Clean Up As You Go

It's hard to keep the garden in top order when temperatures are in the upper 90s.  Let me rephrase that:  It's impossible to keep the garden in top order when temperatures are in the upper 90s.  Fortunately the last couple of days have been in the lower 90s (!), so I got a little bit of clean-up done.

Sadly, the two Mexican sunflower plants that the recent storm knocked over did not survive.  If it hadn't been close to 100 degrees the next day, they might have made it.  I pulled them out. Fortunately, there was a third one in that location.  And actually, one of the ones I pulled out had a branch that had been touching the ground and put down roots, so there's still one limb of that growing.  I also have four other plants in two other locations, so I'll still be able to get seed for next year.

Removing those two plants left a large gap in one of my plots, so I decided to go ahead and plant another row of yellow beets there.  I also put down some more lettuce and carrot seed.  I have no idea what to expect, because although I've always thought I'd plant a fall garden, I've never actually done it before.  I was always pretty well tired of harvesting by July and August, and with the heat, never inspired to go plant more stuff.

I didn't know anything about garlic when I planted it this year, and didn't do any research - shame on me.  I think I left it in the ground too long.  These bulbs are rather small, though, and I don't know if that's the type of garlic or something else.  They didn't form nicely covered, tight cloves.  Or maybe they did and I left them in the ground too long.  In looking up some information after the fact (not uncommon with me, I have to admit), I found that there are two types: hard neck and soft neck.  I don't even know which these were supposed to be, but if I had to guess, I'd say soft, but I could certainly be wrong.  I'll do better next year.

I don't know what this convention of flies was doing on the garlic before I dug it, but they were lined up like planes on a runway.

The tomatoes are ripening now, and I can make some judgements on the ones I haven't tried before.

'Black Beauty' is a mystery to me, because some of the fruit are all green, and some are green on the bottom and black on the top.  Some of the former have ripened, and I can see that they won't make my list of favorites.  For one of the purple varieties, they have the advantage that they don't crack like the varieties I tried in previous years ('Cherokee Purple', 'Black Krim' and 'Black Icicle').  That's great - something I've been looking for - but they don't have much flavor, either.  And the couple I've cut have a lot of white pith.

So, I'm still on the search for the perfect purple tomato.

Unripe 'Black Beauty'

'Gold Medal', which is advertised at Baker Creek as a striped tomato is also behaving in a variety of ways.  Some are nice and round and all gold with yellow flesh and are much less tasty than the 'Golden Jubilee' yellow tomatoes I grew the last two years. I'll be going back to that variety next year for my yellow tomato.

Can you notice the light speckling on the bottom tomato in the picture above?  I'm pretty sure that when I cut that tomato, the flesh will also have some small whitish spots that correspond.  That's the sign of some bug with a piercing snout (as opposed to chewing mouthparts) feeding on it.  In the case of my tomatoes every year, I find that the typical culprit is a shield bug (aka stink bug).  This year, thankfully, there hasn't been as much feeding as in previous years.  

I don't seem to have taken any pictures of shield bugs, but here's one from a website called Do My Own Pest Control:

You can see the shield shape of the adult is distinctive.  There are more than one kind and colors range from greens to browns.  They get their other common name - stink bugs - because if you disturb them (or kill them), they release a pretty disgusting odor.  My kill jar full of dead Japanese beetles actually has a gag-inducing smell, but they don't stink when you disturb them, or when they're freshly killed.  

Others of the 'Gold Medal' tomatoes are oddly formed and colored with red stripes (which is what I as expecting).  The one in the picture below had some feeding damage on the stem end, and the plant was overloaded with fruit, so I picked it before it was ripe.  As it sits, it's coloring up, getting more and more red in it.  It's not wonderfully tasty either, but still more flavorful than 'Black Beauty'.  Next year, I'll go back to 'Mr. Stripey' - the striped tomato I planted the first year that was delicious.  It produced poorly, but that could have been a fluke for that year.  It's worth a try to get that flavor again.

This may not be the best time to pass judgment on taste - or sweetness - of the tomatoes since it's been so hellishly hot ever since they put on fruit.  It could be that they are not ripening like they should in milder weather.  Maybe they'll be tastier later in the season.

The currant tomato that was free seed with an order I placed is tiny and tasty, but the skins are tough, and the plant is sprawling and unsightly.  Not good for either eating or ornamentation.  It was labeled as a currant tomato, but I wonder if it's not just a wild tomato - something that was (is?) used for hybridizing purposes.

I cleaned up the bug-eaten first 'Early Jersey Wakefield' cabbages, leaving the plants that had multiple heads regrowing just to see what becomes of them.  I do like this cabbage - it's mild tasting, not peppery like many cabbages.

Side-story here:  I've had a Madagascar Palm (Pachypodium lamerei) that was about four inches high when someone gave it to me while I was living in Galveston six or seven years ago.  I have to take it indoors in the winter here, and this year, I put it back outside a little too early.  It dropped its leaves, which is not uncommon in the winter, only this year, it didn't.  Until I put it outside, that is.  Then we had a couple of big rains in the spring where I forgot to bring the plant under the patio roof.  Without leaves to draw up water from the drenched soil, and since the plant is a succulent that doesn't require much water, I repotted it both times.  The roots didn't look so good, and it just didn't put new leaves out.  I was afraid I'd destroyed it.  But!  A couple of weeks ago, I could see little green bumps all over the top of it.  It's now crowded with several terminal-type bunches of leaves where each of those little green bumps were.  I'd been waiting for the thing to branch but never saw any sign of it doing so.  Maybe my mistake actually was a good thing in that these numerous individual "tops" will now grow out each on their own to be new branches.  Stay tuned!

Neatly formed vertically layered whorls of fronds, summer 2016

This has been the year for getting unexpected plants from seeds I planted.  I thought one of the peppers amongst what were labeled as jalapeños, I've now got a plant with something resembling a chili pepper, but is green-black.  It finally occurred to me that this is probably one of the pepper seeds I saved from a 'Black Hungarian' pepper that perhaps crossed with a chili.  But that was in 2015.   I must do better at labeling.  I thought I was doing a good job of that.

I'm afraid to taste it.

Speaking of peppers that I'm afraid to taste, these green-leaved 'Black Pearl' peppers are coloring up to be beautiful.  I can't call them 'Black Pearl' because they've reverted back to something akin to whatever parent plant was used to hybridize 'Black Pearl'.  What shall I call them?

And for another surprise, that 'Charles Darwin' David Austin rose just seems to put out whatever it wants.  It's supposed to be a yellow rose, and sometimes it is.  Other times...

Go figger.

In my last post, I admitted to having let my second planting of onions get covered by zinnias.  I said they were the yellow ones, but I misspoke.  They were the white ones, and I had to just go ahead and pull them up, because they'd been broken over.  This is all I got.

Oh, well.  I got this plate of garden fresh veggies for a farmer's lunch today, so no worries.

'Black Beauty' tomato, 'Shiraz Tall Top' beets, mix of red, yellow & white potatoes, 

'Jing Orange' and 'Red Burgundy' okra

Eat well.  Till next time.

The Long, Hot Summer

Is this going to be another record year for heat?  Sure seems to be heading there.  And no rain for over two weeks until last night (then 2.5"!).  I had to hand water some things a couple of times in the past week, particularly the new little lettuces and carrots.  And even at that, during the daytime heat, the cucumbers, rhubarb, zucchini and Mexican sunflowers would still go limp.

The limas, which arrange their leaves vertically when it's hot and dry to minimize leaf surface exposure to the sun (aren't they smart!), are producing little pods.

I was losing my paths to overgrown plants, and yesterday cut back the zinnias.  I found my second planting of onions  - the yellow white ones.  They don't look so hot.  Poor things.  They were trying.

The second planting of cabbages that started from little bug-eaten things are coming out of it nicely.  Now let's see who eats them next.

The first cabbages are riddled with bug dining holes.  When I harvested the cabbage heads, I left the outer leaves which included a couple of nodes for side shoots.  Apparently, they produce new heads at those nodes.

I've finally seen a few squash bugs (Anasa tristis) on the zucchini vines.  Nothing like the populations in the past.  I don't know whether that has anything to do with training them upright in a tomato cage or is simply an artifact of this particular year.  Something to pay attention to in the future. 

 

baby squash bug

adult squash bug with  pale gray juvenile above

I did have to take out two dying plants, and I cut off all the older, browing leaves.  Now there's just one plant left.  It actually has green fruits  A stray seed in the 'Golden zucchini' packet?  A mutant?

Either variety - green or gold - has these wonderful orange blossoms.which they put in their tacos and soups in the central Mexican area of Michoacan where I stayed for several months a few years ago.

 I'm not getting a lot of fruit from these plants, neither the caged ones nor the ones on the compost pile, which have almost completely wilted out.

The problem with wilting zucchini could be a heavy squash bug infestation, squash vine borer, or a root disease.  I'm not going to go up on the compost heap to find out what's happening there.  The caged plants have only had a smattering of squash bugs, so I don't think that's what's happening.  I didn't see the telltale signs of boring into the base of the plants, although I could just have missed it. When I pulled up two dying plants, one had roots that looked in good shape, and the other had barely any root at all.  What was there looked pretty dead.  I can't tell if that's feeding on the root or disease.

If it's a root fungus, I would expect the other remaining plant to contract it, since they were planted right together.  It may yet happen, but right now, the plant looks good.

Speaking of surprises from seed...Amongst the okra seeds that I saved last year from 'Red Burgundy', there is one plant producing green okra.  Although this could be a mutation, it's more likely that it's a reversion to one of the parent plants of the hybrid 'Red Burgundy'.  

Here's another example of seeds not "coming true" to the plant:  

These plants are both from the same 'Black Pearl' ornamental pepper.  It's quite obvious 'Black Pearl' is a hybrid when you see the results of the offspring.  And, while it's possible one - or both - of these is a reversion to a parent of 'Black Pearl', they could be something else between the two.  Genetics is a mix-up in all of life, but perhaps most readily visible in the plant kingdom.  And isn't it fun?

You know what else is fun?  Gardening in the summer in Missouri.  You get the 90+ degree heat.  And you also get periodic downpours with high winds.

I also lose my mulch paths when this happens.

The tomato that was on a trellis and the caged zucchini that fell over will both be okay, I think.  The ground was so wet that there seemed to be minimal root breakage. I stood them back up, and time will tell whether they survive and thrive - or not.

I also had to stand up two of the Mexican sunflower plants that had grown so large and were blown over.  I staked them, and I expect them to be okay also.  These plants are very tough, and if - no, when - some of the heavier branches break over, they simply put down roots and keep going.

(Update:  The picture above was taken in the early morning when I put these plants upright.  I didn't think to check on them until 1:00pm, and this is how they looked:

Needless to say, that is not good.  I put some cloth over them for shade and have my fingers crossed.

Back to the original post:

When I was up in Des Moines visiting my son's family a couple of months ago, I took along two little Mexican sunflower plants and planted them in their back yard next to the picket fence.  A few days ago my granddaughter texted a picture of them saying they're almost five feet tall and asking me what they are  - their neighbor likes them.  They'll easily be able to share with the neighbor for next year, as these things are prolific bloomers (as you can tell by the picture), and the seeds are as easy to collect and sow the next season as marigold seeds.  In a shaded area, they'll get taller and leggier, of course, but they still perform.  Those in my garden in full sun are about four feet tall and just as wide.

The caged tomatoes weren't damaged by the wind and rain, but they all have such a heavy load of fruit that some of them are getting pinched between stalks and cage wires.  I cut off several that were crowded and crowding other fruit and will let them ripen indoors.  

Some of the ripe harvest to date:

 'Gold Medal' and 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' tomatoes

I was expecting the 'Gold Medal' fruits to be a striped variety.  This particular one was growing all jumbly, and the red seemed to ring  what looked like individual fruits that were subsumed into one large one.  The only other ripe 'Gold Medal' tomato to date did not have this distorted growth and was completely golden skinned with lemon colored flesh.  To be continued.

  

'Black Beauty' (left and center) and 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' (right) tomatoes; 'Purple Ruffles' basil

I didn't have a spare tomato cage to hang onions for drying this year, so I'm just laying them out to dry.  They're taking over the patio table.

I harvested some 'Shiraz Tall Top' beets yesterday and roasted them in the oven with some fresh garlic I pulled and some potatoes from the compost pile. I put them all in the same clay bean pot I got from the Galveston Island Marshall's some years ago while living there, potatoes on the bottom, in a little coconut oil and salt at 390 degrees for just under an hour.  Yes, they are delicious.

 The Mexican tarragon is in full bloom.  And falling over.

Look at this gorgeous flower that's just beginning on the 'Cardinal' basil.  I purchased the seed just for this.

That creeping orange thyme that doesn't like to be wet is not happy at all.  I hope it can come back from this.

The little head lettuce that I'm trying to get seed from is finally flowering.  They'll turn to little dandelion-like heads, and then I'll take its seed and cut it down.

That whole "shady" end of the garden contained the early spring plantings, and it's looking rather shaggy now, with the second plantings not yet up and going.

Remember this guy early in the spring?  The assassin bug, from the Reduviidae family of insects. This is a juvenile.  He's dining on a Japanese beetle.  Hooray for the assassin!

The picture below is an adult Reduviid hanging out on my okra, which is where lots of Japanese beetles are mating and feeding.

 

This type of assassin is called a wheel bug, and a close up will tell you why.  He's got an upright half-wheel shape protruberance on his back that appears to have little cogs.

The pretty lavender monarda and gray head  (yellow) coneflower that filled the wildflower garden in the spring are all spent, and now the summer-blooming  black eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) and a few  purple coneflower (Echinacea) are in flower.  There's also a little bit of Queen Anne's lace (wild carrot).  The purple coneflower and Queen Anne's lace are intermediate bloomers between the spring and summer wildflowers but continue to bloom all summer, along with the black eyed Susans.

But here's something. Anybody know what it is?  I don't.

It does look rather like these white globe thistles, but the flowers are purple and look to be unfolding.  Also, the leaves are different.

Update:  I went back out and found another plant of these purple flowers.  They don't look a thing like globe thistles when they start opening...more like wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace), and then nothing like that when they're unfurled.  Maybe they're something in the aster family?

Further update:  Ironweed

I love these white globe thistles.  As long as I don't have to get too close.  They look like something that belongs in the desert to me.

UPDATE:  These are not globe thistles, but Eryngium yuccifolium, aka rattlesnake master.  There are only a couple left in the wildflower garden.  The coneflower and monarda have pretty much taken over.  I need to propagate these before there are none.

And speaking of not getting too close, this 'Grand Amore' rose appears to be aptly named (if you're a bit jaded).  

Those are some nasty thorns at the base.  But look at the beautiful flower.

 And, lastly, the Lisianthus are rockin' it.

Well, they were until the rain beat them down last night.  They'll turn their heads toward the sky today, though, and rock on.

Hang in there Missourians, August is on the way.

'Til next time.