After the deluge

What was gearing up to be a long, hot draught has turned into a hot, steamy period.  We take what we get.

And what we're getting is some good garden growth.

A few days ago, we got almost two inches of rain in less than an hour.  Since it happened in the evening, I just crossed my fingers for the garden and focused on moving my seedlings and potted tomato onto the porch after they'd been gully-washed by rain coming over the house's gutter.

The next morning, I had to tend a flooded basement (plus a little snake that sailed in on the tide - and by "tend" I mean I killed it - 😞), and salvage the plants.  

Battered but not destroyed

They'll take some extra time to be ready to plant out in the garden, I think, but I did go ahead and put out the butterfly milkweed seedlings in the cut flower bed.  

I was afraid to go see what happened in the garden, but thankfully, all was well there.

The cucumbers and runner beans that I'm training up the garden arch are taking off and haven't yet gone wild.  I watched a Johnny's Seeds video on growing cucumbers vertically.  They said to remove side shoots.  Good idea.  Easier said than done.  

Center left: zucchini in a cage; bottom left: French Charentais melon 'Savor'; 

bottom center: 'Sunset' runner beans; bottom right: 'Marketmore' cucumbers

The tomatoes are caged, and the onions are starting to put up flower stalks.  I don't think that's a good thing....

....except for the Egyptian walking onions.  I rarely use them for food, so I welcome the strange bulbs at the top when they flower and reproduce.

Green spicy bush basil, 'Purple Ruffles' and 'Red Rubin' purple basils, 

zinnias, and garlic share this bed with Egyptian walking onions

Over in the shady end salad greens section of the garden, the arugula has bolted and is flowering, and the second planting is just now emerging.

The beets didn't germinate well, so I've reseeded the plot.  This is the first time I've planted this particular variety: 'Bull's Blood'.

The cabbages are large and now starting to form heads.  

I haven't seen any more signs of feeding since I applied the Dipel a few evenings back.  But I also haven't seen but two cabbage white moths so far this year.  (I saw a gorgeous tiger swallowtail butterfly this afternoon, but it didn't land on anything long enough for me to get a picture.)  

The second planting of 'Rocky Top' lettuce mix is already big enough to harvest, and I'm at that point where the first planting is getting larger than I like to eat it.  But it sure is pretty:

The tatsoi is getting beyond my taste, too.  The second planting is just up out of the ground.  I'm going to have to try cooking some of this older group to see what that's like.  I've only ever eaten it small and raw in salads so far.  It's delicious that way - tastes somewhat like broccoli to me.

So ends the ornamental vegetable portion of this post.  I know this was supposed to be solely a blog about an ornamental vegetable garden, but then I branched into roses, and then into cut flowers, and I am compelled to take pictures and share.

Also, the hosta bed still looks good.  I think the key was moving the bird feeders further away.

I'm loving this lupine in the cut flower garden that died back but made it through the winter:

The funny thing about it is it didn't bloom last year.  The ones that bloomed were purple, and they didn't survive.  Can't wait to see this area when all the new ones I planted this year bloom - if they do.  I didn't realize how big this would be when it came back.  If all the rest of them come back next year and come back this big, there'll have to be some thinning going on.  

My grandmother had snapdragons along the edge of her vegetable garden, and I haven't seen any since I was a child.  This year, I started some from seed, a mix of colors from Johnny's Seeds that they call 'Costa Mix'  - here they are, in honor of my grandmother:

 

I hope they seed themselves and come up next spring.

And now.....

..... the new Palatine roses!

Meet 'Neptune'.  I wasn't expecting to be as taken with this rose as I am.  I can't stop gazing at it and taking pictures.  The buds are a dark reddish violet, and then open to a soft pale lavender.  The leaves are large, medium-dark green, and the blooms are quite large.  It's fabulous.

 Gorgeous.

One rose that I was excited to get isn't yet as marvelous as the pictures on line.  But I'll give it a chance to live up to that.  The color is an interesting rusty salmon.  This is 'Acropolis':

 

Sweet.

I was so worried that my older roses didn't make it through the harsh winter, but they did.  'Shazam!' is as beautiful as ever:

I have other perennials interspersed amongst the roses, and the lavenders are now blooming.  This one is called 'Phenomenal':

This month has felt like July and August.  I hope July and August feel like May.  I won't hold my breath.

Happy gardening.