Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Wishing everyone a great gardening summer with bountiful harvests!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

This morning I decided to bag some blossoms. I used bridal tulle circles to cover the blossoms. A bagged blossom. The clothespins are holding the "bags" together and their weight is supported by clipping them over the cages. I will remove the bags once I see tomatoes forming.
Fused tomato stems on my Lucky Cross tomato plant.
Copra and Red Zeppelin onions starting to bulb up.
Reliance Grapes
Blueray Blueberry
Newly expanded front garden. The entire middle portion was grass in the beginning of the season. Now it is filled with marigolds, dwarf sunflowers, lots of carrots, and other assorted annuals as fillers.
Scarlet Oklahoma Red Zinnia
Jacob Kline Monarda
Purple Coneflower

Monday, June 13, 2011

Spirit pumpkin. I've never had one so healthy, so long. SVBs have always been a huge problem. This is a more compact cultivar.Golden Acre cabbage starting to form a head.Florence fennel. A volunteer. Note the black swallowtail caterpillar in the upper portion. He's already about an inch and a half long!
One of my three Sungold tomatoes started blossoming a few days ago. I can't wait for these tasty nuggets!
Sweet Basil planted last season. It overwintered and is now starting to flower. It came in a gift herb kit. I never harvested any of it, so I'm hoping the beneficials will like it. That's why it's still hanging around. Peas are planted on both sides of it. You can see my Spirit Pumpkin in the back left.
Below are my tomatoes, a Spirit pumpkin in the near-middle, Golden Acre cabbage in front of that, onions in the back right, peas lining the lower of the picture.
The birdhouse I built a few weeks ago has found its first resident. A lovely pair of wrens! You can see one on the tomato cage holding nesting material.
Ellagance Purple lavender that I started from seed last season. Smells lovely.
Jacob Kline monarda. Five feet tall already!!! My Endless Summer hydrangea is blooming as well.
Rosy Returns daylily.
Flamenco Torch Lily. More of a light apricot than the orange I expected. Perhaps because it is so shaded by the monarda.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

It had been two weeks since it last rained here. We hadn't seen any since the extreme rains two weeks ago. Last night, the dry spell ended. A nice dousing rain covered the garden and perked everything back up. Flowers are opening. Birds are singing and splashing around in the puddles. It's a beautiful morning.
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If you have some free time, there's only one day left of Facebook's National Home Gardening Club Decoration contest. If you have a moment to vote for my photo....
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http://bit.ly/kDd5aX
Leave a COMMENT or CLICK TO VOTE (likes don't count).
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Thanks. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Above: Lady Emma Hamilton rose
Scarlet Oklahoma zinnia and other pickings from the morning garden.
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STAY COOL EVERYONE!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Grapes and Strawberries

My Reliance grape is getting out of control. Spreading onto the lawn making mowing difficult. One large cane that extended beyond the trellis broke during a storm. I realize that it's time to try some summer pruning. I wanted to improve air circulation and light penetration into this monster. Just as I was beginning I found this caterpillar. I'm sure it is great for my grapes. Note the sarcasm. I left him alone though. I will do some research to find out what he might be. Any ideas?
Before:
After:
My raised bed strawberries are doing well. I'm not sure if this is a Sparkle or Sequoia strawberry, but it looks DELICIOUS. I'll let you know later. Whatever it is, I'm going to root the runners and start a new raised bed with them.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Scarlet Oklahoma zinnia are in bloom. A treat planted for both butterflies (nectar), bees (pollen), birds (seeds), and hummingbirds (nectar).Blueray blueberry plant. In it's second season from Jungseed. It came as an overpriced, small twig. Now I will only buy my blueberries from nurseries/garden centers. For the same price, I can get a large plant. Anyway....The three blueberries I planted from them were beat down a bit by the severe drought last season, but all three sprung back nicely. Earliglow strawberries and planted underneath as an edible ground cover. Both of my Salad Bush cucumbers are flowering. Here is one on the left. These are my favorite variety. The vines only reach 3 feet long, but they are very heavy produces of full-sized cukes. The taste is great as well, and my hubby's favorite trait... they're not too seedy. On the right is a Golden Acre cabbage. These grow quickly and will be fully grown and harvested well before the cucumber needs to use the space.Red Zeppelin and Copra onions from Dixondale Farms. I planted these same varieties from them last season and they turned out to be excellent storage onions. I used up the last of them in January, so this season I planted twice as much.Mixed varieties of shelling peas. I definitely need to quadruple the amount I plant next season. My three year old daughter and I can't get enough!Reliance grape vine. Planted last Spring. It is a monster. Even after havy late winter pruning. I really need to summer prune it a bit to keep it more manageable. I will also replace the 6 foot supports with 8 foot ones early next season.The dwarf Stanley plum tree that I got from Starks last fall has been leafing and branching out well. I'm not sure why, but the leaves are turning red. I found two white leafhoppers (?) on the one leaf. Anybody have a guess as to why the leaves suddenly turned red? We did just go through a 3 day heatwave with high humidity and temperatures in the 90s. Your thoughts???