, who was cleaning out his shed, preparing to move. I bought the whole lot of them without so much as counting them or seeing what assorted sizes were there. I just loaded them up and brought them home.

I don't generally buy new clay pots. I prefer old clay pots, the kind that have seen a few seasons and a few plants. Among the pots I got a few weeks ago, a few had writing on the side, identifying the plants that once grew in them.
I like that. It's a link to another gardener.

Even if I break a clay pot, and I've broken more than I'll admit, I keep the pieces to put in the bottoms of other pots.

I do have a lot of plastic pots, acquired with each new plant I buy. I don't feel the same way about these plastic pots as I do the clay pots. I usually put them in the recycle bin right away if they are the right kind of plastic. The rest of the assorted plastic pots are on a shelf and in a big box, ready to be used to pot up a cutting or two, or start some small bulbs in the spring.

And I have several of the light weight faux finish pots, which are becoming more popular, and cheaper, every year. I'll admit they are easy to work with, especially the big ones, and are easy to move around and usually look pretty nice.

But I still like clay pots the best.

How about you?

(Oh, and while you are telling me that I'm not the only one who has a lot of clay pots, why don't you tell me how many garden hoes you have? I can't seem to find anyone else with "more than a few" hoes!)

Garden Bloggers' Book Club Mid-Summer Update

You all haven't forgotten about the Garden Bloggers' Book Club, have you?

Update on June-July Virtual Meeting Post

Our selection for June and July is the classic My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner.

If you couldn't get a copy of the book, there is a full version of the book on Google Books, where you can read it online or download it to a PDF.

And if you haven't read the book and still want to participate with a post for the virtual meeting, you can do so by posting about your own “summer in a garden”.

I'll publish the post of the June-July virtual meeting on July 31st, so post on either the book or the topic before then, and then send me a comment or email so I can find you and include a link to your post in the virtual meeting write-up.

August-September Selection

Several people have suggested that we read a garden mystery for the book club. All right, let's do that! Not to get too complicated, but there are three ways to participate.

You can read the garden mystery A Hoe Lot of Trouble: A Nina Quinn Mystery by Heather Webber, which is what I'll be reading. I was intrigued by the title, because you all know I have a lot of hoes, right? I blame Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening for bringing this book to my attention. (I could say that I am weak and can't resist anything related to hoes, but that could get mis-construed, couldn't it?)

Or if you have another mystery you would prefer to read, that works, too. There are several different garden mystery series available, including the Nina Quinn series by Heather Webber, the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert, Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, the Abby Knight series by Kate Collins, the Louise Eldridge series by Ann Ripley and probably several others. If you don't see your favorite garden mystery listed here, let me know and we'll get it added to the list.

And finally, if you don't want to read the same garden mystery, or any other garden mystery, you can participate by telling us about a real life mystery in your own garden.

The virtual meeting post for August-September will be published on September 30th, which seems like a long time from now, but time will go too quickly, I'm sure.

October Selection

No selection has been made for October, so send me your ideas. I try to select books that have universal appeal to gardeners, are easy to get either at the library or second-hand via Amazon and other outlets and aren't terribly long. Other than that, anything goes! Send me an email or leave me a comment with your ideas.

Thank you!

I appreciate everyone who has participated in the book club in the past and look forward to YOUR participation whether you are a first time contributor or have joined for each book. Thank you for your participation.

If you haven't heard about the book club or haven't paid much attention to it and now want to participate, you can go the Garden Bloggers Book Club blog for links to all the previous posts of meetings and updates to get an idea of what it is about. All are welcome to participate!

I'm still deciding myself whether to post about the book or about my own summer in a garden which has been spent in the vegetable garden. That's tonight's harvest pictured above. Did you notice that ear of sweet corn? I picked it, and I shouldn't have. It wasn't quite ready. I don't want to talk about it. Divert your eyes from it and look at all those beans!

Wet or Dry - You Choose

If you were given a choice, would you choose "too dry" or "too wet" in the garden?

Is it better to garden around the raindrops, dashing about when the rain finally stops, working in the mud with giant rain-gorged slugs looking over your shoulder?

Or is it better to spend all of one's time in the garden watering the plants, making potentially landscape-changing decisions when you choose which plants will get water and which will just have to tough it out?

The first answer most of us come up with is probably "neither, give me just enough rain for my region". But that is not one of the choices today.

Last year, I got rain when I needed rain in my own gardens and will always remember 2006 as a good year for rain.

This year, as most know, here in the midwest of the United States it is "too dry". Not "full-out drought dry", yet, just too dry. I've had to spend considerable "gardening time" setting up sprinklers and making sure key plants got enough water.

But there are gardeners in places like Texas (of all places!) and Great Britain who are dealing with too much rain, flooding rains in some places.

Unfortunately, we don't get a choice on the weather, we just have to deal with the weather we get as best we can. As Charles Dudley Warner, author of My Summer in a Garden, the June-July selection of the Garden Bloggers' Book Club said, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

For my container plantings, I choose the amount of water they get and for the most part, they get the same amount of water each year because I water them daily, unless it rains that day. The picture above is of my pineapple lily, in a container, well-watered, and starting to bloom.

When it doesn't rain, I water the vegetable garden once a week with an oscillating sprinkler. I have one that is just the right size to water the whole garden from one place, at one time.

Other plants, like these candy lilies, are right by the patio where I water the containers, so I've been watering them fairly often, too.

For other perennials, shrubs, trees, and yes, even the lawn, I water mostly when I see signs of severe wilting or stress due to lack of water, paying closer attention to those perennials that were divided and replanted this spring. I sometimes wonder why I regularly water the plants in containers, when at the end of the year, most of them will end up in the compost bin, and don't water plants that I expect to return in full glory again next spring.

And everytime I hear the weatherman say that there is rain coming in a few days, I try to hold off watering, hoping that the upcoming rain will be the rain that catches us up to more normal amounts of rainfall. So far, they haven't caught us up, but there is always that next cloud coming from the west that might!

So, back to the original question, if you could choose to do something about the weather, and the two choices were "too wet" or "too dry", which would you choose?

First Big Tomato

Cherry tomatoes picked and eaten in the garden are the warm-up act and early tomatoes like ‘Oregon Spring’ are teasers of the main attraction, the star of the vegetable garden, the first BIG tomato of the season.

The star of the garden was ready this morning, all reddish-orange and ripe for picking. The variety was ‘Indy’, a new hybrid tomato, that according to the garden center ad I read, “everyone was talking about”. I was reading the ad when I was vulnerable and needed a few new tomato plants because the rabbits had eaten off some of my grown-from-seed tomato plants. If everyone was talking about it, I should have one. So I bought one to try and it turned out to be the first big tomato in my garden this year.

I went out early in this morning and lovingly picked my ‘Indy’ tomato after taking one more picture of it on the vine. Then I carefully carried it inside, where I sliced it and ate it as part of my breakfast.

How was it, you ask?

I did an Internet search earlier this morning to find out more about this variety, ‘Indy’, which beat out my beloved heirloom ‘German Johnson’ as the first tomato of the season. When I found out that it was originally bred for the commercial industry, my expectations of what this tomato would taste like were immediately lowered. And my opinion of the garden center who advertised it and sold it to me was lowered as well.

It is an average tasting tomato. Actually, ‘Oregon Spring’ tasted a lot better, more like a real home grown tomato. I’m just glad I didn’t go through an entire first tomato ritual for 'Indy'. I’ll save that for my first ‘German Johnson’ tomato. Hopefully one of those will ripen soon!

Now, don’t feel all sad for me and my average first big tomato. There are still a lot of good things happening here at May Dreams Gardens.

Look at this harvest from yesterday. All those beans! And cucumbers! And peppers and squash!
Did I mention all the green beans?

And I won a contest on another garden blog and was “interviewed” afterwards, check it out here at Leave Me Alone, I’m Digging. Thanks, David, for the contest and interview.

And I have a lot of green tomatoes that will ripen before you know it!

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Earlier this spring, I was at Lowes with my youngest sister and my nephew and I saw a packet of seeds for Atlantic Giant pumpkins. I've always wanted to try to grow a ginormous pumpkin, but I just don't have that kind of space in my garden. Those vines can grow everywhere and won't be contained to one raised bed.

So, I grabbed the packet of five seeds and said to my sister, "Will you grow these in your garden?" "Hey", I said to my nephew-who-is-five, "how would you like to grow a pumpkin that is as big as you are?"

My sister responded, "Sure!" My nephew thought it would be fun and laughed at the idea of it.

I felt a little evil about it, knowing how big the vine would get, but brushed those thoughts aside.

How exciting this would be! My sister would have the sprawling pumpkin vines all over and I would get to occasionally visit "my" pumpkins and see how big they were getting. I realized that we wouldn't grow any record breaking sized pumpkins, but we should get some big ones. And I keep saying "we" because after all, I bought the seeds!

Yes, I was all smug about how she would have the big pumpkin vine to contend with and I would have my nice neat vegetable garden with the freshly mulched paths, everything weeded, all the plants more or less staying in their own raised beds. I like some vegetation to spill out along the sides of the beds, but not so much that they block a path through the garden. That picture above is of the pumpkin vines about 3 weeks ago in my sister's garden, freely growing wherever they wanted to grow, heading out toward her lawn.

Did I mention I planted a two hills of spaghetti squash in my own garden?

When I ordered the seeds for spaghetti squash last winter, I was only thinking that I love spaghetti squash and decided I should grow some. I gave no thought to what size vine it would be. I knew it would be a bigger vine, but I thought I could keep it in one raised bed.

I was wrong. I have as many spaghetti squash vines taking over my garden as my sister has pumpkin vines taking over her garden.

Now I go out to my garden and I think about my sister's pumpkins and realize that what goes around, comes around.

Next year I might just give in and grow my own pumpkins.

Resuming Normal Gardening Activities

Now that the night bloomer (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) has bloomed, it's time to get back to normal and resume mid-summer gardening activities. As noted, the flower lasts just one night, and by the next day it's closed and wilting.

One of the commenters on the bloom post yesterday, Robin(Bumblebee), asked why a bloom like that would only last a single night. I don't know, but if someone does know, please comment with the answer, as it is a good question.

I'm just happy to have one bloom for one night, but where these are grown outside year around, they can have dozens of blooms at the same time, which would be quite a sight.

Last night while this was blooming I didn't do much else in the garden, other than the necessary watering of container plantings, as I didn't want to get caught up in something, lose track of time, and miss the event. I suffer a bit from Garden Attention Distraction Syndrome, GADS, so I have to be careful when total focus is called for.

I didn't even go out to the vegetable garden to check for more produce. I violated my rule about checking the zucchini squash EVERY DAY.

Guess what I found this evening in the vegetable garden?

Zucchini, more zucchini. 'Ambassador', 'Gold Rush', 'Gold Bar' and 'Cue Ball', all there. All big. Most of these are going straight to work tomorrow and all my co-workers who say "if you ever have any extra zucchini..." will be taking these off my hands. I might just get to work earlier than normal and leave these on their desks and act all innocent if they ask me if I know where they came from.

There was another surprise out in the garden this evening.

The first tomato that is not a cherry tomato. I've greatly enlarged it here as it is a bit underwhelming in size, being about the size of a ping pong ball. This is not the kind of first tomato for which one invokes a ritual or plans a Festival of the First Tomato around. It's an early variety called 'Oregon Spring'. It feels almost 'not right' to count this as my first tomato of 2007. If I do count it, it will be a tie with my first tomato from last year, also picked on July 19th. But that was a nice big Brandywine.

I am glad, in a way, that I didn't go out to the vegetable garden yesterday evening because if I had found this first tomato on the same day the night bloomer was blooming, it would have been too much gardening excitement for one day. I would have really been torn on what to focus on. Each event happens just once a year and deserves total focus.

For the record, I have picked a couple of cherry tomatoes every day since about last Friday, so if I count this little tomato-ette as the first tomato, maybe I should lower all my standards and count those cherry tomatoes instead. That would make July 13th the date of my first tomato for this year.

What would you do?

While you think about it, I'm going to go ahead and eat my 'Oregon Spring' tomato.

Update: The 'Oregon Spring' tomato was actually pretty good. It had a nice tomato-y taste for an early variety. That makes me lean toward counting it as the first tomato, though I didn't go through any elaborate rituals or ceremonies when I ate it. I'll have to do that later for the first 'big' tomato.

Magical Night Update: A Special Bloom Event

A magical night at May Dreams Gardens. The night blooming cereus, Epiphyllum oxypetalum, bloomed, going from a bud to a fully open flower in just a few hours.

7:00 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

8:30 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

9:21 p.m.

9:31 p.m.

9:41 p.m.

9:43 p.m.

10:05 p.m.

10:23 p.m.

Holding it in my hand to show the overall size of the flower.

Some questions and answers about the Queen of the Night, the night-bloomer.

Does it have a scent? Yes, the scent is fairly strong, especially indoors. It is an earthy, sweet, slightly pungent scent. It isn't unpleasant, but it is strong and after awhile it would give me a headache if I stayed in the sunroom with it.

Can you actually see it open? It opens relatively quickly and I suppose if you stood there at the right time, for long enough, you would see some movement. I think you can see a noticeable difference between 9:41 and 9:43 in the pictures above, which should give you an idea of how quickly it does open, once it starts to open.

Where did you get your night blooming cereus? It was my Dad's and after he passed away, I took possession of it. I have now had it for 20 years, and he probably had it for 10 years before that. He grew it from a cutting off a plant owned by a couple who played bridge with my parents. I don't know where they got their plant.

How long does the flower last? Just one night. By morning, the flower will be hanging limp and wilted.

Enjoy, and good night!

Flowers really do intoxicate me. ~Vita Sackville-West

Magical Night at May Dreams Gardens

Tonight, the night bloomer is blooming.In just a few hours it will be fully opened, for one magical evening.

Update to follow...

Never Give Up!

Patience in the garden is one thing, persistence is quite another.

Patience is about waiting, persistence is about not giving up.

Last summer, I lamented that I could not get a decent harvest of green beans. I think I picked one bowlful before the pathetic little bunny eaten bean plants died off. And it didn't help that the beans were also attacked by Mexican bean beetles, which pretty much finished them off. Prior years were even worse for my beans.

But I persisted, I did not give up. I adjusted. I tried new methods to keep the rabbits away.

And I have been rewarded.

Tonight I picked two more messes of green beans.

That brings my total bean pickings to four messes. (What do you call a bowlful of beans? I call them a "mess of beans".)

Last year wasn't all that great a year for cucumbers, either. But I planted them again this spring and tonight I picked two dozen cucumbers from my little four feet by four feet patch of cucumber plants.

You just can't give up when you're gardening. There is always next year, another way, a different variety to try. The slate gets wiped clean each spring, why not try again?

Which brings me to the night blooming cereus.
It's still a bud, still not blooming.

I could have tossed this plant out years ago. It's not all that attractive as a house plant (some would say that's an understatement); it's big and awkward with stems going every which way.

It bloomed last year, but prior to that it last bloomed in 2001 and also in 2000. And I think it bloomed in 1986, but I don't have records that far back, so I'm not sure. I've learned that the secret to getting these to bloom, as house plants, is to let them get pot bound, don't fertilize them, and don't give them all kinds of water.

I think the reason it didn't bloom from 2001 to 2006 was because I repotted it to a larger pot in 2001, so it was no longer so pot bound. I had to repot it because the container it was in was too small and the plant was top heavy and kept falling over.

So I put it in a really big container and added an arbor to support it. It no longer toppled over, but it was content to just exist and grow for five more years before it bloomed again last year.

The fact that it is going to bloom again this year gives me hope that it will bloom annually from this point forward. But it has looked like a bud about ready to bloom for the last four days. I'm losing my patience with it, and want it to bloom NOW!

The bloom is my reward not only for patience, but for persistence in figuring out the care that this plant needs to encourage it to bloom.

How have you been rewarded for persistence in gardening?

Waiting at May Dreams Gardens

Did you ever think about how much waiting gardeners do?

I'm currently waiting for my sweet corn ears to fill out. I've spent less time obsessing over the corn this year, except for that one day when I determined it was planted to close together and I cut out nearly two-thirds of what I had planted.

I'm seeing several good sized ears starting to form so the extra breathing room seems to have helped the corn. Now I'm waiting for them to be ready to eat.

I'm waiting for the grapes to ripen.

I'm not taking any measures to keep the birds off the grapes; I'm just hoping there are enough grapes for them and me. These are 'Concords', perfect for jelly, jam, and grape pie, so I'm telling all the people I know who might cook something with these that I'm going to have plenty of grapes this year. Hint, hint, in case one of them will make me something with them.

I'm waiting for some rain.

I'm sure I'm not waiting as desparately as these coneflowers are. I think of them as drought tolerant but they sure are droopy by the end of the day. Other flowers look even worse than these. The weathermen are teasing again with "chances of severe thunderstorms" later tonight. I hope we get some storms!

I'm waiting to catch a rabbit.
The trap is set right between two rows of beans. I'm hoping that if a rabbit goes down that row eating he'll accidently go through the trap and SLAM! - I'll catch a rabbit. And when I do, I'm going to make sure to secure the ends so he doesn't escape again.

I'm waiting for my first ripe tomato.
I've had a few ripe cherry tomatoes, but I don't count them as the first ripe tomato of the season. I think I might be the last one I know to have a tomato ripen, which is almost embarrassing. But when I check my garden records, I probably shouldn't expect a ripe tomato until this weekend at the earliest. Surely, I'll have a ripe tomato by this time next week.

And I'm waiting for the night-blooming cereus to bloom.
I thought for sure it would bloom tonight and so I rushed home from work (if you call getting to work at 7:00 a.m. and returning home at 6:00 p.m. "rushing") to see if it was starting to open. But it hasn't and if it was going to bloom tonight, it would have started to open by 6:00, if is like last year's bloom.

Wait a minute... I need to go check it just to be sure...

I'm back... it is still like the picture, so I have another day to wait. At least I have experience with this bloom now and don't have to worry that I'll go to bed and it will bloom while I'm asleep so that I miss it. Perhaps tomorrow it will bloom.

The old saying is "good things come to those who wait". I've gotten some good things from the garden already from waiting. Sunday's harvest included cucumbers, zucchini squash (four kinds), another big bowl of green beans, peppers, and the first spaghetti squash.

What are you waiting for in your garden?

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting. ~Dr. Seuss

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2007

July in the garden. This is the time when it is too hot to do much about anything in the garden but relax in the hammock and occasionally go out and harvest some vegetables. But the summer flowers don't seem to mind the heat and only droop occasionally to remind me to water them.

The little miniature hosta, 'Pandora's Box' is blooming like its bigger cousins, though with bloom included it is only about four inches high. If this were not in a garden of other miniature plants, I'd probably miss its bloom, but where it is, it's quite visible. I have learned through trial and error that even the best, showiest flower can be missed if it isn't placed well in the garden.

A few herbs are blooming as well.
I don't have an herb garden, just a few herbs in the center of my vegetable garden around a dwarf apple tree. There's St. John's Wort (the yellow flowers), thyme (the pink flowers) and sage. It is on my evergrowing garden wish list to have an "official herb garden" one day.

In front, I have some rose colored threadleaf coreopsis.
The flowers fade a bit as the days grow hot but they are low-growing and provide a spot of color by the sidewalk leading up to the front door. I've made a note to dig some of these up next spring and spread them about in other places in the garden as they make a nice "fill in" plant.

I've chosen not to list all the flowers blooming in containers, but did want to include the fairy lilies.
They come and go as the weather changes, and I caught them a few days ago going quite mad with bloom. Since these aren't hardy here, I put the pots in the garage for the winter, leaving the bulbs planted, and then bring them out in the spring and just start watering them. They could not be any easier to grow!

I have several places where False Sunflowers are growing. If you have false sunflower or ox-eye sunflower, you will have it in several places, as it is a bit weedy. But it is providing some much needed color to my garden, so I'll deal with its bad habits!

There are some flowers budding that didn't quite make it for bloom day. Here's a pineapple lily

This is another one that I over winter and then plant in a pot each year. The blooms, which will be finished by August bloom day, will be white. I've surrounded it with some purple verbana in the background.

There are also a few unnamed lilies blooming.

These are some I bought from a friend's daughter as part of some kind of fundraiser. I think they saw me coming! The flower bed these are in could actually use a lot more in it, so I'll get more lilies next year.

So many gardeners have daylilies in bloom right now, me included.
I have several varieties and thought this bloom day post would seem incomplete without at least one daylily picture! I don't have as many daylilies as some gardeners, less than 10 varieties, though I see them pop up here and there in the garden, so I might have a few more than I realize.

And how can this be? The 'Autumn Joy' sedum are starting to form their flower buds. Wait, this is a fall flower. It's too soon to think of fall just yet, we have many more summer days to enjoy.

Finally, I'm joyfully awaiting the bloom of the night-blooming cereus.

Here's a list of what is blooming at May Dreams Gardens today.

In Bloom

Coreopsis rosea – Pink Thresdleaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis verticillata – Threadleaf Coreopsis
Thalictrum kiusianum - Dwarf Meadow Rue
Echinacea purpurea – Coneflowers
Helianthus helianthoides – False or Ox-eye Sunflowers
Hemerocallis – Daylilies, several varieties
Hosta – un-named varieties, purple flowers
Hosta ‘Pandora’s Box’
Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’
Leucanthemum x superbum – Shasta daisies (that’s a funny name...‘super bum’)
Lilium – un-named oriental lilies
Mirabilis jalapa – Four ‘o Clocks
Phlox paniculata – Purple, White, and ‘Crème de Menthe’
Platycodon grandiflora - Balloon Flower
Rudbeckia hirta - Black-eyed Susan’s
Tagetes – Marigolds
Zinnia – Purple, pink, white, and my favorite, green

In the vegetable garden

Cucumbers
Green Beans
Peppers
Spaghetti squash
Tomatoes
Zucchini squash

Hanging on from previous months but on the decline

Clematis integrifolia ‘Alba’
Rose – White Flower Carpet
Spirea japonica ‘Limemound’
Tradescantia sp. – Spiderwort

In bud

Pardancanda - Candy Lily
Epiphyllum oxypetalum (Night blooming cereus, which might actually bloom late on the 15th! If it does, it will get its own post)
Eucomis sp. - Pineapple Lily
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

Plus lots of flowers in containers!

What's blooming in your garden today? Please join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month by posting on your blog what’s blooming in your garden, and then leave a comment here so we can find you and visit to see all your pretty flowers.

If you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your blooms in a comment below.

If you have too many blooms to list or not enough time, just go with your top 10 list and join us anyway. And botanical names are strictly optional! All are welcome!

“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

A Brief Mention of Cherry Tomatoes

The first cherry tomatoes of the season are worth a mention but are hardly worth a ritual to welcome them.

These were hiding almost down at ground level but were given away by the light of the evening sun.

I wish I could tell you what variety this is, but unfortunately, I've lost track of what varieties of cherry tomatoes I have. Earlier in the spring, I planted the variety I grew from seed, 'Jelly Bean Grape' and guess who promptly bit off three of the four plants?

If you guessed Mr. Rabbit, award yourself something, because that is correct.

He left one plant, so I went to the store and bought some Sweet 100's and a yellow variety, I think, to replace the others. I'm not for sure on those varieties, so don't quote me. And I'm not sure which variety I harvested this evening because I didn't clearly mark which plant was which. I know, that was lazy of me. My only excuse is I was so distraught over the rabbit eating my tomato plants that I wasn't thinking clearly when I replanted with new plants.

We can rule out the yellow variety, after that your guess is as good as mine.

Without much ceremony, I ate these two promptly.
In a few weeks when I harvest my first big red tomato, then we'll have a ceremony of the first tomato!

Triumph at May Dreams Gardens

Today, I picked green beans.

I have triumphed over the rabbits, who for years have eaten my bean plants as fast as soon as they reach a reasonable size.

I don't know if my triumph is for this year or all future years. I used so many methods to keep the bunnies away thatI don't know if it was the combination of all of them or just one in particular that did the trick. I just know I'm eating fresh green beans tonight.

And no bunnies were harmed in the process (I think). So we are all winners.

The two varieties I picked today are 'Provider' and 'Romano'. I have a third variety, 'Bountiful', which is not quite ready to pick.

And unlike some years where I get one good bowlful of beans and the bunnies eat the rest, I expect to pick several more good "messes of beans". I feel so good about growing beans this year that I'm thinking about sowing a fall crop today and seeing what happens. Will the bunnies leave those alone?

Yes, my outlook on the garden is as bright as the colors in this picture.
And did I mention that we got a good quarter inch of rain last night? It's not a lot, but it's a start and a welcome bit of "washing off" for the garden.

Friday the 13th is a lucky day in my garden!

Bloom Day, Book Club, Corn Silks

Bloom Day

I think most garden bloggers have figured out when Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is, on the 15th of every month. July marks our sixth one. For those who haven't heard of it, the idea is that on this day especially, gardeners should list on their blogs all they have blooming in their gardens, and then leave a comment here on my bloom day post so we can find you.

What do I like about bloom day?

Being able to compare bloom times with gardeners from other parts of the country and the world. I've learned from bloom day posts that Zone 5 gardens vary quite a bit on when different flowers bloom.

Having a good reason to walk through the garden and take notes on what is blooming. Too often we get caught up in working in our gardens and don't take the time to really look at them to see what is blooming.

Seeing pictures of flowers that won't grow in my own garden, that I otherwise would not see!

What do you like about bloom day?

Book Club

I haven't seen any reviews yet for the Garden Bloggers' Book Club June-July selection, My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner, but it's early still. Once you've posted your review or taken the non-reading route by posting about your own summer in a garden, let me know so I can include you in the virtual club meeting post, which will be posted on July 31st. I generally list the reviews in the order I find them.

The August-September selection for the book club will be a garden mystery. Stay tuned for details on how that will work.

Corn Silks and A Vegetable Garden Update

I was off today and went out to the garden to weed and guess what I found? The first ears of corn are forming, as pictured above. I'm excited that I might get an ear or two of sweet corn this summer, since it isn't easy to grow a small patch of corn. Well, I should say the growing of it is easy, it is getting good pollination and having the ears fill out nicely that can be problematic.

I'll be watching and waiting to see how the corn develops. In the meantime, I also remulched the paths in the vegetable garden and gave it a good watering with the sprinkler.

Here's a view of the garden looking east...

Here's another view looking back the other way, to the west.
I like how the garden looks now that I've weeded it, mulched it, and watered it, basically spent the whole day on it. I know I'll be rewarded in due time for my efforts, with perhaps an ear or two of sweet corn and some delicious ripe tomatoes.

And I'll get some reward tomorrow when I harvest some green beans. Surely the rabbits can't eat all of these before tomorrow!

Behold, Cucumbers

Behold, the days of cucumbers have arrived.

There is the perception amongst some gardeners that home grown cucumbers don't taste that much different from store bought, so what's the point in growing them?

I'd like to set the record straight. Homegrown cucumbers do not taste the same as store bought if you choose the right varieties. They taste better. I wouldn't have a vegetable garden without a few hills of cucumbers.

Here's the beginnings of my cucumber harvest.

I have two varieties this year, Salad Bush and Bush Crop. The full size cucumbers are Bush Crop and the smaller ones are Salad Bush. Both are "short vine" or bush varieties, so they don't take as much space as some might think.

I have four hills of cucumbers in a 4 foot by 4 foot bed.

So far it looks to be a good cucumber year. I like to peel the smaller cucumbers and eat them like a candy bar. However, some people eat them skins and all. I guess it is a matter of personal choice and the variety of cucumber. Salad Bush, for example, was described as having a thin skin, which would be good to eat without peeling it first. (Please don't say bad things about Salad Bush in front of it, you know, it has a thin skin...)

Anyway, I am enjoying the cucumbers and they are on top of the harvest list right now. I'm still getting a lot of zucchini, in such quantities that they are getting on my nerves, all spread out on the kitchen table, begging for me to do something with them.

So cucumbers are the favored vegetable today.

But as with most vegetables in the garden, the cucumber will only be number one until some other vegetable comes along to knock it off its pedestal.

And in my garden, it looks like the green beans will be doing that soon. Look, I picked a little handful this evening.You know what this green bean harvest represents, don't you? It represents my triumph over the rabbits. Most years, the rabbits eat all the bean plants. But this year, they haven't.

Perhaps it is due to the row cover I used, or maybe they are finally afraid of the trap I set between the two rows of beans? Perhaps it is the cayenne pepper I put on the leaves, or the neighbors' cats are earning their keep by chasing the rabbits away? I really don't care why, I'm just happy that it looks like I'm finally going to have some green beans from my garden.

But I won't declare complete bean victory just yet, because you shouldn't count your beans before they are picked.

Anything can happen.

Breaking News at May Dreams Gardens

We interrupt your morning for this breaking news from May Dreams Gardens.

The night-blooming cereus has a flower bud on it.

I had been checking this plant (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) for the last few weeks, desparately looking for a flower bud.

Then this morning, I nearly dropped the watering can when I saw this flower bud, right in front of me, right at eye level. I don't know how I missed it before.

I'm not sure when the big bloom event will occur, so stay tuned.

For a preview of what is to come, see last year's post about the Queen of the Night.


See the bud on the right, about one-third of the way down on the plant, at eye level.

(For those who live in Florida and other climates where these are grown outside, and thus loaded with blooms, keep in mind that my plant lives entirely indoors. It's a bit large to try to take it outside in the spring and would it make it back inside in the fall? It's also kind of tangled up in the blinds on the one side. It owns that corner of the room.

For that reason, and a variety of other reasons, that's why even one bloom is a big deal around here!)

Paths, Lilies and Today's Harvest

Path

Do you know where this path will take you?

To the other side of this flower bed.

I found I was always cutting through this flower bed instead of going around it, so I decided to make a simple path across it.

The original design that I had in mind for this flower bed was for it to run along the side of the yard and then curve around and run out into the lawn. Then, as you came through the gate to the back yard, instead of seeing a big expanse of lawn, you would see this flower bed and it would lead you to the patio.

And it works, except when I am out and about in the garden, I don't necessarily want to walk all the way around this bed to get to the other side, so I added the path today.

The path looks a litte stark right now and the plants around it are wilting in the mid-day sun, but once some flowers grow up around it, I think it will be mostly hidden, but still open enough for me to cross.

Lilies

So many lilies (Zephyranthes) blooming at once, more than I've seen bloom together in a long time.
Are these rain lilies today, signaling that we are to get some much needed rain this evening, as forecasted? Or are these fairy lilies, beckoning all the garden fairies from near and far to come play in my garden tonight?

I hope they are a little of both.

Harvest

I was out and about early this morning and this is what I picked today. I assume that everyone knows that early morning is the best time to harvest vegetables, as this is when the water content in the vegetables is highest. You can see that a few more zucchini escaped my attention and got quite big. I'm "backlogged" with zucchini squash and can't eat them or give them away as fast as I am picking them. I'm going to get more aggressive tomorrow about giving them away.

I'm also getting several cucumbers each day. Home grown cucumbers, like home grown tomatoes, taste nothing like what you buy in the stores. But no one makes a big fuss over the cucumbers. Perhaps I'll dedicate a post to cucumbers in the near future and make a big fuss over them myself.

After all, it does no good to point out where something is lacking (no one posts about cucumbers) without offering a solution (I'll post about cucumbers).

Encouragement for New Gardeners: No Garden is Perfect

Colleen at In the Garden Online suggested that we should encourage new gardeners by showing them the ugly parts of our gardens.

You know, the parts we carefully edit out of our pictures before posting them on line, or just avoid posting pictures of entirely.

She surmised that new gardeners would be encouraged to know that no gardener, regardless of their experience, hardwork, money or dumb luck has a perfect garden.

And if someone does have perfect garden, they probably do have a lot of money and a lot of help and I'd bet they aren't doing most of the gardening themselves.

For most gardeners, it is about the gardening and we all end up with parts of the garden that please us and surprise us in a good way and make us happy. But there's always a few places...

Let me share some of mine.

Pictured above is what remains of one of my new 'Praying Hands' hostas. While I have blamed the rabbits, I realize this could also be the work of chipmunks. I'm putting cayenne pepper on the other new hostas. I'm leaving this one here because it still has one little leaf, so it will likely recover from this attack.

Here is my overgrown mess of forsythia that rarely bloom that need to go, go, go out of the garden.Look at the grass growing up through the shrubs! It's slovenly at best. I just haven't gotten up the energy to take care of this, but I still hope and plan to get it all torn out by fall so I can plant something else at the entrance to my vegetable garden before the snow flies.

Oh, and my heavens the plants on the garage side of my house are the worst they've ever been.
I just today gave them some extra water. This area is going to need some serious attention this fall to get it back in shape, and last year I thought it looked pretty decent. Not great, but decent. I guess it is time to clean up the hodge podge of plants I put there ten years ago and plant something with a bit more of a plan. Even my youngest sister commented on it the other day when she came by. She didn't say "this area looks terrible", she just made a comment about me not getting over to that side of the house much or something like that.

Actually, I think seeing this mess did make her feel a bit better about her own gardens. She's had her struggles with weeds and invasive perennials out of control, but her gardens look the best they've ever looked this year, and certainly look better than this picture.

Finally, I should really know better than to just leave junk by the compost bins.
It will just attract more junk! There should be a better place to store these stakes and fencing and the compost sieve. And it wouldn't take me but a minute to get behind those bins and pull those tall weeds out. Honestly, this makes my garden look junky. I'm going to take care of it tomorrow morning, I promise.

I'll stop there as I don't want to give anyone the impression that May Dreams Gardens is some kind of junk pit of a garden. I have nice gardens, too. In fact, this past Saturday, I finally re-mulched my big perennial bed and it now looks better than it has looked in several years.

I hope in some strange way this has encouraged at least one new gardener to know that a garden isn't going to be perfect 'day one'. Gardening is a process. And sometimes it is just plain hard work, but the results are absolutely worth it when you taste your very own home grown tomato, or see a new rose with the morning dew still on it, or hear the birds sing and see the butterflies flutter from flower to flower.

Now experienced gardeners, go see Colleen's post with more info on how to participate with your own ugly garden pictures!

Morning at May Dreams Gardens

Morning at May Dreams Gardens All gardens are especially happy, peaceful places early in the morning and in the evening right before the sunset.

The early morning sun hasn't quite reached these zinnias, but is shining brightly on the false or oxeye sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides).

The oxeye sunflowers are a bit weedy but they are so bright and sunny that I let a few of them grow anyway.

The dew is still on the grapes.
These are the variety 'Concord' and from my one vine, I'm expecting a big harvest. Start sending me those recipes for pies, jams, and jellies, or let me know where to ship your share of the harvest to.

The corn is tall and tasseling.
I'm not watching my sweet corn as closely as last year, just hoping I'll go out there one day and find an ear or two to harvest. The corn at my other garden isn't doing too good, suffering from lack of rain. The corn here has been watered deeply once a week.

I have three long beds of green beans, the equivalent of two 24 foot long rows.
I planted extra because most years the bunnies eat so many of them, I thought it might increase my odds of getting a few if I planted more. Imagine, thinking there is a limit on how much bunnies can eat? But for whatever reason, the bunnies ate on these beans a little earlier in the season but have left them alone for the past several weeks. Look at all those blooms! I'll surely get green beans this year!

My tomatoes are still green.
I dreamed the other night that I was harvesting my first ripe tomatoes, but when I woke up and checked out in the garden, they were all still green. Do you dream about your garden?

I've been reading about everyone's first tomatoes and leaving nice comments when they post about them. My day will come, and then I can unveil the newly improved ritual of the first tomato. I'm going to need to borrow the bells from my oldest sister, as I think they might be part of the new ritual, but she might need some convincing to let me borrow them. I would probably have to leave a big deposit or something like that.

But it will still be a couple more weeks, at least, before my first tomato ripens so I have time to plan a ritual without bells, if I have to. What is it they say? Good things come to those who wait.

If that is the case, then I expect my harvest basket will soon be filled with red tomatoes.
In the meantime, I'll enjoy this harvest which includes more squash and the first cucumbers and banana peppers.

And I'll enjoy my mornings at May Dreams Gardens. What are mornings like in your garden?

Happy, then Disgusted, then Happy Again

You can experience a lot of different emotions in just a few minutes in the garden.

For a few minutes, I was so happy in my garden.

I saw that my candy lilies are starting to bud out. These were little tiny seedlings this spring when I transplanted them to where they are now. I originally got the seeds for these from Park Seeds several years ago. They claim they are the only ones who have them but if you "google" candy lily you will find many places sell them.

They are listed as perennials, but mine seem to come up as seedlings each year, so maybe they have reverted back to one of the parents because hybrids should not come true from seed.

Next spring I'm going to pay closer attention and I'll be able to see if these come back or if I just have seedlings again. Regardless of what these are, they are pretty and I was happy to see a flower stalk on one of them this evening.

My happiness was short-lived, however, and was replaced with disgust. Just a few feet from these I saw what was left of one of the hostas I planted a few weeks ago, and there wasn't much left. Some critter had chewed it down to nothing and ate the leaves and all. Luckily, this was one that I had divided when I planted it so just a few feet away, I have another one. It is the variety "Praying Hands".

I just hope the rabbit who ate this doesn't think the other one is also there for it to eat. Yes, I am blaming the rabbits for this, as I blame them for any destruction in the garden no matter if they did it or not.

But then I looked back at my vegetable garden and was happy again. The bunnies, so far, aren't eating the green beans, so I should have some to harvest in a few days.

And these gladiolus came up again.
I always assumed that glads will not overwinter here and should be dug up in the fall. I did dig up some of these last fall, but got lazy and left some of the corms on the ground, so naturally they didn't come up this spring. But those I missed digging did come up, and are starting to bloom.

It makes me happy because I didn't expect to have glads this summer, after I treated the ones I had last year so poorly.

How many emotions did you feel in your garden today? Countless, I bet, because sometimes it's a regular roller coaster existence out in the garden.

Seven Garden Items on the Seventh

Seven things about my garden and other thoughts that have to do with the number seven, posted on a day of sevens.

7.1 There are seven different kinds of hostas planted in my miniature garden. I bought the seventh one just a few days ago. That's a picture of the miniature garden above.

7.2 I've always wanted to get a Seven Sisters' Rose because I think that is the climbing rose we had on our fence when I was growing up. It was definitely a pink rose, with lots variations of color. It bloomed only once each year and then all the petals would fall to the ground, covering it like snow. And it was very fragrant! What else could it have been? I haven't gotten one yet because I don't think I have any place to put a vigorous climbing rose like this one that really only gives you a show for a few weeks of the year. But what a show it is, so I keep thinking about it.

7.3 There are seven trees in my back yard right now. I should plant an eighth tree for next year! If I plant a tree a year from here on out, I can remember what year it was planted because the eighth one will be planted in '08, the ninth in '09, and so on. Or I could just keep better records in my garden journal.

7.4 Sometimes, my garden could best be described as "at sixes and sevens" meaning it is somewhat in disarray or I just don't know what to do next. When it gets like that I just do one task first and build on that. Breaking down tasks into small segments of time is still the best advice I have for anyone overwhelmed by their garden. Just do a little at a time. For example, if you have a long perennial border that needs weeding and deadheading, do a few feet at a time. Tell yourself, "I will work on just this one section for seven minutes (or ten or 15 minutes, whatever time you have) and if I don't do any more, at least I've conquered one section". Then if you decide to do more, go on to the next section. You'll be amazed at the end when you look back and see all that you've accomplished.

7.5 I counted the other day and I think I actually have seven different kinds of daylilies which is more than I thought I had. Maybe there are eight, but today I can only recall seven.

7.6 Did you know that we are currently on our seventh book for the Garden Bloggers' Book Club? We read books in November and December last year, then January, February, March, April-May, now June-July. The current book selection is My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner. You can either write a review or your thoughts on the book, or if you don't have the time or inclination to read it, you can just post about your own summer in a garden. When you've posted, send me the link and I'll incorporate it into a "virtual meeting" post to be published on July 31st. You can post anytime prior to that. If you want more information on the June-July selection, go here. By the way, the selection for August-September (the last two month selection before we go back to a book a month) is a mystery, literally. At least I want it to be a garden mystery. Any suggestions on which mystery book? I've got a few suggestions that I need to weed through to make a final selection, so now is the time to plant the seed for your choice. (I don't know what possessed me to use words like "weed" and "seed" in that sentence.)

7.7 Finally, number seven, and it is merely a reminder that seven days from tomorrow, it is once again Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (Sunday, July 15th), a day to post about what is blooming in your garden. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have too many flowers blooming right now. They've got a week to get with it, or else. I'm not sure "what else" but I hope to post about more than black eyed susan's and coneflowers and zinnias and marigolds. Wait, maybe I do have more blooming than I thought? That's what I like about bloom day. It's the one time I really go around and look at the garden to see what's blooming. Too often, we spend too much time working in the garden to really notice what is going on. You've gotta get your head up out of the weeds sometimes!

That's enough seven's for me for one day. How about you? Any sevens in your garden today?

Lessons from the Vegetable Garden

Gather 'round all you vegetable gardeners, both experienced and beginners. There's a lesson to be learned here.

You may not heed my lesson, but I'm offering it anyway because if this can happen to me, after twenty years of having my own garden and growing up around vegetable gardens, not to mention earning a degree from a school of agriculture, I'm guessing (hoping) it can happen to others.

I skipped a day of harvesting my zucchini and looked what happened.

I ended up with gigantic zucchini. With my round and now softball sized, "Cue Balls" and the traditional "Ambassador" zucchini, I have what I need to play...

Zucchini Softball! Who's in? Let's pick teams! Let's see... out in the back yard, the honey locust tree will be home plate, the redbud tree is 1st base, the entrance to the vegetable garden will be second base, and the spruce tree will be third base. A "Cue Ball" zucchini hit into the garden is an automatic home run!

Or, I think I know some people who can use these for baking. Should I call them first or just leave the zucchini on their doorsteps, ring the door bell and run?

And the lesson I'm passing along to everyone, in case it isn't obvious?

You must check zucchini twice a day for to see if there is any squash to harvest or you will end up with sports equipment.

My Favorite Perennial, Today

This is my current favorite perennial, Phlox paniculata 'Creme de Menthe'. It's got a lot going for it as a specimen plant.

It's neat and tidy, doesn't need staking, and blooms for quite awhile with some simple deadheading. It doesn't get powdery mildew like most tall phlox.

It has pretty pink flowers.

And did you notice that foliage?

If you like variegated foliage, or even if you don't, you must admit this plant is very striking, even without the flowers.

Until this year, this flower was hidden in a perennial garden run amok with overgrowth and I'll admit, a few too many weeds. This spring I moved it to my renovated flower border by the patio and now it is the star of the garden, even before it started blooming a week ago.

All it asks for is some simple deadheading of spent flowers and the removal of the occasional all green leaved shoot.

One of our fellow garden bloggers, Gina at My Skinny Garden, is going bargain shopping for flowers this weekend and wants to know what your favorite flower is, so she can add it to her list. She'd also like advice on what not to buy. Isn't it sad that garden centers and nurseries still sell some plants that we'd recommend no one buy? Anyway, go leave her some plant advice, because it is not everyday that someone asks.

I Want That One, and This One, and That One, Too

I'm still recovering. It was all kind of confusing and a bit overwhelming to go to the local daylily farm, Soules Garden and see all the daylilies in bloom. My youngest sister went, too, and was only able to speak in short sentences. "I like this one." "Check out that one". "Oh, I want to get that one".

After awhile, it was hard to keep track of which ones were which ones. We were both more attracted to the purply-pink mauve colored dayliles than to the orange and yellow ones.

I could not even begin to tell you the name of the daylily to the right above. It was one of hundreds in bloom today, just one of many that my sister said she liked.

Here's one of the fields of daylilies in bloom. See what I mean? It sure can get confusing fast if you aren't sure of what you are looking for.

Many may find it unbelievable, but we didn't buy any daylilies today. But do not be alarmed! We have a plan, of sorts.

My advice to myself and to my sister was that we should not buy bare-rooted, freshly dug daylilies unless we had flower beds at home already prepared and ready for planting. Plus, since neither one of us is likely to end up with dozens and dozens of varieties of daylilies, we should be more selective and take our time to browse through their catalog which, although it doesn't have pictures, has good descriptions and more importantly, the prices.

Out in the fields you can look all day and see dozens of daylilies that you want, but then you have to look at the catalog for prices and description and you might find you've fallen in love with either a very expensive daylily or a daylily that they aren't selling yet. I told her it would be better to look at the catalog and pick out early, mid, and late season blooming daylilies, in a price range that your budget can handle, then submit an order.

Plus, by waiting, my sister could also get a new flower bed dug up before she had a pile of bare-rooted daylilies begging to be planted.

And here's another idea. We can make sure to each get different varieties so that in a few years we can share divisions with each other. Yes, that's what we'll do and I bet we can get my older sister to go in on that deal!

Listen to me being all sensible and level-headed while I was surrounded by hundreds of different dayliles in bloom. And in the same place where I went last year and lost my head, so to speak, over miniature gardens, just by seeing a miniature garden they have.

Oh, did I mention they also have hostas? Lots and lots of hostas! My brother-in-law who loves hostas, "the bigger the better", went along, too. His comment, "you've brought me to heaven on earth".
He ended up buying two new hostas because he had a newly dug up bed for hostas, ready to plant. I guess it will be up to my sister to ask him why he spent time digging up his new hosta bed and not a daylily bed for her.

And me? Well, I didn't leave empty handed. I bought another new hosta, Hosta 'Tortifrons', for my miniature garden, because it will get up to seven inches tall, and I needed it to add some height to the little garden. And I decided to go back again on Sunday, after I've had a chance to study their catalog, to see some of my daylily selections blooming. Then I'll figure out where I can plant them in my garden and place an order to be picked up later next week.

I really am being quite practical about these daylilies!

All American Garden

Happy Independence Day.

Just for fun, I looked at last year's post on July 4th.

A year ago...

I wanted it to stop raining so I could garden. Now we might get some rain today and that would make me very happy!

My sister's garden was a bit out of control, now it is a showcase garden for raised beds and wrought iron fencing.

My corn was shoulder high and tasseling, and today it is once again shoulder high and tasseling.

My beans were blooming a year ago, and once again today my beans are blooming.

And I'm still a few weeks away from harvesting the first ripe tomato, just like last year.


You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. - Erma Bombeck

Someday, We'll Laugh About It

In a 4 x 8 raised bed, I've managed to plant six hills of zucchini. Left to right, "Gold Rush", "Ambassador" and "Gold Bar", two hills of each. Behind that bed is a 2 x 8 foot bed with green beans, which, by some miracle or due to my clean living, have been left alone by the rabbits. The bed in front is where the peas and lettuce were, where I need to plant a second crop of green beans or something. And then there is my fence back there.

It's a six foot privacy fence around my whole back yard. It makes the garden more private for me, doesn't keep rabbits out, but does hide the compost bins, which I also hide from myself behind the bamboo screen. There in front of the compost bins are my two hills of the "Cue Ball" zucchini. I harvested four more today, bringing the three day total to eleven, and I left two out there that maybe sort of kind of probably should have been picked.

It's a nice fence, well constructed, well maintained and nicely aged to a silvery gray color. It's specially treated to resist rot so I have no intention of trying to stain it to protect it or to darken the color. I even consulted a good painter and he advised that staining it would more or less be a "slippery slope of constant staining for years to come". So it will stay its natural color until it needs to be replaced, and then it will be replaced.

I love my fence. It allows me to garden right up to the corners of my yard and not feel as though neighbors are constantly watching me. Because of the slope of the yard up to the patio, I don't have complete privacy, but enough.

But some neighbors do not like my fence. In fact they don't like fences at all. And they got themselves elected to the neighborhood association board and now they decline all requests to build new fences.

The summer of 2007 is shaping up to be the Summer of the Fence War, at least in this neighborhood. I won't bore everyone with the details, but suffice it to say that requests for new fences are being turned down, even though they are within the guidelines set forth in the covenants.

One neighbor built this "Taj Mahal" of swing sets this spring, supposedly with approval from all the neighbors around him. While it looks like this might be on the lot behind me, there is actually another yard between it and me.Once "the swing set that I would have loved to have had when I was little, wouldn't you" was built, the neighbor next door to it wasn't too happy because they put it two feet from his property line and he thinks if a kid falls off it into his yard and gets hurt, he'll be liable. Plus his 80 year old mother who lives there with him won't go outside anymore because she feels like the kids are playing in her yard.

So the neighbor requested approval to put up a privacy fence around his back yard. And it was denied.

Did I mention right now all fence requests are denied? And mine, which was put up in 1999 with full approval of the powers in office at that time, is always referred to as "grandfathered" and they will not be approving any more like it. I suspect that if they could get away with it, they'd make me take it down!

I've had no less than four notes put in my mailbox this spring and summer about fences, as have all the residents of the neighborhood. Two from the association board and two from concerned neighbors who think the board is out of control.

The board is out of control.

Since they are out of control, or at best extremely controlling, I'm thinking that I can get a few other neighbors to join forces with me to secede from the neighborhood association and write own covenants to require privacy fences and also allow outbuildings, which are currently prohibited. Then I can get that little garden shed of my dreams, with a suitable display area for my hoe collection.

Yes, if I keep my head low and stay behind my fence, maybe I can avoid direct hits from the "fence wars" and come out of it with a garden shed!

A Good Problem To Have

As experienced gardeners, we know that there are going to be problems each year. Bugs, weeds, plant diseases, too much rain, too little rain, late frost, early frost, rabbits, deer, the list could go on and on.

As a matter of general policy, I tend not to discuss any of these problems in any detail or to a great extent with those who don't garden. They don't seem to understand what compels a gardener to keep trying year after year in spite of these potential and real problems.

But I do talk a lot about the good problems we have as gardeners, like having too much produce (TMP).

As I look around the garden this evening, I believe I am going to have a bigger problem than normal this year with TMP.

Little green beans are forming, and for whatever reason, the rabbits are staying away. It could be because of the neighbor's cat, who was roaming around in the yard this evening, or it could be that I scared away the rabbit who got caught in my trap and he was the only one out there.

I also have baby cucumbers, little peppers, lots of green tomatoes, onions, corn that is tasseling, and look...

More zucchini!
This is this evening's harvest. To give you some perspective, those "traditional" zucchini are about the size of a hot dog. From the left the varieties are "Ambassador", "Gold Bar", "Ambassador" again, and "Gold Rush". And yes, those are four more "Cue Balls" to go with the three I harvested yesterday.

I knew I had to take some action this evening because at this rate, I’m losing ground and “they” (the zucchini) are taking over. There are at least six more "Cue Balls" nearly ready to harvest. I did wonder, standing out in the garden, why I planted so much zucchini, but I can’t do anything about it now. It’s time to eat them, give them away, force others to take them or learn how to fry the blossoms.

So I decided to make something to eat with them. I read through all the comments and suggestions from yesterday’s post, (which were very helpful thank you!) and decided I should make a pie. I found a recipe online for a crustless zucchini pie that sounded easy to make, and it was. This used up the three “Cue Balls” I harvested yesterday, but I’ll admit that I threw out the seedy parts and just used the outside “meat” of the zucchini. Plus I cut the recipe in half and only made one pie.

I sliced up the other varieties of zucchini and let them marinate in some balsamic vinaigrette and ate them as the salad. Can you eat too much zucchini in one meal? Don't answer yes, because my zucchini dinner is already eaten!

Most of the zucchini beds are hidden in this picture of the garden, or way down there at the other end, but they are out there, eight hills worth, growing and producing as fast I can pick them.
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To prove to my family that I do know where my oven is and how to turn it on, here's the pie I made.

It was pretty good, almost like a quiche, with a mild enough flavor that you could also make it and serve it for breakfast. In fact, I might make another one for breakfast on the 4th of July and eat out on the patio, with a vase of fresh flowers from the garden sitting on my table.

The freshest flowers will be the zinnias which have just started to bloom.
I'm glad the zinnias are starting to bloom because looking out at the rest of the yard, I don't see a lot of other flowers blooming and I was mildly concerned that I wouldn't have much to show for the next Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on July 15th.

Or I'd just have zucchini blossoms to post about.

(Special thanks to Robin(bumblebee) for the idea to make a pie and to Annie in Austin for admonishing me to pick the zucchini while they were still quite small and use them in salads. Most years, my zucchini get to nearly club size before I pick them and give them away. The difference this year? I think it is these varieties seem to lend themselves to earlier picking. I got them from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Last year, I planted Burpee's Hybrid and Burpee's Golden Hybrid. A few years ago, I did plant "Gold Rush" and I think it was a smaller squash. I've also planted the variety "Black Beauty", which definitely is a big club of a zucchini, if you let it be. The lesson here... look around for other varieties and give them a try. Don't get stuck in a rut with the same old varieties... unless that variety is "Cue Ball" which I will be planting for years to come!)

Then There Were Three

Earlier today, I noticed that one of the "Cue Ball" zucchini was getting to be a pretty good size, which is when I realized that I wasn't quite sure what size it should be for harvesting. After a quick online search, I decided that it should be about three inches wide.

So I picked this one. I didn't put a tape measure to it, but I'd guess it is maybe just a day or two past when I should have picked it.
But I'm sure it will be quite edible.

I also read that "Cue Ball" is 'quite prolific, harvest daily'. I wonder why I didn't see that description when I decided this past winter to order some seeds for these? If I had read that, would it have stopped me, anyway?

So what does one do with a "Cue Ball" zucchini? I looked around the web for some recipes and really only came up with suggestions to use them for kabobs or to hollow them out and bake them with some kind of stuffing in them.

Would now be a good time to confess that I don't really cook, in the sense of getting all kinds of ingredients together and making stuff from scratch?

My "regular" zucchini are starting to produce, too, though they were too small today to harvest.

This is a variety called "Gold Bar"
This green one is "Ambassador".


I am guessing these will be ready to pick tomorrow, especially since I am watering the vegetable garden tonight. (The easy way, with an oscillating sprinkler, which is running now, while I am sitting on my back patio working on this blog entry.)

I am willing to try to cook some of my zucchini, at least what I can't give away. Does anyone have any sure-fire, quick, easy, delicious, low sugar, low fat zucchini recipes to share? I could use some help.

And please hurry. I went back out to the garden a little bit ago and found two more "Cue Ball" zucchini to pick, closer to the size recommended for harvest.