The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: Relentless heat, start of harvest

We're not going to talk about how unrelentingly, brutally hot it is, nor about the lack of rain. Thank goodness for a nearby water hydrant and indoor A/C.

Cucumbers are now ready to pick at the rate of one or two a day. Since I haven't been properly pruning the vines, they may also be hiding.

The vines from the plants I started indoors are making their way across the top of the archway. They don't want to lie down yet, so I'm tying them down by their tendrils.

The runner beans that, in my mind, were going to climb up the outside of the cucumber vines and have pretty, showy, shell pink blossoms are not doing any of that. The blossoms they do have are few and far between.

If I had the inspiration to make home-made tortillas and cook up a Mexican meal, the yellow squash ('Easy Pick Gold') has some beautiful flowers I could use. Instead, I've been harvesting the fruits when they're no more than six inches long, and sauteeing them in bacon drippings, thinly sliced with green onions.

I wouldn't be harvesting onions now (other than any I wanted to use immediately), but the one rain we've had in ages was accompanied by strong winds, flattening some of them, so I went ahead and pulled them up.

The beets are still wonderful. I'm getting enough large, healthy leaves that I can harvest now to make a delicious steamed green side dish (or, for the way I eat, a meal of one thing only). A little salt and a touch of vinegar makes them even more delicious.

This year, for the first time, I planted 'Bull's Blood' beets. I don't know about the beetroot yet, of course, but the greens are wonderful. I'll try them again next year, as this is the first year I've had beets that didn't succumb to either leaf spot or insect feeding before they were large enough to harvest leaves. Of course this is the first year that I've been gardening here that it turned dry and hellishly hot the first of May and stayed that way.

The French Charentais melon 'Savor' is filling its cage plus the remaining ground space in its bed.

Already it has a nicely developing little fruit. I saw a video that said the way to know when they're ripe, since the melon rind is green for the duration, is that the tendril at the fruit node will dry up. I wonder if that's true for all canteloupe type melons.

The rhubarb that has done so well since the first time I planted any has been pathetic this year. Of course it was up and growing nicely when those first two weeks of April turned into winter, and it sustained injury that manifested as very scrawny stems. Then, the oven went on two weeks later and hasn't shut off since. I harvested what was good (less than a quarter of the stems), and then removed two-thirds of what was left. Where once was a lush hedgerow separating the rose garden from the vegetable garden, now is a scrappy and pitiful arc of half-naked plants. I'm certain they will grow back nicely if the weather ever gives them a break.

But, no matter I can't harvest any more of it right now, because the dreaded Japanese beetle has made its annual appearance, and they head straight for the roses, the rhubarb, and the okra, which I sprayed with Sevin insecticide since I won't be harvesting anything from them for quite a while. After that horrible infestation and constant battle last year, I'm not giving them a chance to build up their population this year. I brought out the Sevin right from the start.

Since the field crop next to the garden is corn this year, and not soybeans, I'm hoping if I keep after them religiously, I can keep ahead of them and suffer a shorter infestation period this year. Next year's farm soybeans don't need a head start from me leaving any to reproduce. The farmer won't spray the beans when the beetles hit because the beans can tolerate a lot of feeding damage without reducing the harvest. Why should he spend the money on insecticide? That left me to try to keep them at bay by spraying the hordes at the edge of the field with my little 5-cup hand sprayer. What a nightmare! Not to mention a losing battle. I bought a backpack sprayer since then, so I'm better prepared for next year when he plants beans up here again. I wish he'd do a three-year rotation with another crop instead of just alternating corn and beans. I guess it's better than planting beans every year.

I don't like spraying that toxic stuff into the environment, and I try not to spray flower heads because it will easily kill the bees, but the beetles will destroy everything given any leeway at all, and it's the rose blooms they go after, rather than the leaves like on other plants. They're starting to attack the zinnias now.

At least the raccoons didn't tear up anything last night. Or the night before. Maybe they're thinking about moving. I sure hope so. I can't afford the transportation to trap and haul them away this month.

Last post, I bragged about how healthy and damage-free the tatsoi was. The next day, it looked like this:

Whiteflies, I think. I sprayed them with Sevin and then pulled them all out the following day. I've turned into a real chemical menace this year. Desperate times, desperate measures.

I believe I also bragged about how lovely the cabbages were. When I saw the white cabbage butterflies, I did dust the plants with Dipel, preparing for a hatch of caterpillars, but looks like I missed this one.

Leaving the ornamental vegetables for now....

I got a real surprise a few days ago when I went over to check on my little magnolia. It had several blooms! If I ever knew, I had forgotten that 'Ann' magnolia "may sporadically repeat bloom in mid summer," according to the Missouri Botanical Garden website. This is the first time for this little 4-year-old. It's really a lovely little tree even when it's not in bloom.

The roses are no longer having a problem with the heat, and on most of them, the blooms seem to have gone back to their normal form and color after having suffered a period of dwarfing and paling.

'Neptune'

According to the Palatine Roses website, 'Acropolis' is described as having "flowers of an unusual bronze pink with a white green reverse" and the "blooms are cupped, medium (size) and double in form." The first flush of blooms was indeed that wonderful color, but this second flush is a bright, light pink. Neither of the two flushes were what I'd call "medium". They're quite small. But maybe this year is not a good one to judge.

'Acropolis'

'Pat Austin' is showing off.

'Pat Austin'

It's a gorgeous flower on the bush, but it doesn't last when cut and brought in. I may have to experiment with ways to get more time out of them. If I can't, they're still worth growing. I can't say the same for the other David Austin rose I have - 'Charles Darwin'. It's really an unattractive color - kind of tan (the description and picture showed a nice yellow), and it has very thin, flimsy, sprawling branches. It's not any better this year than last year when I first planted it, so this fall it's going to get relocated outside the rose garden. Sorry, Chuck.

I thought I'd really love the Queen Lime 'Lime' zinnias. I like them in mixed bouquets, but I'm not so taken with them in the garden.