Summer weather

We had a good run, but now the high temps and humidity are upon us.  The garden likes it, though.

The cucumbers and their relatives, the caged melons are looking very healthy. The cucumbers are going to outgrow their wagon wheel trellis very quickly, and I'm not sure how I'll handle that.  I'll lace some vines through the spokes, but I imagine I'm going to have to cut some back.  There are tiny little baby fruits hidden in the leaves at this stage.

'Marketmore' cucumber

French Charentais melon 'Petit Gris'

In case you're wondering, no the melons don't stay nicely within their cage boundaries.  I have to pull vine terminals back inside the cages every morning.  But since the melons are so delicious and I don't otherwise have room for them to sprawl, I don't mind at all.

'Petit Gris'  melons  in cages fronted by snack peppers

The peppers, like some other things, are looking rather pale, and I'm laying that onto the copious amounts of rain leaching the soil.  I did give some things a dressing of composted manure, but the peppers probably didn't get it.  

I'm pruning the tomatoes this year to keep them from being so bushy, and expecting them to put the energy they would have otherwise put into making more leaves into fruit instead.

'Missouri Pink Love Apple'

For some reason, that reminds me of an article I read recently about how plants determine where on the stem to start the next leaf.  I'm sorry I didn't save the article, but even though different plants have different leaf arrangements on the stem, each type has developed its pattern so that a new leaf comes out at a point that allows for them all to get the maximum amount of light exposure.  It's not just willy-nilly.  Something else to appreciate about the miracle that is the plant world.

The peas are winding down, and after the rabbits had their fill, I ended up with maybe a gallon of shelled peas.  I'll try again next year, and I'll put down some small animal repellent early.

The climbing rose 'Moonlight' is a nice little shrub right now.  I'm looking forward to it making its way up the trellis.

'Moonlight'

I should have planted more purple and white annual poppies at the front of the trellis to make a better showing.  From the one white poppy that showed up unexpectedly two years ago among the 'Hungarian Blue' seeds I purchased, I've gotten more each year and continue to collect seed rather than buy more.  In fact, I haven't seen any white annual poppy seed for sale in stores.  Now, after three years of them cross-pollinating,  I have the darker purple of the originals, white, and a light purple.

Interestingly, this year a couple of the whites are many-petaled, something I haven't seen in previous years.

Recently, when the weather was mild, I dug out another stretch of wildflowers where I'm making my perennial bed and mulched it.  When my gaura seedlings get large enough (I just potted them up into 4" pots), that will be their home. 

I stuck what basil I finally managed to get going into the space I planned for perennial Oriental poppies thinking I'd sow the poppy seed late this fall after the basil was spent, but when I looked again at the seed packet, it said to sow them May to August in this area.  Poor planning on my part forced me to then dig up the basil that was finally getting established and move it.  I've watered them in and shaded them with a winter protection tunnel I had on hand, so I hope they'll be okay.

Over in the cut flower garden, things are coming and going.  In actuality, the cut flower garden will end up being as much a bed of perennials as the perennial bed, but unlike the perennial garden, it won't have any shrubs.  Mostly flowers for creating arrangements.

Blue and white belladonna type delphiniums and orange butterfly milkweed

I love this yarrow.  It's from seed I collected from my son's back yard border in his Chicago suburb.  I brought the seed home in the late summer, and by the time I planted it the next spring, I had forgotten what color it was, so it was a nice surprise.    It was okay last year, its first, but this year, it's outstanding.

Every morning first thing I go out to the berry patch where I'm rewarded with a few ripe raspberries.  Next year will be better, as there are several canes growing now that will produce then.  This year, it's second, there is just one cane mature enough to produce fruit.  But it's producing lots.  

These are 'Glencoe'.

The one 'Red Latham' plant that survived isn't mature enough to produce, but I expect it will next summer, and the three 'Fall Gold' plants are starting to set fruit now.

I'm watching this little blackberry closely, just waiting for it to ripen enough to eat.  I thought it was going to be the only fruit this year after the dear pruned the plants shortly after I planted them, but there are still a few more forming.

'Navaho' thornless blackberry

Over in the rose garden, the shrubs are all struggling a bit from so much rain and cool weather.  It's produced some odd coloration in the leaves of a couple of the plants.  At least, I'm assuming that's what's doing it.  I hope it's not a virus.

Many of the early rose blossoms had some petal blight (as did the white poppies) that I'm sure was caused by the weather, but now that there's more sun, I'm not seeing it.

'Pat Austin' gets to stay in the rose bed for one reason only: her gorgeous salmon color.  And even that fades very quickly.  Otherwise, she's not a particularly desirable specimen for the bed.  The branches splay out like a rambler, and the flower heads hang down rather than face up. Also, they don't last at all when cut and brought in - maybe a day.  In this picture, I've got two branches staked to an upright position.

I'm going to start cutting the branches short when the blooms are spent and try to keep the shrub bushy and low. 

The two new blooms on 'Razzle Dazzle' aren't nearly as dazzlingly orange as the first blooms were.  I hope it reverts for the next ones.

 

'Razzle Dazzle'

Spider webs were everywhere this morning and coated in foggy dew.

Till next time, happy gardening.

I save rose petals.