Garden Journal
August 9th, 2010 8:30 a.m.
We picked 5 lbs of vegetables out of the north garden yesterday while Cathy was here. The kids were really well behaved and had a great time pulling out the potatoes from the garden. They had planted them in the spring and wanted to pull them out to see what they grew into. We had planted russets that were rotten from the pantry closet. They were half rotted when we put them into the ground but when they came out they had repaired themselves and grown baby potatoes too: As a result, we ended up with five potatoes to every one we planted. Most of the potatoes were small sized but that is because they didn’t have the whole summer to grow. When we pull them up in October, most of the potatoes will be of good size and we will be able to store them or can them with some acid sauce. Perhaps that is why German potato salad tastes the way it does...they can their potatoes with vinegar and a hot water bath. Now it all makes sense. Duh. For years, I have wondered why Germans made their potato salad that way (ever since I went to a German restaurant at 12 years old and had some real German salad; so, now I know; and it was so simple to figure out. That is almost forty years of “duh”; Geesh; and my mother would agree: LOL.
The damsel and dragonflies are out in force this morning: Big black monster-bugs flying around the garden eating up god-knows-what. There also seems to be a host of them flying around in this humid early morning sunshine. I will research what they eat: probably there are tons of good little bugs here... due to our organic way of doing things around here.
I know that there are a few zucchini out there in the north garden. I should probably look to see if any are ready to pick today. I will do it after sundown tonight. The humidity is oppressive today and probably not going to quit until the sun goes down. The air is so still, with the exception of the crickets: not a breeze to-be-had until a few minutes ago. Now that the breeze is about ½ mph occasionally, there will be some coolness in the shade if we dare.
We will be venturing forth to get a truckload (or two) of manure for the north back garden. We are preparing it for spring and a corn patch. We will have to weed-whack the next section, cover it with black plastic and rocks and let it heat up in the sun for a few days to kill the grass. We are hoping for a decent amount of gardening space next year. The condition of our current garden is overfilled. The squash vines are taking-over. The tomatoes are indeterminate so they are growing beyond their trellis. The bush beans are in the shade of the squash. The peppers are not producing at all. The potatoes are struggling to survive the bugs that want to eat their leaves. Molasses seems to keep them at bay though. The cleome is growing exponentially behind the tomatoes and next year I may use them for supports of the tomatoes. The sage, rosemary, and artemisia are un-noticeable under the canopy but they are doing their job very well by deterring the various bugs that do not like their odor.
The tomatoes are not ripening now but when they do, we will be up to our ears in sauce. We plan to can everything from the garden this year. We will be eating zucchini until spring: LOL. We have zucchini-vines (that grow little baseball fruit); zucchini bush plants and both kinds of summer squash plants too. The summer squash grow a little differently. The squash look like a crookneck with all the bumps on them but without the crooked neck. When small, the squash are lime green and rarely turn yellow before they are ready to pick. We are mixing them with the zucchini and blanching them before putting them in the freezer. We are also adding them to our recipe of spaghetti sauce stew: a very chunky sauce that is loaded with vegetables added to rice or spaghetti.
As we were cutting them all yesterday (about 5 lbs. of them) we ran into what we thought was a zucchini but tasted like a pumpkin. We added it to the mix anyway. Daniel wanted to know how I knew it was a pumpkin because it was so young that the inside of it didn’t have any color. The clue was the curled line outside the seed center. This little line is very visible when cutting the fruit in half lengthwise. The difficulty determining if it is a pumpkin when un-cut remains however. The fruits seem to look all the same and the only clue to some of them is the harder than normal skin. We have a variety of pumpkins that start green and shaped like a zucchini football. As they age, they turn a darker green and it is late in the season before the start to turn orange. We have one out there in the north right now that is large than a football and very green. I think it will be a zucchini after all but when it first started, it was similar to other pumpkins in the patch so I left it there. Since it is so large and it has been on the vine for so long I will leave it there and let it winter over in the winds of winter. It will give us seeds for next year. I hope that Daniel won’t rototill the dries fruit into the garden before I can get to it next spring. That is the reason the garden this year is as it is; he rototilled the desiccated shells of zucchini and pumpkin into the patch and before we knew it, we had vines everywhere. The benefit of it is that there are very few weeds and so much thickness to the three-foot canopy that the soil is able to retain its moisture for a week. Watering is less frequent than it would have to be without the canopy. Even so, we water every other day.
I think that I want to build some self-watering containers this year for everyone as Christmas gifts. I found some information online that will help do the whole job for less than $6 for each container. I think that I can build one for each person and that would give each couple two large containers to grow tomatoes or peppers or corn and they will be self watering so they would only require watering once a week or so. So, the adults are covered this year and all I have to worry about are the kids. Even Jessa (daughter) might like to have a self-waterier.
The requirements for the self waterier:
18-30 gallon tote with lid:
pvc tube 20 inches long:
a styrofoam ball that will fit into the pvc tube;
a dowel that is 20 inches long;
a piece of linoleum flooring
and some left over yogurt cups and perhaps a large yogurt cup as well for the well in the bottom:
A drill with a drill bit for 5/16th holes.
I will show you pictures as I make it. I have all the equipment to do it except the tote so it shouldn’t be too hard to make. I can pick up some green totes at home depot and the styrofoam balls and dowels at the wally-mart craft department. Perhaps they carry the at home depot too but we shall see. I should be able to use the prize money from the fair to get the stuff. Oh, the fair.
I won prizes at the fair for what I entered. I entered:
Oil landscape: Red sky at night: ocean theme: blue ribbon: first place
Oil Still Life: Sunflowers: garden theme: blue ribbon: first place
Tea cup bouquet from flowers in the garden: blue ribbon: first place
Bouquet in clock: red ribbon: second
Bouquet of only green foliage: red: second
Bread: white ribbon: third place.
The person who runs the fair, Jody, said that the judge was truly impressed with the paintings. I am so glad that I finally received a ribbon on my work. I have never won anything so this was quite a surprise. I guess a little money for winning doesn’t hurt either. I forgot all about the pot rosemary that I entered. I don’t even know if the rosemary is still in the building. What a goof I am. I will have to call the person who runs the whole thing and see if I can get it. It was my largest rosemary and I wanted it to have a place of honor in the kitchen window during the winter this year, but if it is dead from the hot building then I guess I will have to take the one from the garden to use.
Being hot today, perhaps it is a great day to mow the lawn. Daniel woke up at 12 noon so we can mow and then get manure. Perhaps we might even get to the weed whacking today as well. I would love to fill the herb beds with this manure. The herbs would love it. If I could get them filled, they would have a couple of months to get on their feet to survive the winter. That would be awesome but perhaps that is too much to ask for this time of year. We should get the manure before we mow I think. We disturb people to get the manure because they have to run the tractor. I wish I could send some to Barb. She always complains that she doesn’t have good soil down there in the trailer park. I suppose she is right: Years of being near pavement and have water pipes near the surface there provides the soil with temperatures that are too high for good growth. Barb would love to have a self waterier. What a hoot. I could give everyone, one of those. Imagine giving individually wrapped gifts. : individually wrapped styrofoam balls, sticks, used yogurt cups, zip-ties from garbage bags, pre-drilled linoleum, and pre-drilled pipe etc: What a funny AND a great idea!
Happy Christmas thinking during this oppressive heat!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, August 9
August notes
August 8th, 2010
The house is still this morning, except for the increasing drone and fade away of a car passing; The dogs nails are tic-tick-ticking on the kitchen floor and I hear them crumbling food on the back porch. The coffee maker is grumbling like a sleepy child and dripping the dark elixir of early morning life. As I sit here and think about it, it is not the quiet that is so peaceful, but the noise: Even the crickets are humming a waking tune that will turn into a drone by days end. Its funny how a person’s attitude can change during the day. The same noise we hear in the morning that can be so peaceful, can also be so annoying by the end of the day...is it fatigue or simply mental issues? Most of us are not paying enough attention to ever know but it is perhaps because most of us dont take the time to give-a-damn.
Daniel and I have discussed the green-bean production at length: Trying to figure out why the beans are produced on the east side of the trellis and not the west. We have watched the sun during the day at length as well and perhaps the light has something to do with it but we think it is a combination of several factors. The trellis is lying lengthwise from south to north. In hindsight, we should have laid it east to west and braced it vertically rather than horizontally. I had to add some tripods (camera) to the growing beans because they kept stretching towards the sun ever taller and seemed to be happiest with height. Perhaps next year we will change the climbing structure. Anyway, as they are this year, they are producing beans with abandon on the east side but rarely one bean on the west where the sun is located for most of the day. The only thing we can figure out is that insects prefer to pollinate in the shade. The bees hum around the plants in the shade for hours and leave the rest alone if they are in the sun. In addition to this fact, the beans seem to enjoy growing in the shade of other things. Note: We harvested some truly large beans yesterday on the bush beans in the north garden and those plants are in the shade of the squash plants.
Note: I would like to change the climbing structure to a trellis cross-patch with 1x3 boards so that the side that holds the beans faces east. Something like this:
E
N S In this way we should be able to get a more substantial harvest. Although we are a little behind. The 1X3 boards are great cause they are cheap and hard compared to the 2x4’s that you would get for construction. Perhaps we will build a few of them for all the gardens. It would be nice to have several around the herb gardens.
The Little Gem squash plants seem to be the flying saucer type. They will be orange and round on top and perhaps a lighter shade of orange on the bottom with a circle at the base of the bowl. I have to look these up online to determine the best way to store them since that is all we have. We did not get any butternut squash this year and that is a mistake from the seed company. All we have is this saucer type. This is very discouraging. We planted a ton of seeds for that.
Daniel was noticing that due to the crowded conditions of the garden that there are not very many weeds and the soil tends to retain any moisture it gets by hose or rain: Very good observation on his part. He said that he would like everything to be uniform in the garden but that he can see why the mish-mash of plants we have out there in the north, works for the plants. I reminded him that in nature, all plants grow where they are most comfortable for the further development of the species. This is true in nature but if you can replicate it in the home garden, then you will have and abundance of any one crop or possibly two. Due to the nature of the heirloom, seeds that we planted some of them have cross-pollinated and formed a new type of plant and fruit. We have some summer squash that is simply not forming like squash. The color is off; a lime green instead of a yellow. Moreover, the shape is not what it should be: a teardrop instead of a long neck. I think this is because other plants that have those characteristics are blooming very close and the bees are pollinating the sum. Squash with pollinators from the vine zucchini and the pumpkin. We have several zucchini in the area (north) that simply have not developed fruit until now. Now that they have started, they will take over for the ones that have been developing fruit all spring and summer.
Perhaps next year we will cover the garden with clear plastic to warm up the soil prior to planting so that the plants can feel at home right-off: if we have the plastic and if there is some time to do it without snow on the ground (like this spring, we had five feet the last spring snowstorm)
There are some pumpkins out there (north) that have developed and are now growing as an orange ball. They first grew as yellow fruit and I thought they were a vine zucchini. Then they gradually turned to yellow orange and developed ridges vertically from stem to floor. As the ridges became more prominent, the orange color increased and now they are bright orange.
August 7 th, 2010
Went tagging with Samantha today allllllllllll day-What fun. Then we, Dan and I, pulled out 9 lbs. of veggies from the garden tonight at 6:30 p.m. after Sam left. Zucchini and summer squash mostly but we also got a suitable amount of green beans from the bush bean plants in the north garden, enough for two servings, maybe three. We pulled three small carrots out of the ground just for a taste and they were the sweetest things we have tasted since blueberries.
August 6, 2010
Oh, we went to visit the goat farm a 6 johnnycake hill rd today (sandy’s place) and there is this cute little goat all covered with patches of black and white: So-o-o-o cute. I always wanted a goat or two for milk and cheese and soap but Daniel doesn’t like the way they taste so sheep is what he wants. I think he didn’t cook the goat in the freezer right so it didn’t taste that good. I suppose when things are real tough, you wouldn’t mind tough meat but I wouldn’t want the goats to eat anyway. I would want them for milk, soap and cheese. That would be the best thing to have them for and two would do it. Daniel always thinks of meat. I think of other protein sources. That way you can have both. One flake of hay per day per goat is two into one bale is 5 days which is five-6 bales per month of the cheap hay = 15.00-20.00. One bag of grain for three months for two goats unless pregnant or breast-feeding. So that is about 25.00 per month it would cost to feed them through the winter and during the summer it would be less due to the fresh grass they would get in the field. Goats need copper to have health so feed them out of a copper bowl for water and of course keep grain on hand for vitamins etc. Grain is especially for nutrients that the hay cannot provide. Of course we would have to find a source of cheap hay. We do not have that now but it would be easy to find since goats like the chafe of hay rather than the alfalfa stuff. The hooves have to be trimmed though. Not a tough job but it has to be done every six weeks or so. In addition, of course, the shots that have to be done in spring and fall. Too much work.
All the information I have written in the last three days has disappeared in the Netherlands of this computer. Perhaps it just didn’t get saved but if you find it anywhere here, just add it to the mix. I will rewrite it all again here. ..I hope.
The chickens are fighting over laying space this morning. I swear that at times there seems to be a bee in their tail feathers because they seem to run around unexpectedly and rush to the south end of the yard. It is funny to watch. In November they will be moved to the inside and then there wont be so much to laugh at.
In the last three days I have noted that the cucumbers have been growing exponentially. It has been a real treasure to look up all the different methods of growing cukes but the method that provided the most response was burying a hard boiled egg under the plants at the center of the triangle. I will have to remember that for next year.
Remember for next year:
Hardboiled egg with cukes
Tea = nitrogen for corn and peas.
Beans:pole
In the south garden we have been watching the beans: pole beans. The beans seem to be profilically producing beans on the east side of the trellises but not on the west side. We have a couple of theories as to why this is happening. It is possible that the insect are pollinating on the shaded side of the plant more often than the non-shaded part. The beans are planted south to north and the east side is in the shade most of the day. This offered more time for the plants to get pollinated on the east side than the west. The west side of the plant is in the sun most of the day and we get one bean a week from that side. We have watched the insect situations around the gardens and have noticed that the bees especially prefer to eat in the shade. On the sunflower plants, they always pick a shaded flower to do their business so this theory may not be too far out of the realm of the cause.
Another theory is that the bean plants themselves seem to like growing towards the east, much like a sunflower. There are a few flower buds on the west side but most of the flowers are on the east side. This in combination with the insect preference may be the combination theory that is the most likely.
The bush beans in the south garden are not producing much at all. Perhaps the shade is the cause but based on the above information, that seems unlikely. The flower buds are healthy enough as are the plants but perhaps they were delayed by the lack of water just enough to develop later than others.
Soaker Hoses:
The soakers are placed in the north garden in amongst the plants and curled around the base of the tomatoes in the north edge.
August 2, 2010 picking today
Get Daniel to bring out two sets of glasses to pic beans: Wouldn't do it, But did find the peas.
Tended compost tea: put in two bottles of left over tea bags and left over pot of coffee and grounds. PUT COFFEE GROUNDS AND LEFT OVER COFFEE IN BLUEBERRIES.
North-garden:
Pick:
Three zucchini: 5
peas: north garden snap and south garden whole
pole beans: four servings
summer squash near arbor seat: two
Check:
tomatoes: RE: # of tom's and status: trimmed and tied up more
Check potatoes: poured somemolasses on the leaves to deter pests.
Chores:
thin tomatos by cutting excess leaves: trim tops: Y
Use poles to divert tom's away from squash: nope
use poles to divert squash away from pole beans: nope
Find all basil, sage, rosemary and mark with pole: nope 1/2
tie up grapes: garbage bag ties? Y
status of corn: Y:nothing coming up yet
Spray fungicide on potatoes: put molasses on it
Rhubarb Pull: # of stalks: pulled forty stems; some broke but many came out easily.: Rhubarb needs to be divided
South-Garden:
Pick:
pole beans: some: 3-5
cherry tomatoes: tied and trimmed
peas: 3 good sixed at north end of south garden
tomato's: plenty of plums and large
Check:
soy beans: some are producing pods now.
cukes: many cukes being developed from the hard boiled egg that was planted with them two weeks ago: molasses added to the soil today.
yellow beans: five today on two plants
Chores:
tie up cukes: tied and found a large cuke in the bottom of the plant on the north side of tire.
molasses to cukes in #1 bed and #5 tire. NEED TO PLANT A HARDBOILED EGG WITH THE CUE AND THE SUM. SQUASH.
Fertilize with homemade fertilizer: research and create: do today. Aug 3.
August 2, 2010
We tried to use the Journal program for this journal but it didn’t workout so the journal is here in MS office. We hope that it will be better managed over time.
We didn’t write a journal for most of the summer or planting days. We have been so busy keeping up with all the planting, transplanting, growing, watering and general garden chores that there is rarely a time to write about it. We have learned so much this summer though, so we are going to write about it here. We hope that thiswill remain a record of our triumphs and failures as a reminder of what to do next year and the year after that.
The north garden this year is stupendous. Daniel decided to rototill the hay under and turn it all over so that the fresh dirt would be on top. This provided us with weeds for a while but we went out, weeded the entire area and layered more hay to prevent the seed seeds from germinating. Now that the plants are growing leaps and bounds, there is no sun touching the ground and the weeds are not growing much at all, except here and there.
The south garden is equally terrific with all the harvest we are getting out of there. Summer squash, tomatoes (are coming) and of course the peas and poles beans are continually putting out most days. We are looking forward to the brussell sprouts after the hard freezes of winter setting in and the cabbage will make wonderful sauerkraut for the winter (oo-oo-h, and galumpki’s:) Here’s South Garden setup as it stands now. We have learned a bit from this setup and there are things we will do differently next year.
Pb = pole beans:
p = Peas= p
sp = Snow peas:
bp = Bell peppers:
cp = Chili Peppers:
Po = potatoes:
Ck = cukes:
T= toms:
SQ= squash:
Z = zucchini:
Cb= cabbage:
BS = brussel sprouts:
Bc= Bok Choy:
sb =Soy Beans:
Bl = broccoli:
L = lettuce:
R = radish:
S = spinach:
Cl = celery:
V= volunteers
Herbs:
B= basil:
Cm = comfrey:
PT = peppermint:
ST = stinging nettles:
What we grew this summer:
The south-garden was formed in raised beds made out of old 2 x 6’s and tires. The best source of growing conditions are the tires of course because they are deeper. There are only a few vegetables out there but they are terrific so far.
We set it up like this. The rectangles are the raised beds made out of boards and the circles are the tires. The sun is a designation for time of day that the sun hits the raised bed. This is necessary information if you need to determine what plant or seed to place for the right amount of sun. Some plants require more sun than others. We were fairly successful this year. Now that we have a more acurate record we will be able to plan more efficiently for next year.
A summer squash that I didn’t plant has been producing a great amount of squash. We pick a beautiful one about every four-five days.
The cukes growing in tires have been doing really well. We get about two per week from the three long plants. We have trellised them well but they still lie to grow to the ground so the plant is hanging in some places and the cukes continue to grow on it.
August 2, 2010 picking today
Tended compost tea: put in two bottles of left over tea bags and left over pot of coffee and grounds. PUT COFFEE GROUNDS AND LEFT OVER COFFEE IN BLUEBERRIES.
North-garden:
Pick:
Three zucchini: 5
peas: north garden snap and south garden whole
pole beans: four servings
summer squash near arbor seat: two
Check:
tomatoes: RE: # of tom's and status: trimmed and tied up more
Check potatoes: poured some molasses on the leaves to deter pests.
Chores:
thin tomatos by cutting excess leaves: trim tops: Y
Use poles to divert tom's away from squash: nope
use poles to divert squash away from pole beans: nope
Find all basil, sage, rosemary and mark with pole: nope 1/2
tie up grapes: garbage bag ties? Y
status of corn: Y:nothing coming up yet
Spray fungicide on potatoes: put molasses on it
Rhubarb Pull: # of stalks: pulled forty stems; some broke but many came out easily.: Rhubarb needs to be divided
South-Garden:
Pick:
pole beans: some: 3-5
cherry tomatoes: tied and trimmed
peas: 3 good sixed at north end of south garden
tomato's: plenty of plums and large
Check:
soy beans: some are producing pods now.
cukes: many cukes being developed from the hard boiled egg that was planted with them two weeks ago: molasses added to the soil today.
yellow beans: five today on two plants
Chores:
tie up cukes: tied and found a large cuke in the bottom of the plant on the north side of tire.
molasses to cukes in #1 bed and #5 tire. NEED TO PLANT A HARDBOILED EGG WITH THE CUKEs AND THE SUM. SQUASH. For the best and most prolific production: Incredible. In addition, molasses helps with the cukes.
Fertilize with homemade fertilizer: research and create: do today. Aug 3.
August 1, 2010
August Garden Jobs
Compost needs watering during dry periods so that it remains active. Even microbes need water in this heat: Water with left over tea water and watery vegetables leavings from canning projects. Keep a bucket for left over nutrient filled water on the back porch and haul it to the compost daily.
Don’t let your compost get too hot during this time of year. The microbes can’t survive this type of heat and if you cover your compost there are many organisms that can’t survive it. Keep your compost open and only cover it with leaves and water weekly to maintain the wetness it needs to decompose the refuse you put into the pile.
Rhodes:
If you prune your shrubs, keep in mind that rhododendrons and azaleas bloom on last year’s growth. Those little buds you see on the plant will not bloom this year, but they will develop over winter, ripen during the warming temperatures of spring, and then burst into bloom. Keep your Rhodes and azaleas protected during winter and only prune them the week after they have all their blooms go by. This will ensure a flowering plant next year and keep your spring garden beautiful. If you must prune at all, prune to retain their shape. If you prune right back to the ground (or close to it) so that the front of the house can be seen, wait a while for any new leaves to come back onto the plant. It might take a year, but new leaves will come back and the bushes will be beautiful again in a couple of years. Give them the time, fertilize spring/mid-summer, and patience they require to overcome such a severe pruning. These resilient plants will reward you for your patience.
Mid-August through September is a good time to transplant any shrubs that you've purchased with root balls wrapped in burlap. Make sure you get them in the ground two to three days after purchase. Do not fertilize until the second year, after the feeder roots have become established.
Lawns:
If you have bare spots in your lawn, give it a does of coca cola and sugar and water it in. You can also reseed with this mixture, then cover with hay or sawdust and water daily until you see new sprouts.: Water at night for a half hour, instead of during the daylight sun hours. This will save you water and you will get the most out of the watering you do. The water won’t evaporate as soon as it hits the ground if you water at night. This type of watering can also be done in the garden if you use the soaker hose method. It is important to keep the leaves of plants dry during the night to prevent mildew and disease but watering at night can help the garden keep the moisture for a long period rather than letting it evaporate immediately during sunlight hours.
Lawns or bare spots reseeded with grass now will have a chance to get established before winter sets in: Water for short periods while waiting for the seeds to sprout and mulch with hay to help retain the water on the soil surface. Then when the grass is growing, you can water ore deeply less often as the grass grows.
Plant for indoor enjoyment:
You can still enjoy garden flowers indoors. Sow these annuals inside: sweet alyssum, dwarf marigold, ageratum, and nasturtium. Grow them in a moderately cool (60 degrees F), sunny window. In colder regions, houseplants that have been outside for the summer should be brought in at the end of this month. A sudden cold spell will be too much of a shock for them to survive. This is also a good time to take cuttings.
Bulbs:
Plant fall-flowering bulbs now through september. Add a wire cage and some chili powder if you have moles in your yard. The squirrels and moles do not appreciatte the smell or the taste of chili powder. This works for newly transplanted shrubs as well..
Gladiolas:
Cut gladiolas in the garden for indoor appreciation but leave two or three leaves on the bulb so the bulb can mature and get nutrition for winter storage. This is called ripening and is what is done for daffocils and tulips in spring as well.
Oriental Poppies:
Transplant any Oriental poppies you have to another spot now. This month is when the Poppies are ready for a move and will have time to develop sufficient root systems to survive the winter months and cold.
Growing rocks?:
If you have a Rock-garden now is the time to check the plants to determine if any need to be moved around. Thinning the plants in a rock garden is paramount to having a healthy looking garden next spring. This will also help the plants be active come spring and flourish during the summer.
Sow, Sow, Sow:
Certain perennials and annuals can be sown now for spring growth and summer bloom. Some seeds require a winters worth of cold in order to germinate. Sow: aquilegia, Phlox paniculata, digitalis, centaurea, echinacea, nasturtium, heirloom tomatoes, cosmos, beebalm, rudbeckia, sedums, liatris, loostestrife, sunflowers, kale, and primrose.
Delphiniums have the talent of providing a second bloom, albeit smaller, if you cut the decaying flower stalk off at the ground. The flowers of the delphinium can survive cooler nights than most flowers and will give the garden an autumn boost of color when everything else is turning brown from the cold.
Irises:
Siberian and Japanese iries love to have their feet wet but them dont like standing water up to their knees. Transplant you irises after they bloom straight-away. This will give them time to produce roots to survive the winter cold. Being delicate as they are is difficult but worthy of transplanting them during this oppressive heat.
Garden:
Check your vegetable garden daily. There will always be something to harvest. The zucchini seem to grow over night and those small un-pickable green gems that were not ready yesterday may be ready today. The green beans seem to be more prolific after a cooler night so even if the rest of the garden is taking a break, check your peas and beans after some cooler nights and you may find a second harvest coming in when you least expect it. Harvesting daily will provide growth of new vegetables due to the nutrition replacement after picking. The small beans that are waiting to get their share will suddenly burst in growth after the larger beans are picked. This is true for the zucchini and the summer squash too.
The flowers on your herb plants should be active. If you want to harvest from that flowering herb, cut off the flowers and wait two weeks to harvest. The plant will return its valuable nutrients and oils to the leaves and try to produce more blooms. If you see any blooms cut them off at the pass and the herb will be ready to harvest when the leaves are deep green and moist. Wash, Dry and tie them before hanging in a breezy shaded spot. When dry, crunch the herbs into a zip lock container or a canister for winter use. This can be done every couple of weeks if you feel the need to supply yourself with peppermint tea for the winter. Remember that the maximum flavor of the herbs is just before flowering so keeping them fro flowering or on the verge of flowering offers you the best taste.
Potatoes often climb to the surface of the soil. If you find any of those delectable dirt lovers above the soil, mulch or cover with soil without disturbing the soil around the tuber. The roots of the tuber will thank you and develop more potatoes as the summer pass by.
Asparagus:
Asparagus is grown in a trench for the best flavor, just like green peppers. This is the month that Asparagus gets its last filling in the trench...compost and leavings from grass cuttings are the best source of nutrition for the new growth in the spring. Nitrogen is the best for the green sprouts that come in spring. Let them sit in decaying matter over the winter and they will produce well in the spring.
Peas are a terrific cool weather vegetable but the peas you planted in the spring are now, or should be, dry and decaying and turning brownish-white due to age and powdery mildew. This is normal and it is tie to remove the dead vines and re-nutrient the soil. At this point, they have taken nitrogen out of the air and set it into the soil but new peas will need more as well. You can add tea water from left over tea bags, compost tea and compost for a new bed of peas or plant pole beans in their place for more cool season harvest of that luscious green starch. If the peas show signs of powdery mildew, don’t put them in the compost pile, burn them instead and use the ashes in the compost pile.
Melons in the garden should be fairly-large at this time of year. Squash as well. Wireworms can infiltrate the healthiest of melons and destroy a perfectly wonderful looking melon in days. Separate the melons and heavy squash from the soil by placing boards or aluminum foil (too expensive) on the ground under the melons. This will prevent most of those insidious worms from gaining access to your prize worthy melons and round squash.
Raspberries are spent by August. The old canes need to be trimmed off the plant so that the new canes can continue their growth in preparation for fruit production next year. Tip the tall growth of your new canes now and let them branch out. The more branches the more flowers and fruit. Cutting off the old canes will allow all the nutrition that your compost and grass leavings are providing to focus on the new growth. By spring, you will have an abundance of flowers, which will fruit in July.
If you enjoy container gardening, keep in mind that perennials in containers need repotting. Most experts report that repotting needs to be done every two to three years but in this humble gardener’s experience, repotting should be done prior to every fall for the best performance the following summer. This is especially true if you are growing blueberries in a container. The fresh soil, which houses important microbes and nutrients, can only help the perennials be as healthy as possible.
If flowers in your gardens are lacking this time of year, visiting a nursery and checking out what blooms is not always the best answer. Many nursery and garden centers have plants that have been forced to blooming early spring when sales for gardening are at the peak of the season. These plants may be bloomers all year in the ground but in a container, they may use up all the fertility of the soil and not show their beauty until next year, after they have settled into the ground. Check online for autumn to September flowering plants. Caryopteris, perennial helianthus, coleus, bee balm, phlox paniculata, liatris, rudbeckia, cleome (annual) loosestrife, Echinacea and portulaca (annual) are all terrific fillers in the garden when the heat is oppressive.
The house is still this morning, except for the increasing drone and fade away of a car passing; The dogs nails are tic-tick-ticking on the kitchen floor and I hear them crumbling food on the back porch. The coffee maker is grumbling like a sleepy child and dripping the dark elixir of early morning life. As I sit here and think about it, it is not the quiet that is so peaceful, but the noise: Even the crickets are humming a waking tune that will turn into a drone by days end. Its funny how a person’s attitude can change during the day. The same noise we hear in the morning that can be so peaceful, can also be so annoying by the end of the day...is it fatigue or simply mental issues? Most of us are not paying enough attention to ever know but it is perhaps because most of us dont take the time to give-a-damn.
Daniel and I have discussed the green-bean production at length: Trying to figure out why the beans are produced on the east side of the trellis and not the west. We have watched the sun during the day at length as well and perhaps the light has something to do with it but we think it is a combination of several factors. The trellis is lying lengthwise from south to north. In hindsight, we should have laid it east to west and braced it vertically rather than horizontally. I had to add some tripods (camera) to the growing beans because they kept stretching towards the sun ever taller and seemed to be happiest with height. Perhaps next year we will change the climbing structure. Anyway, as they are this year, they are producing beans with abandon on the east side but rarely one bean on the west where the sun is located for most of the day. The only thing we can figure out is that insects prefer to pollinate in the shade. The bees hum around the plants in the shade for hours and leave the rest alone if they are in the sun. In addition to this fact, the beans seem to enjoy growing in the shade of other things. Note: We harvested some truly large beans yesterday on the bush beans in the north garden and those plants are in the shade of the squash plants.
Note: I would like to change the climbing structure to a trellis cross-patch with 1x3 boards so that the side that holds the beans faces east. Something like this:
E
N S In this way we should be able to get a more substantial harvest. Although we are a little behind. The 1X3 boards are great cause they are cheap and hard compared to the 2x4’s that you would get for construction. Perhaps we will build a few of them for all the gardens. It would be nice to have several around the herb gardens.
The Little Gem squash plants seem to be the flying saucer type. They will be orange and round on top and perhaps a lighter shade of orange on the bottom with a circle at the base of the bowl. I have to look these up online to determine the best way to store them since that is all we have. We did not get any butternut squash this year and that is a mistake from the seed company. All we have is this saucer type. This is very discouraging. We planted a ton of seeds for that.
Daniel was noticing that due to the crowded conditions of the garden that there are not very many weeds and the soil tends to retain any moisture it gets by hose or rain: Very good observation on his part. He said that he would like everything to be uniform in the garden but that he can see why the mish-mash of plants we have out there in the north, works for the plants. I reminded him that in nature, all plants grow where they are most comfortable for the further development of the species. This is true in nature but if you can replicate it in the home garden, then you will have and abundance of any one crop or possibly two. Due to the nature of the heirloom, seeds that we planted some of them have cross-pollinated and formed a new type of plant and fruit. We have some summer squash that is simply not forming like squash. The color is off; a lime green instead of a yellow. Moreover, the shape is not what it should be: a teardrop instead of a long neck. I think this is because other plants that have those characteristics are blooming very close and the bees are pollinating the sum. Squash with pollinators from the vine zucchini and the pumpkin. We have several zucchini in the area (north) that simply have not developed fruit until now. Now that they have started, they will take over for the ones that have been developing fruit all spring and summer.
Perhaps next year we will cover the garden with clear plastic to warm up the soil prior to planting so that the plants can feel at home right-off: if we have the plastic and if there is some time to do it without snow on the ground (like this spring, we had five feet the last spring snowstorm)
There are some pumpkins out there (north) that have developed and are now growing as an orange ball. They first grew as yellow fruit and I thought they were a vine zucchini. Then they gradually turned to yellow orange and developed ridges vertically from stem to floor. As the ridges became more prominent, the orange color increased and now they are bright orange.
August 7 th, 2010
Went tagging with Samantha today allllllllllll day-What fun. Then we, Dan and I, pulled out 9 lbs. of veggies from the garden tonight at 6:30 p.m. after Sam left. Zucchini and summer squash mostly but we also got a suitable amount of green beans from the bush bean plants in the north garden, enough for two servings, maybe three. We pulled three small carrots out of the ground just for a taste and they were the sweetest things we have tasted since blueberries.
August 6, 2010
Oh, we went to visit the goat farm a 6 johnnycake hill rd today (sandy’s place) and there is this cute little goat all covered with patches of black and white: So-o-o-o cute. I always wanted a goat or two for milk and cheese and soap but Daniel doesn’t like the way they taste so sheep is what he wants. I think he didn’t cook the goat in the freezer right so it didn’t taste that good. I suppose when things are real tough, you wouldn’t mind tough meat but I wouldn’t want the goats to eat anyway. I would want them for milk, soap and cheese. That would be the best thing to have them for and two would do it. Daniel always thinks of meat. I think of other protein sources. That way you can have both. One flake of hay per day per goat is two into one bale is 5 days which is five-6 bales per month of the cheap hay = 15.00-20.00. One bag of grain for three months for two goats unless pregnant or breast-feeding. So that is about 25.00 per month it would cost to feed them through the winter and during the summer it would be less due to the fresh grass they would get in the field. Goats need copper to have health so feed them out of a copper bowl for water and of course keep grain on hand for vitamins etc. Grain is especially for nutrients that the hay cannot provide. Of course we would have to find a source of cheap hay. We do not have that now but it would be easy to find since goats like the chafe of hay rather than the alfalfa stuff. The hooves have to be trimmed though. Not a tough job but it has to be done every six weeks or so. In addition, of course, the shots that have to be done in spring and fall. Too much work.
All the information I have written in the last three days has disappeared in the Netherlands of this computer. Perhaps it just didn’t get saved but if you find it anywhere here, just add it to the mix. I will rewrite it all again here. ..I hope.
The chickens are fighting over laying space this morning. I swear that at times there seems to be a bee in their tail feathers because they seem to run around unexpectedly and rush to the south end of the yard. It is funny to watch. In November they will be moved to the inside and then there wont be so much to laugh at.
In the last three days I have noted that the cucumbers have been growing exponentially. It has been a real treasure to look up all the different methods of growing cukes but the method that provided the most response was burying a hard boiled egg under the plants at the center of the triangle. I will have to remember that for next year.
Remember for next year:
Hardboiled egg with cukes
Tea = nitrogen for corn and peas.
Beans:pole
In the south garden we have been watching the beans: pole beans. The beans seem to be profilically producing beans on the east side of the trellises but not on the west side. We have a couple of theories as to why this is happening. It is possible that the insect are pollinating on the shaded side of the plant more often than the non-shaded part. The beans are planted south to north and the east side is in the shade most of the day. This offered more time for the plants to get pollinated on the east side than the west. The west side of the plant is in the sun most of the day and we get one bean a week from that side. We have watched the insect situations around the gardens and have noticed that the bees especially prefer to eat in the shade. On the sunflower plants, they always pick a shaded flower to do their business so this theory may not be too far out of the realm of the cause.
Another theory is that the bean plants themselves seem to like growing towards the east, much like a sunflower. There are a few flower buds on the west side but most of the flowers are on the east side. This in combination with the insect preference may be the combination theory that is the most likely.
The bush beans in the south garden are not producing much at all. Perhaps the shade is the cause but based on the above information, that seems unlikely. The flower buds are healthy enough as are the plants but perhaps they were delayed by the lack of water just enough to develop later than others.
Soaker Hoses:
The soakers are placed in the north garden in amongst the plants and curled around the base of the tomatoes in the north edge.
August 2, 2010 picking today
Get Daniel to bring out two sets of glasses to pic beans: Wouldn't do it, But did find the peas.
Tended compost tea: put in two bottles of left over tea bags and left over pot of coffee and grounds. PUT COFFEE GROUNDS AND LEFT OVER COFFEE IN BLUEBERRIES.
North-garden:
Pick:
Three zucchini: 5
peas: north garden snap and south garden whole
pole beans: four servings
summer squash near arbor seat: two
Check:
tomatoes: RE: # of tom's and status: trimmed and tied up more
Check potatoes: poured somemolasses on the leaves to deter pests.
Chores:
thin tomatos by cutting excess leaves: trim tops: Y
Use poles to divert tom's away from squash: nope
use poles to divert squash away from pole beans: nope
Find all basil, sage, rosemary and mark with pole: nope 1/2
tie up grapes: garbage bag ties? Y
status of corn: Y:nothing coming up yet
Spray fungicide on potatoes: put molasses on it
Rhubarb Pull: # of stalks: pulled forty stems; some broke but many came out easily.: Rhubarb needs to be divided
South-Garden:
Pick:
pole beans: some: 3-5
cherry tomatoes: tied and trimmed
peas: 3 good sixed at north end of south garden
tomato's: plenty of plums and large
Check:
soy beans: some are producing pods now.
cukes: many cukes being developed from the hard boiled egg that was planted with them two weeks ago: molasses added to the soil today.
yellow beans: five today on two plants
Chores:
tie up cukes: tied and found a large cuke in the bottom of the plant on the north side of tire.
molasses to cukes in #1 bed and #5 tire. NEED TO PLANT A HARDBOILED EGG WITH THE CUE AND THE SUM. SQUASH.
Fertilize with homemade fertilizer: research and create: do today. Aug 3.
August 2, 2010
We tried to use the Journal program for this journal but it didn’t workout so the journal is here in MS office. We hope that it will be better managed over time.
We didn’t write a journal for most of the summer or planting days. We have been so busy keeping up with all the planting, transplanting, growing, watering and general garden chores that there is rarely a time to write about it. We have learned so much this summer though, so we are going to write about it here. We hope that thiswill remain a record of our triumphs and failures as a reminder of what to do next year and the year after that.
The north garden this year is stupendous. Daniel decided to rototill the hay under and turn it all over so that the fresh dirt would be on top. This provided us with weeds for a while but we went out, weeded the entire area and layered more hay to prevent the seed seeds from germinating. Now that the plants are growing leaps and bounds, there is no sun touching the ground and the weeds are not growing much at all, except here and there.
The south garden is equally terrific with all the harvest we are getting out of there. Summer squash, tomatoes (are coming) and of course the peas and poles beans are continually putting out most days. We are looking forward to the brussell sprouts after the hard freezes of winter setting in and the cabbage will make wonderful sauerkraut for the winter (oo-oo-h, and galumpki’s:) Here’s South Garden setup as it stands now. We have learned a bit from this setup and there are things we will do differently next year.
Pb = pole beans:
p = Peas= p
sp = Snow peas:
bp = Bell peppers:
cp = Chili Peppers:
Po = potatoes:
Ck = cukes:
T= toms:
SQ= squash:
Z = zucchini:
Cb= cabbage:
BS = brussel sprouts:
Bc= Bok Choy:
sb =Soy Beans:
Bl = broccoli:
L = lettuce:
R = radish:
S = spinach:
Cl = celery:
V= volunteers
Herbs:
B= basil:
Cm = comfrey:
PT = peppermint:
ST = stinging nettles:
What we grew this summer:
The south-garden was formed in raised beds made out of old 2 x 6’s and tires. The best source of growing conditions are the tires of course because they are deeper. There are only a few vegetables out there but they are terrific so far.
We set it up like this. The rectangles are the raised beds made out of boards and the circles are the tires. The sun is a designation for time of day that the sun hits the raised bed. This is necessary information if you need to determine what plant or seed to place for the right amount of sun. Some plants require more sun than others. We were fairly successful this year. Now that we have a more acurate record we will be able to plan more efficiently for next year.
A summer squash that I didn’t plant has been producing a great amount of squash. We pick a beautiful one about every four-five days.
The cukes growing in tires have been doing really well. We get about two per week from the three long plants. We have trellised them well but they still lie to grow to the ground so the plant is hanging in some places and the cukes continue to grow on it.
August 2, 2010 picking today
Tended compost tea: put in two bottles of left over tea bags and left over pot of coffee and grounds. PUT COFFEE GROUNDS AND LEFT OVER COFFEE IN BLUEBERRIES.
North-garden:
Pick:
Three zucchini: 5
peas: north garden snap and south garden whole
pole beans: four servings
summer squash near arbor seat: two
Check:
tomatoes: RE: # of tom's and status: trimmed and tied up more
Check potatoes: poured some molasses on the leaves to deter pests.
Chores:
thin tomatos by cutting excess leaves: trim tops: Y
Use poles to divert tom's away from squash: nope
use poles to divert squash away from pole beans: nope
Find all basil, sage, rosemary and mark with pole: nope 1/2
tie up grapes: garbage bag ties? Y
status of corn: Y:nothing coming up yet
Spray fungicide on potatoes: put molasses on it
Rhubarb Pull: # of stalks: pulled forty stems; some broke but many came out easily.: Rhubarb needs to be divided
South-Garden:
Pick:
pole beans: some: 3-5
cherry tomatoes: tied and trimmed
peas: 3 good sixed at north end of south garden
tomato's: plenty of plums and large
Check:
soy beans: some are producing pods now.
cukes: many cukes being developed from the hard boiled egg that was planted with them two weeks ago: molasses added to the soil today.
yellow beans: five today on two plants
Chores:
tie up cukes: tied and found a large cuke in the bottom of the plant on the north side of tire.
molasses to cukes in #1 bed and #5 tire. NEED TO PLANT A HARDBOILED EGG WITH THE CUKEs AND THE SUM. SQUASH. For the best and most prolific production: Incredible. In addition, molasses helps with the cukes.
Fertilize with homemade fertilizer: research and create: do today. Aug 3.
August 1, 2010
August Garden Jobs
Compost needs watering during dry periods so that it remains active. Even microbes need water in this heat: Water with left over tea water and watery vegetables leavings from canning projects. Keep a bucket for left over nutrient filled water on the back porch and haul it to the compost daily.
Don’t let your compost get too hot during this time of year. The microbes can’t survive this type of heat and if you cover your compost there are many organisms that can’t survive it. Keep your compost open and only cover it with leaves and water weekly to maintain the wetness it needs to decompose the refuse you put into the pile.
Rhodes:
If you prune your shrubs, keep in mind that rhododendrons and azaleas bloom on last year’s growth. Those little buds you see on the plant will not bloom this year, but they will develop over winter, ripen during the warming temperatures of spring, and then burst into bloom. Keep your Rhodes and azaleas protected during winter and only prune them the week after they have all their blooms go by. This will ensure a flowering plant next year and keep your spring garden beautiful. If you must prune at all, prune to retain their shape. If you prune right back to the ground (or close to it) so that the front of the house can be seen, wait a while for any new leaves to come back onto the plant. It might take a year, but new leaves will come back and the bushes will be beautiful again in a couple of years. Give them the time, fertilize spring/mid-summer, and patience they require to overcome such a severe pruning. These resilient plants will reward you for your patience.
Mid-August through September is a good time to transplant any shrubs that you've purchased with root balls wrapped in burlap. Make sure you get them in the ground two to three days after purchase. Do not fertilize until the second year, after the feeder roots have become established.
Lawns:
If you have bare spots in your lawn, give it a does of coca cola and sugar and water it in. You can also reseed with this mixture, then cover with hay or sawdust and water daily until you see new sprouts.: Water at night for a half hour, instead of during the daylight sun hours. This will save you water and you will get the most out of the watering you do. The water won’t evaporate as soon as it hits the ground if you water at night. This type of watering can also be done in the garden if you use the soaker hose method. It is important to keep the leaves of plants dry during the night to prevent mildew and disease but watering at night can help the garden keep the moisture for a long period rather than letting it evaporate immediately during sunlight hours.
Lawns or bare spots reseeded with grass now will have a chance to get established before winter sets in: Water for short periods while waiting for the seeds to sprout and mulch with hay to help retain the water on the soil surface. Then when the grass is growing, you can water ore deeply less often as the grass grows.
Plant for indoor enjoyment:
You can still enjoy garden flowers indoors. Sow these annuals inside: sweet alyssum, dwarf marigold, ageratum, and nasturtium. Grow them in a moderately cool (60 degrees F), sunny window. In colder regions, houseplants that have been outside for the summer should be brought in at the end of this month. A sudden cold spell will be too much of a shock for them to survive. This is also a good time to take cuttings.
Bulbs:
Plant fall-flowering bulbs now through september. Add a wire cage and some chili powder if you have moles in your yard. The squirrels and moles do not appreciatte the smell or the taste of chili powder. This works for newly transplanted shrubs as well..
Gladiolas:
Cut gladiolas in the garden for indoor appreciation but leave two or three leaves on the bulb so the bulb can mature and get nutrition for winter storage. This is called ripening and is what is done for daffocils and tulips in spring as well.
Oriental Poppies:
Transplant any Oriental poppies you have to another spot now. This month is when the Poppies are ready for a move and will have time to develop sufficient root systems to survive the winter months and cold.
Growing rocks?:
If you have a Rock-garden now is the time to check the plants to determine if any need to be moved around. Thinning the plants in a rock garden is paramount to having a healthy looking garden next spring. This will also help the plants be active come spring and flourish during the summer.
Sow, Sow, Sow:
Certain perennials and annuals can be sown now for spring growth and summer bloom. Some seeds require a winters worth of cold in order to germinate. Sow: aquilegia, Phlox paniculata, digitalis, centaurea, echinacea, nasturtium, heirloom tomatoes, cosmos, beebalm, rudbeckia, sedums, liatris, loostestrife, sunflowers, kale, and primrose.
Delphiniums have the talent of providing a second bloom, albeit smaller, if you cut the decaying flower stalk off at the ground. The flowers of the delphinium can survive cooler nights than most flowers and will give the garden an autumn boost of color when everything else is turning brown from the cold.
Irises:
Siberian and Japanese iries love to have their feet wet but them dont like standing water up to their knees. Transplant you irises after they bloom straight-away. This will give them time to produce roots to survive the winter cold. Being delicate as they are is difficult but worthy of transplanting them during this oppressive heat.
Garden:
Check your vegetable garden daily. There will always be something to harvest. The zucchini seem to grow over night and those small un-pickable green gems that were not ready yesterday may be ready today. The green beans seem to be more prolific after a cooler night so even if the rest of the garden is taking a break, check your peas and beans after some cooler nights and you may find a second harvest coming in when you least expect it. Harvesting daily will provide growth of new vegetables due to the nutrition replacement after picking. The small beans that are waiting to get their share will suddenly burst in growth after the larger beans are picked. This is true for the zucchini and the summer squash too.
The flowers on your herb plants should be active. If you want to harvest from that flowering herb, cut off the flowers and wait two weeks to harvest. The plant will return its valuable nutrients and oils to the leaves and try to produce more blooms. If you see any blooms cut them off at the pass and the herb will be ready to harvest when the leaves are deep green and moist. Wash, Dry and tie them before hanging in a breezy shaded spot. When dry, crunch the herbs into a zip lock container or a canister for winter use. This can be done every couple of weeks if you feel the need to supply yourself with peppermint tea for the winter. Remember that the maximum flavor of the herbs is just before flowering so keeping them fro flowering or on the verge of flowering offers you the best taste.
Potatoes often climb to the surface of the soil. If you find any of those delectable dirt lovers above the soil, mulch or cover with soil without disturbing the soil around the tuber. The roots of the tuber will thank you and develop more potatoes as the summer pass by.
Asparagus:
Asparagus is grown in a trench for the best flavor, just like green peppers. This is the month that Asparagus gets its last filling in the trench...compost and leavings from grass cuttings are the best source of nutrition for the new growth in the spring. Nitrogen is the best for the green sprouts that come in spring. Let them sit in decaying matter over the winter and they will produce well in the spring.
Peas are a terrific cool weather vegetable but the peas you planted in the spring are now, or should be, dry and decaying and turning brownish-white due to age and powdery mildew. This is normal and it is tie to remove the dead vines and re-nutrient the soil. At this point, they have taken nitrogen out of the air and set it into the soil but new peas will need more as well. You can add tea water from left over tea bags, compost tea and compost for a new bed of peas or plant pole beans in their place for more cool season harvest of that luscious green starch. If the peas show signs of powdery mildew, don’t put them in the compost pile, burn them instead and use the ashes in the compost pile.
Melons in the garden should be fairly-large at this time of year. Squash as well. Wireworms can infiltrate the healthiest of melons and destroy a perfectly wonderful looking melon in days. Separate the melons and heavy squash from the soil by placing boards or aluminum foil (too expensive) on the ground under the melons. This will prevent most of those insidious worms from gaining access to your prize worthy melons and round squash.
Raspberries are spent by August. The old canes need to be trimmed off the plant so that the new canes can continue their growth in preparation for fruit production next year. Tip the tall growth of your new canes now and let them branch out. The more branches the more flowers and fruit. Cutting off the old canes will allow all the nutrition that your compost and grass leavings are providing to focus on the new growth. By spring, you will have an abundance of flowers, which will fruit in July.
If you enjoy container gardening, keep in mind that perennials in containers need repotting. Most experts report that repotting needs to be done every two to three years but in this humble gardener’s experience, repotting should be done prior to every fall for the best performance the following summer. This is especially true if you are growing blueberries in a container. The fresh soil, which houses important microbes and nutrients, can only help the perennials be as healthy as possible.
If flowers in your gardens are lacking this time of year, visiting a nursery and checking out what blooms is not always the best answer. Many nursery and garden centers have plants that have been forced to blooming early spring when sales for gardening are at the peak of the season. These plants may be bloomers all year in the ground but in a container, they may use up all the fertility of the soil and not show their beauty until next year, after they have settled into the ground. Check online for autumn to September flowering plants. Caryopteris, perennial helianthus, coleus, bee balm, phlox paniculata, liatris, rudbeckia, cleome (annual) loosestrife, Echinacea and portulaca (annual) are all terrific fillers in the garden when the heat is oppressive.
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