Photo dump

Words to live by in custom made bricks from my dear friend Rich. 

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes ready for roasting

'Omero' purple cabbage

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes

'Carmine Splendor' okra going to seed

At the beginning of the season, I needed a cucumber trellis, so I built one meant to last just the one season...

It looked good for a while.  

But some volunteer cantaloupe got heavy on it late in the season, and...

Still, it served its purpose, since the cucumbers are all gone.

'Shazam!'  the prettiest it's looked all year

'South Africa' - always the most prolific and healthy rose in the garden

Yellow 'South Africa', light pink 'Mother of Pearl', 

and dark pink 'Acropolis'

Late, late summer

I'm still harvesting a few things from the garden while waiting for the new peas and salad greens to be ready.  Mostly what I have to offer in this post are flowers, but I'll be gone for a couple weeks, and I imagine the garden will have changed quite a bit in that time, so I'm posting what I have now.

My sundial never got calibrated this year.

That was like a police report, wasn't it?  "A bullet struck and killed..." Passive voice.  More accurately, I should have said:  I never calibrated my sun dial this year.

The volunteer melons that came up with the cucumbers on the trellis performed better than the plants I set out on cages intentionally.  There are still a couple growing that I hope are ripe when I return in a couple weeks.  Or at least still there.

My poor 'Fall Gold' raspberries are struggling, but I can't let them die out.  They're so unique.  They taste like they're dipped in honey.  And they're hard to find without ordering. Ordering live plants is kind of hit and miss in my experience.  I found the one I have at an end-of-the-year sale at Orscheln farm supply. I once found a pot of them at a nursery for $75.  They're good, but not THAT good if you're not made of money, which I most definitely am not.  

While 'Profusion Apricot' zinnias (Zinnia marylandica) are short growing (12-18" high), they're cheerful, rapidly going through a series of color changes as each bloom progresses.  They produce lots of blooms and don't need to be deadheaded, which is another plus.

Even though it's been a very dry year this year, it's been a good year for the roses.  I've not watered them much at all.  I AM battling aphids again this year, but I'm more successful than last year.  Possibly because I caught them early and have been spraying them with Sevin every single day for the past week or so.  (Frowny face.)

left: 'South Africa', right: 'Shazam!'

'Shazam!'

'Shazam!'

Offered without comment:

Summer harvest

The good stuff in the vegetable world is in full swing: tomatoes, cucumbers and melons.  By some greatly appreciated miracle, the raccoons have not been into the garden this summer.  Rabbits got to a couple melons that were touching the ground, but, unlike raccoons, they didn't pull the melons off the vines and destroy them completely.  They just ate out the bottoms, so I cut off the damage and ate the rest myself.

These French Charentais type melons are so delicious, and the flesh stays firm, never mushy.

'Savor' 

The long sweet peppers I grew from seeds of grocery store peppers have done okay, but of course they are not grown under the artificial conditions marketers use, so not as large or fleshy.

Rhubarb, onions and garlic, 'Carmine Splendor' okra, 'Marketmore' cucumber, 

'Savor' French Charentais melon, and 'German Johnson' tomatoes

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes, 'Primo Vantage' cabbage, sweet long pepper, 

and ripe jalapeño peppers

'Primo Vantage' cabbage

'Carmine Splendor' okra, 'Omero' cabbages,

and celery gone to seed

'Carmine Splendor' okra

'Omero' cabbages

'Marketmore' cucumber and 'Savor' melon

'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes

My fall peas, collected from early spring peas, are doing well, considering they're competing with so many weeds.  Due to several factors, including extreme heat in July and long Covid, I haven't kept my garden tended well as in previous years.

I've done a better job in the rose garden.  But the aphids showed up this week, and I'm having quite a battle with them.

Lavender 'Poseidon' and yellow 'South Africa'

'South Africa'

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Razzle Dazzle'

Till next time.

'Mother of Pearl' summer

This post is going to be essentially an ode to my newest rose 'Mother of Pearl'.  I'm so happy with it and can't look at it enough.  So, unless you skip the last half of this post, you'll be looking at it a lot, too.

A kohlrabi plant that overwintered was recently harvested, and I shredded it up to make slaw, and then didn't do it.  So after it laid in the refrigerator until it was almost mush, I tossed it.

'Early purple Vienna' kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea gongylodes)

I'm very surprised and glad that the raccoons haven't been in the garden yet.  It has allowed me to harvest a couple of melons.  I've planted two French Charentais types, 'Tasty Bites' and 'Savor'.  These are reliably sweet, and the flesh stays firm, which is a big plus in my estimation.  'Tasty Bites' are apparently an earlier variety than 'Savor', which is the one I'm really looking forward to.

'Tasty Bites' cantaloupe

I've only had a few cucumbers, because I think only one plant came up.  It came up amongst volunteer 'Savor' melons, which look like cucumber plants when they're small, so my cucumber trellis is nicely covered, but mostly with melon vines.

Fall peas, arugula, lettuce and dill are all up and growing.

And now...homage to 'Mother of Pearl'...

Sometimes, the blossoms look very pink, and other times, a delicate peachy color.  It must be the time of day and the light. The older the blossom, at any time, are more peach.