The Mid-June Update

 Music and German Extra Hardy garlic.  I just removed the scapes earlier this week.  They are doing beautifully in the raised bed.

 Winona strawberry bed after being renovated.  Old foliage was removed.  The middle and rear plants were removed to leave room for air circulation.

 Snow Princess sweet alyssum that was started from seed.

 Jacob Kline Monarda

 Navaho blackberries are developing.

 Tiki Torch coneflower.  This is it's third year.  Not a very vigorous coneflower by any means.  Still not much bigger than when I ordered it.  Disappointing.

 Major Wheeler honeysuckle is blooming its heart out.  Hummingbirds have been visiting it!

 My "shell" garden.  Heirloom, vining petunias are along the left side.  Copra onions in front.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right.  Two Tango celery plants are ready for harvest in the rear.

An interesting comparison.  Above are my Copra onions on June 2nd.

 Exactly 14 days later.  It is a great gardening year so far!

 Salad Bush cukes on their compact 3 foot vines are already ready for their first harvest.

 I bagged blossoms a few weeks ago.  I'm considering leaving on the bag to see what happens.  I will probably have to cut it away at some point since this is a Kellogg's Breakfast tomato.  They're not tiny.  :)

 A Sandul Moldovan, Kellogg's Breakfast, and two Sun Gold tomatoes in one of the 3' x 3' raised beds.  THRIVING!  Finally a great tomato year....so far.

 Fat N' Sassy bell peppers are doing wonderfully.

 They are already producing a bunch of peppers.

 One of my favorites.  Echinacea purpurea.  Unimproved, and perfect.

 My Meyer's Lemon is taking off.  Too bad the Lime (in the green container) has been a dud since day one.  Strange.

I have my first lemons developing and more blossoms!
Happy Gardening!

 My newest blueberry additions.  They were 1/2 off at Home Depot so I couldn't pass them up.  Here are Bluecrop and Jersey.

 My Golden Delicious had a bad case of rosy apple aphids.  Lady bugs to the rescue.  There is also another underneath a nearby leaf. I love these hungry beauties.

 My Dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree from Stark that I planted last Fall.  She's branching and leafing out nicely.

 Fat N' Sassy peppers are starting to bloom.  They are thriving in the crazy heat we've been having.

The "shell" garden.  Petunias, impatiens and nicotiana line the back edges.  Onions are the large patch in the front.  Freshly planted geraniums (a gift from my mother-in-law) are near the birdbath and front center.  One Cherokee Green and two Celebrity tomatoes are staked behind the birdbath.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and 3 Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right of the birdbath.  I may hate this heat and humidity, but the garden is thriving so far.

Winter came and went... Wait! Winter was here? We only had one good snow right before Halloween and perhaps two dustings after that. That was winter? I guess the strange weather had me preoccupied, and I didn't check in as much as I would have liked. To fill everyone in on what is going on around here on yet another warm, 70+ degree day......The daffodils visit is coming to an end. They sure are a dose of sunshine when they arrive though.
We had a new roof put on our house a few weeks ago. My relatively new (3 year old) Prairiefire Crabapple tree took quite a jolt. One of the roofers tossed something off the roof. It flew a good 15 feet out and caught one of the three main branches of the tree. Bent the end of this branch down to the ground and cracked it along the ridge. Poor thing. I thought the shovel tossed off the roof onto my Golden Zest rose or the three large garbage cans tossed on my blooming daffodils was going to be the worst of it. :(
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As you can see in the background, my hummingbird feeders went up a few days ago. According to the hummingbird migration maps, they're already north of us into New York. If you're interested, check out the link to the maps at http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html
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It doesn't look like much in the backyard right now, but in a month or two, it should be green and lush.
My Meyers Lemon plant that I purchased about a year ago. It developed its first blooms and just opened for the first time this morning!
Last year I bought a small ivy plant at the grocery store. It did quite well in my eastern-facing window. I decided to take an old wire hanger and make this topiary. The hook is buried under the potting mix. Then I shaped the rest into a circle and twined the vines around it. Although I'm not a big fan of ivy, I do think this makes a nice presentation.
Above is one of my Snow Princess sweet alyssum. It looks like there might be some blossoms starting in the middle of this one. I've never grown sweet alyssum before, but I'm still trying to add fragrant delights to the garden.
Old-Fashioned Vining Petunias. A fragrant annual that is new to me this season.
My tomatoes were planted on the March 11th. They starting germinating the other day. Here is one of the Sun Golds that my daughter is anxiously waiting on. Their flavor hasn't been beaten yet by any other cherry tomato. I know it looks sad, but it's amazing how they can transform into something spectacular within a few months.
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I would be remiss if I didn't mention my tomato list for 2012. What was going to include only 4 plants turned into 12. So much for self-control.
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2 Sun Gold - Everyones favorite cherry tomato around this house.
2 Celebrity - Dependable, disease resistant choice.
2 Kellogg's Breakfast - My dad's favorite. Superb flavor. Get small toward end of season for me.
1 Cherokee Green- Amazing flavor. Winner for flavor in 2010. Best green yet!
1 Cherokee Purple- Did poorly in a bad tomato year last season. Giving it another try.
1 Sandul Moldovan- Excellent pink.
1 Pruden's Purple- New to me. Despite its name it is a pink. I hear good things about it's production and flavor.
1 Marion- I had old seed, but never tried it. I figured I would plant it to get fresh seed...and to taste it.
1 Marglobe- Same as Marion. I've never tried it, but would like fresh seed to replace the old. Interested to see how it tastes and produces.
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Left: Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) from last seasons saved seed.
Middle: Tango Celery. A hybrid.
Right: Fat N' Sassy Peppers. Another hybrid which are now sold under the name King Arthur.
Dwarf Red Haven Peach. This is the first time my Stark's supreme dwarf RH Peach has had blossoms on it. They have such a beautiful pink hue to the flowers. Gorgeous. Since the tree is still quite small...even for a dwarf, I won't let it fruit yet. The scaffolds need to thicken up a bit and branch out before I will put that kind of stress on it. It is nice to see that it is doing well though.
Music and German Extra Hardy garlic which was planted last October. Off to a healthy start.
Caroline Raspberries. This is all from ONE bareroot plant that I planted last Spring.
Earliglow Strawberries. I went out this morning to find a blossom already! Last year my first Earliglow started to blush on May 19th. With all of this ridiculously warm weather the last few weeks, they are way ahead of schedule. I hope they hang on when the temperatures drop back down starting tomorrow. It'll be going from mid- to high-70s back into the mid-50s (where it should have been all along).

Is anyone else making diagrams and plant/seed wish lists yet? With temperatures in the teens the last couple mornings, I've been daydreaming a lot about my garden. Luckily it's seed catalog time! They are tempting pieces of eye candy. Actually more than tempting. Downright convincing. After deciding that my garden is greatly lacking in one of the most important elements, fragrance, I starting flipping through them.
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I have decided to add the following fragrant annuals:
1. Old Fashioned Vining Petunia - Evening fragrance.
2. Sweet Alyssum - I think I have a packet of Carpet of Snow that I never used. Nice for edging and filler around other plants.
3. Nicotiana sylvestris - Fragrant in the evening. Large! Planting near porch to enjoy the fragrance at night. Hoping to entice some beautiful moths as well!
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There are so many plants to choose from. It was almost impossible to finally decide on just these three. My perennials, veggies, fruits, and shrubs take up most of my gardens, but I do have certain areas I try to keep open for annuals. I think these three fragrant annuals will help to fill out those areas quite nicely. I've never grown these before, so experimenting with them will be a lot of fun.

Butterflies and Blooms

Last night when I went to bed my first black swallowtail looked like this. Clinging to the lid of the fish tank.This morning he looked like this. In his beautiful, green chrysalis.The kids harvested more Russet Burbank potatoes this week. One plant grew these bright white, squishy "potatoes" with roots. Strange. I've never seen that before.
Elegant Stinkhorn...looks like a garden gnome sneaking up through the soil.
The Autumn Joy sedum and mum are getting ready to start their fall show.
The sedum attracted this gorgeous Common Buckeye. The first I have seen this season. This is one of the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen.
Common Sulphur (right?) enjoying the Pink Delight butterfly bush.
Kellogg's Breakfast tomato blossom.
Rosy Returns daylily.
My container has looked terrible all season due to the really high heat and dry weather. Finally, after three overcast days, it is starting to look alive.

Butterfly Garden

Scarlet Runner Beans- On two trellises along with Scarlet O'Hara morning glories that haven't started to bloom yet.

Torch Mexican Sunflower- In the back corner. Unfortunately a drenching storm caused the gutters to overflow and it crushed the main stem. A cleome growing next to it was destroyed as well. Currently Torch is propped up with a cage and is horribly wilted every evening from the sun. I don't think it will recover. It's a shame too. I hear they are butterfly magnets. Plus they had opened up their first bloom the day before the storm. It looks like the Torch has been put out. :(

Will Rogers Zinnia- in front of Torch

Coral Nymph and Lady In Red salvia- front, left near cracked birdbath that I use for a puddling site for butterflies.

Lady In Red and one Yvonne's salvia- mid-right

Assorted petunias, Red Rubin basil, Butterfly mix pentas, Orange lantana mixed throughout the front of the bed.

Red, white, and purple Quartz mix verbenas in the middle of the bed.

4 Anaheim chili peppers and one Jalapeno M plant are in front of 16 moss curled parsley plants to the back, right of the bed.

In All Their Glory

Cameo Elegance- These are her first blooms of the season which opened this morning. Variegated foliage. Fuschia blossoms with white edging and eye. Compact size, but stems are highly visible (the leaves are become smaller in size the further along the vine leaving a lot of exposed stem). Mine are currently about 24-30" long. Mid-summer to fall blooms. Although I love the tiny, variegated, ivy-shaped foliage, it is not a vigorous plant. You would have to plant these quite heavily to give them any presence in a mixed container or to fill out a container on their own.

Heavenly Blue- This morning before completely opening up to reveal their glory. Sky-blue with white throats. Vines reach approximately 8' long. They put out new blossoms daily. Healthy, clean foliage.

The Garden In June: A Photo Update

My Lady Emma Hamilton rose is finally in bloom. The coloring is gorgeous. The scent is like a citrus, lemon Pledge. It's wonderful! Each rose have little green worm nesting inside the blossom. They don't seem to be doing any damage although I saw one toss a little piece of poop out of the blossom. Kind of gross, but I don't mind them so much.

My first attempt at growing celery appears to be a huge success. After the rainiest, record-breaking, Spring I can remember the only plants that seemed to thrive it were the Tango celery. All eight plants actually look like...celery. I wasn't sure how they would turn out at first. They were a bit floppy, but after all that rain they stood right up and have developed nice, thick stalks. It felt like it happened overnight. That was a great garden surprise.

Another great surprise, despite the rains, was how well this Red Morn Madness petunia held up. The other varieties took a few days to start blooming again. This variety just laughed at the rain. It's a real winner.

Unfortunately the rain took a toll on a few plants. One of my Autumn Joy sedum and about half of my Burpeanna pea plants rotted out of the ground. They just couldn't handle the massive amounts of rain this month. On a more positive note, I uncovered a nice-sized, Mucho Nacho jalapeno pepper yesterday while crawling around my raised beds. It won't be long until this little guy is ready. Both the Fat n' Sassy and Mucho Nacho plants all have small peppers on them.