First freeze

It was only a couple of hours in the predawn morning, but October 12 brought a cold snap with a freeze.  Some plants showed damage, some beyond recovery, but most didn't show any change.

Since they still had some nice, but green, fruit, I cut the 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' tomato cages free from their stakes and laid them all prone so I could cover them for the night. They came through fine.  I've just left them lying horizontally for the remainder of the season.

Surprisingly, the one 'Mrs. Maxwell' plant that I left standing and uncovered didn't suffer any damage, nor did the cherry tomato 'Sun Gold', so maybe the Missouri pinks would have been okay.  The only tomato plant that showed dieback was the volunteer.

'Sun Gold' 

The purple hull cowpeas showed some damage on the topmost leaves, but the beans are fine, and I expect to get at least one more harvest from them.

The limas showed a little more damage than the cowpeas, but they weren't producing much at this point anyway, so I pulled them.  I also pulled one 'Mrs. Maxwell' tomato plant that didn't have any tomatoes on it, along with all but one of the zinnias which had petered out, so that end of the garden is pretty well cleared out now, with the exception of the permanent rose and grapevine, some clover ground cover and some spicy bush basil, plus those two cabbages that have just dragged along all season amidst some marigolds.

Every time I write a sentence like that (what my elementary school teachers would call a run-on sentence), I think of Mark Twain's comment about the Germans:

Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.

To my surprise, the peppers came through without any problem.

I didn't expect the cardinal basil to survive, so I harvested most of it before the freeze.  Some went into bouquets.

'Cardinal' basil, red-veined sorrel, globe amaranth, annual vinca, 'Poseidon' roses

Some is just sitting in a bucket of water waiting for nothing, probably.

What I left had to be pulled out the next day.

Thankfully, neither the 'Caradonna' salvia in the same bed, nor any other of the perennials sustained any damage.

The spicy bush basil was freeze-damaged on the topmost leaves, but since they're so bushy, I was able to cut away those darkened, damaged leaves and still have healthy plants.  You can see the difference in the picture below where I've cut off some of the top leaves:

The roses didn't mind the weather.

Speaking of the perennial bed...

I finally finished digging it all.  I've moved a few more plants into to, planted some spring bulbs, and now it awaits a winter mulch.  I'm hoping to collect and chop fall leaves from the maple trees to spread and then cover it all with a layer of cedar bark.

The other day, I saw a large orb-weaving spider with a color pattern that I don't recall seeing before, but that doesn't mean I haven't.  Doing a bit of research, I see that this is called the banded garden spider  (Agriope trifasciata).

This is the pattern I'm used to seeing:

That, I see, is the yellow garden spider (Agriope aurantia).

Just to throw out a little factoid which you may already know: spiders aren't technically insects.  They're arachnids.

And the sulfurs have been flitting about lately.  Here's one feeding on a petunia.

There's not much left of gardening season.  That little freeze was a reminder of what's coming.  Not looking forward to it.  Wish I could just hibernate through the winter.

Till next time - whenever that may be.

Another photo dump post

There's really no rhyme or reason to these pictures.  They're mostly roses and insects making the most of these early autumn days.

If 'Pat Austin' weren't such a beautiful color rose I'd have moved her to the road bank.  I do wish she'd hold her blossoms up.  They don't work for cut flowers, either.  But, lordy, they're beautiful.

The bees like them, too.

I still have enough roses and gomphrena to make little bouquets.

The gomphrena just keep going and going.  They bloom from the first of May until the frost kills them.   I think they may be on their last legs, though.

Unlike 'Pat Austin', 'Grande Amore' is an excellent cut rose.  It has large blooms, sturdy stems and lasts a long time in the vase.  I can never get a good picture of it, though.  It's really quite stunning, but the color of it isn't good for photographing.  (At least not for an amateur.)  The light reflection makes all the petals kind of blend together and look out of focus.  The foliage photogaphs well, but not the blooms.  I keep trying, but in three years, I have yet to get a picture that does them justice.

'South Africa' photographs very well and is a real stunner.  Well-named.

I planted two rambling roses on the road bank this spring, and they did absolutely nothing aside from look bad.  Neither of them even produced one bloom.  It's shadier and drier there than the garden, so I transplanted them today into the perennial bed, which is coming along bit by bit.  Hopefully, these 'Tour de Malakoff' roses will take off here and do well next year.  

A few days ago, I received an order of allium bulbs which I planted in the perennial bed.  I have a few more things to do there, and then it'll be finished.  Of course, those few things include digging up the remaining wildflowers and grasses and turning the soil.  But, it's about 3/4 done!

Shame on the person who dumped this pretty and very friendly cat out on the highway.  He has decided he'll stay here, even though the other two stray cats don't like him.  (They don't much like each other, truth be told!)  He hangs out in the garden any time I'm there and kind of makes a pest of himself, but he's young and silly, and loving, so he's welcome.

Cowpeas are putting out a second flush of beans and still look lush.

The aphids that attack the milkweed plants are some of the prettiest aphids, if you can appreciate an aphid.  Thankfully, the only other plant that I've had an aphid issue with is the grapevine.  They certainly are plentiful on the milkweed.  A hard spray of water, or just a gloved hand scraped along the stem gets rid of them easily enough.  If you wait long enough, they'll attract lady beetles, which eat them.

Aphids are little procreating machines.  They don't have any males in the population, so there's no time wasted in fertilizing and laying eggs.  They just eat and pop out live babies.  They don't even poop.  Everything goes to making those hundreds of clone kids.  Almost everything.  What doesn't, slowly builds up in the aphid's system and eventually kills her.

You know it's an aphid if it has what one fellow grad student called tailpipes.  They're actually called cornicles.  There are two stuck onto the rear of the abdomen, and on these bright orange aphids (Aphis nerii), they're quite obvious, because they're black.

The milkweed plants also have another insect "pest" - milkweed bugs.  They're a bit less prolific than the aphids, but still plentiful.  Unlike the aphids, they don't seem to do much damage, and the plants are about done for by the time they show up, so I haven't bothered to control them.  

They moved over to nearby ornamental peppers, but I still can't see damage on the plants, so I'm okay with them for now.

Gardening season is drawing to a close, but I'll probably have a couple more posts before it's done.  I'm still harvesting tomatoes, cowpeas and herbs.

Till next time.

Extended summer

I thought the limas and cowpeas were done for, and maybe the limas are, but the cowpeas seem to be having a rebirth.  Tomatoes are still performing, and the weather has gone from scorching to mellow.

Purple hull cowpeas

Pink tomato varieties:  Missouri Pink Love Apple (delicious) and

Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian (so-so)

Fall peas - 'Improved Maestro'

So....here's another photo dump post.

I've been planting bulbs and more bulbs in the tulip beds.  I'm excited to see how they look in the spring.  Knowing I was going to be planting so many bulbs this year, i purchased a bulb planter.  The difference between using it and digging holes is immense.  It was a great investment, even if I never plant another bulb.  Which, of course, I will!

I've also added (right sidebar) Breck's to my list of places where I get my plant material.  While I've received some things that didn't make it, they have lots of desirable plants (not just bulbs), and they're very good about guarantees (lifetime!) and customer service.  They also send lots of pretty pictures in ads...beware. The drawback is that most of their bulbs are shipped direct from Holland, so they can be in transit for a month or so, which probably explains why some things don't survive.

The perennial bed is filling out.

Gaura and 'Blue Spire' Russian Sage

Roses are struggling, but producing some beatiful blooms.

'Pat Austin'

'Razzle Dazzle' rose bud

Red 'Grande Amore', yellow 'South Africa', godenrod, 

'Strawberry Fields' globe amaranth and lavender

This is the first time I've ever seen a wolf spider carrying her babies.  They're the only spider that does that.  Why aren't they called possum spiders?

Don't see her? 

Here...

 Enjoy your extra summer.

Early foggy morning in the garden

Late summer lull

With the removal of the spent melon cages, the snack peppers are finally getting the sunlight they need.  Maybe they'll produce something now.  

I've planted peas in the space left by the melons from which I hope to get a bigger supply of seed for next spring.  (If I can refrain from eating them raw when they're juicy and small.)

The purple hull cowpeas have virtually finished producing, but the plants still look pretty.

Same goes for the 'Henderson's bush' lima beans.

Over in the purely ornamental sector, the perennial bed is starting to actually look like a perennial bed.

I'm getting anxious to get in all the tulip and daffodil bulbs I ordered, but in the meantime, I did get a bleeding heart in the mail.

I'm feeling a bit skeptical.  But I planted it.  We shall see.  I've gotten other things by mail that looked doubtful, but which nevertheless grew.  So far, the only thing I ordered didn't make it was a fern.  They always seem to be iffy for me, even when I buy them in pots.

The roses, finally having been relieved of the Japanese beetle scourge, are blooming without the buds being "bagged".  It's not been a good year for them at all, but a few are doing well in spite of it.  Not the 'Razzle Dazzle', unfortunately, but it recently did produce this beauty:

 'South Africa' is one that has managed to fair well enough: 

And 'Grande Amore' is growing to an unusual 7 feet tall again this year. 

Unusual as far as the literature for them goes. I guess for this one, it wasn't a fluke last year when it grew to such heights when the weather was perfect for the roses then.

Now, what's this all over the milkweed pods? 

Why, yes, it's milkweed bugs.  Juveniles.

When I was seeing one or two of the adults around, from my old memory banks I was seeing them as boxelder bugs.  Here's a Wikipedia picture of an adult milkweed bug with a couple young:

And here's the boxelder bug:

My memory was a bit off.  As it may often be.

Til next time.