Mid-summer gardening

Thank goodness the roses had no problem with the recent flooding.

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Neptune'

This is the only rabbit I've seen this year.  A shy, and precious, visitor...

It's hard to be annoyed with this little fellow, even though he's (she's?) eating my bean sprouts.

The flowers for cutting were put off by all the rain, but I've managed to get a few anyway.

Cactus zinnias, 'Cherry Brandy' echinacea, rattlesnake master, 

'Mandarin orange' gomphrena, butterfly milkweed, and flase indigo

The Japanese beetles haven't been as plentiful as some years, thank goodness, but when I miss capturing or spraying them for just a day, they do some serious damage.

Fortunately, there have only been a scattering of them on the pumpkin vines and corn, because I can't spray there....

...because scores of honeybees are having a heyday in the flowers.

I can spy several little fruits, and I'm anxious for them to mature, because they're pie pumpkins.  

The ornamental corn is doing some weird things.  (And it's not as ornamental as I was expecting.)

Most of the "ears" are shooting out of the husks.  There's only one that looks like a normal ear of corn on a stalk.

Probably won't be planting this again, but I might try some sweet corn next year.  Might.

I crammed a bunch of cabbages in a relatively small area, so when I inevitably lose some to rabbits, cutworms and cabbage moth caterpillars, I might end up with a few edible heads.

'Primo Vantage' cabbage seedlings

'Omero' purple  cabbage seedlings

The rhubarb is coming back.  With the exception of the two newest - and most favored because they had redder stems - that is.  I do hope those aren't dead.

The toadstools were happy with the flooding.

I'm bummed about the tomatoes.  I managed to mislabel my seedlings, and ended up with only two 'German Johnson' plants and six 'Yellow Pear' cherry tomato plants.  I didn't think I even had that many of the cherry tomatoes.  I was aiming for one, and seven 'German Johnson' plants.

I planted the one I thought was a 'Yellow Pear'  against a trellis.  And that turned out to be one of the GJs, which would do much, much better in a cage.   Rats!

'German Johnson'

'Yellow Pear'

The cucumbers, which I thought might die from all the rain, managed very well and are climbing up the back of my wagon wheel.  The four o-clocks in the front are not what I was expecting.  Perhaps I don't remember what four o-clocks do, but I didn't expect the flowers to have such long tubes.  And then again, maybe they don't in normal rainfall years.

The 'Cardinal' basil is looking pretty at last, with its bright green leaves and dark red stems.

The Charentais melons are climbing up their cages and over the marigolds.  Fingers crossed, because last year was so bad for cucurbits that I didn't get even one melon.

My cousin recently told me about an app that helps you identify anything you frame in your phone's camera lens.  I found Google Lens to do that, and have finally, after seven years, been able to identify a flowering plant as toadflax, and name two troublesome weeds that plague the garden...

'Green carpetweed'

'Prostrate spurge'

The spurge is one I had known in California from my weed science courses, but I couldn't recall the name.  It reminded me of puncture vine, but I knew it wasn't that because it has no thorns.  Thankfully.  I'm eager to find out next spring what the ground-covering weed is that has the teeny tiny blue flowers, which I think may be bird's-eye speedwell.

Another weed that's trying to take over is purslane.  I've been battling this one ever since I started gardening.  When you try to remove it, it easily breaks apart, and each part roots itself with ease.

'Purslane'

One year I let it go, because it's edible.  I didn't much care for it though.

But....the Stargazers are in full bloom, and it smells heavenly right here...

' Til next time.