Hot, hot, hot ... and dry

So I'm back from my two weeks away, and the garden is overgrown with weeds. Some vegetables didn't survive (there was .6" rain in my gauge), but the garden is a riot of color, and the roses have absolutely outdone themselves.  

'Zepherine Douhin'

'Shazam!'

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Neptune'

left to right: 'Grande Amore', 'South Africa', 'Shazam!'

foreground: 'Neptune'

Hollyhocks only had buds when I left.

After a couple applications of dicamba, I've finally managed to get rid of weeds and crabgrass in the paths around the flower plots.  I'll seed the bare ground this fall.

Some vegetables didn't get nearly enough water.  Peas are scraggly and drying out.  Kohlrabi that wasn't shaded by adjacent rhubarb has burnt leaves.

Five cucumber plants dried up and died.  Only two survived.  Fortunately, one of them is the new variety I'm trying this year - 'Beit Alpha'.  And the other is my staple 'Marketmore'.

Most lettuce is ready to bolt.  'New Red Fire' has matured to nearly all green.

I really like the variety 'Rouxai', a new one for me.  It may well be a new one for everyone.  The seed was expensive.   The leaves are a beautiful dark wine. 

I only have a few plants (the ones below were nearly lost in weeds), so I'm going to let them go to seed and have a bigger stand next year.  That is, if they're come true to seed, and they might not.

The arugula stand is quite lush.

Baby beets, arugula, and, surprisingly, the cantaloupes look fine.  I imagine it's because they get a certain amount of dappled shade under a mimosa tree.

The 'Savor' cantaloupe plants that were scrawny when I put them in are smaller than the small Persians, which was expected, but the plants look healthy now.

'Savor'

Small Persian cantaloupe

The weeds have had a two-week-long party.

'Calima' bush beans infested with purslane

I weeded the lettuce plot and the bean & pea plot this morning.  It took me 4 hours.  The picture below shows the difference in weeded vs not yet weeded halves.

Peppers look pretty awful, but they're alive.

Jalapeño peppers

sweet snack bells

The 'Seaside' spinach is bolting, so I sowed more seed.  It's got a nice flavor and texture.

I've got a LOT more work to do, but the flowers are making it tolerable.

Tiger swallowtail on butterfly milkweed

 

Beautiful weather after the rains

Lush and green, flowers blooming...it's lovely out there.

New growth on the tomatoes looks strange to me.  Curly, like there's been herbicide damage, which there hasn't.  I assume they're responding to the weather, but I don't recall this ever in the past.

The potato-leaf 'German Johnson' variety shows it clearly.

'German Johnson'

And the 'Speckled Roman' are showing it all over, even on the old growth.  I haven't grown these before, but it just doesn't look right.  

'Speckled Roman'

I'm very interested to see if they look different later in the year, and whether there's any resulting effects on the fruit.  I sure hope not.

The walking onions are heading.  I don't use these in cooking, because I don't care for the flavor, and they're tough.  Also, they're really hard to control.  They pretty much become a weed.  They're taking over my compost hill.  In this spot in the garden, I keep them limited by pulling.  I like to keep some, because I think they're interesting to look at.

'Egyptian walking onions'

Arugula, which grows fast, is coming out.  I've learned to sow the seed after lettuce has come up and begun to get good growth on it so I'll have comparable sized leaves from each for salads.

I haven't grown beets for several years.  I'm excited to see how these 'Babybeat' plants turn out.  I'm planning on having beet greens to mix in salads, and I hope the small beetroots will be tasty.

A few 'Primo Vantage' cabbage plants that I didn't pull completely out of the soil are leafing out.  I don't know if there will be any useable heads from them, but I'm leaving them grow to find out.

Small Persian melon plants look quite happy after transplanting.  I've surrounded them with marigolds to hopefully mask the aroma and discourage raccoons.

'Savor', my favorite, on the other hand, are not doing well.  They didn't do well in the propagation chamber, so I'm assuming the seed wasn't still good.

'Seaside' spinach is looking very good.  I'll be planting this again in the future.  It has a nice mild spinach flavor with a substantial leaf.  

Roses are beginning to bloom.  Always exciting.

'Pat Austin'

'Zepherine Drouhin' climbing rose

I'll end with pretty flower pictures until next time, which will probably be in about three weeks when I return from a trip to Wisconsin.

Sixty degrees at Christmas?!?

This is the first time I've watered my Missouri garden at Christmas time.  I don't want what's still growing - which is a lot of things - to die by wilting (it was very dry all fall, and still is), because I'm afraid even the perennials won't come back if that happens.

I'm still harvesting cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, arugula, tatsoi, celery and broccoli.

The weather forecast for January looks more like normal, so I hope things can go ahead and shut down.

The maché (corn salad - Valeriana) I planted mid-July is still teeny.  Large enough to see now!  Surely it's not getting something it needs.  They wouldn't be offering seed as a food crop if it doesn't get any bigger than this.  Would they?

Happy holidays!

Weather woes: When June turns into August

 Lordy, has it been HOT!  The entire western half of the United States seems to be cooking itself.  It seems only fair that we get June in August since we're having August in June. And a very hot August at that.  I won't hold my breath. 

I thought I would have to water the garden this morning, but when I woke up, I found that it had rained 1.4" overnight.  Hallelujah!

I'm now able to harvest more than lettuce.  The 'Yukon Gold' potatoes were ready for digging yesterday.  As well as a few of the 'Norland' red potatoes.

I must say, the 'Norland' spuds are good, but the 'Yukon Gold' are delicious.

This is the first year I've planted green beans, and I chose 'Calima' for its long, thin shape.  I've harvested a couple good messes already, and there are more to come.  I kind of wish I'd planted another row a couple weeks after the first one, since there will obviously be plenty of time before fall frost for them to produce.

Phaseolus vulgaris 'Calima'

Onions are scallion size.

I planted three types: 'Round Tropea' (red - first time planting); 'Stuttgarter' (white); and Sweet Spanish yellow (first time planting); plus a row of 'Zebrune' shallots.  After having been pruned by deer earlier in the spring, they seem to be coming along okay.

The Charentais canteloupes are flowering and spreading out between the rows of marigolds.  I caged the tomatoes a few days ago, but it was too hot to keep working and cage the canteloupes.

It finally cooled off enough after the rain that I was able to get them caged as well.  Since the weather last year was brutal on cucurbits, I didn't get any cucumbers or melons, so my experiment of masking the smell of ripe canteloupe from raccoon temptation with marigolds didn't work out.  I'm trying again this year.

I do hope it works, because we have another nice population of raccoons this year.

These plants were salvageable, but I'm having to bring all my potted plants into the cellar at night, and it's getting old.  I quit trapping raccoons last year, because all I was doing was wasting gas hauling them off two at a time while the others kept up their destruction.  I ordered three types of predator urine (coyote, bobcat and red fox), but so far neither the bobcat or coyote has intimidated them.  I'll sprinkle more tonight after that rain and cross my fingers again.  If nothing works, I hope the neighbors have as long a fireworks display on July 4 as they did last year.  After all that noise and commotion, I didn't see any more raccoon damage.  Unfortunately, I can't afford a display like that, or I'd have an early celebration every year.

Celery,  kohlrabi and lemongrass seem happy.

'D'Elne' celery, 'Early Purple Vienna' kohlrabi, lemongrass, 'Cardinal' basil

The kohlrabi and kale I planted this year were from free seeds that Baker Creek includes with every order.  I plan to plant kale for purely ornamental reasons next year because it's so pretty.  I can't say I'm a fan of the taste.  I suspect I'm going to forego any future kohlrabi plantings.

The lettuce always looks good until it bolts.  The arugula bolts quickly, so I have to stagger plantings to have any to harvest with the lettuce for my green salads.

I was worried about the peppers since it stayed so chilly last month.  They're starting to do better, but I think they should be much larger by now.

Over on my compost heap, corn and pie pumpkins look good.  The pumpkins ('Winter Luxury') are from seed I planted there after rabbits (or perhaps deer) ate the ones I transplanted.  The corn is strictly ornamental - Striped Japonica - although it's not nearly as colorful as I was hoping for.  Just looks like regular corn.

I didn't have good luck with pumpkins I planted there last year, but I presume they were having the same problem with the weather the other cucurbits had.  Hopefully this year they'll all produce loads of fruits.

The grapes ('Golden Muscat') fruited generously this year.  Last year was the first crop.  It was a small crop, and the birds ate every single grape just as they were getting ripe.  I covered the canopy this year with plastic netting, and put a few net bags over some of the clusters not under the netting.  I hope I get to eat at least a couple grapes this year!

Time to go out and enjoy things before it gets too hot to bear again.

'Neptune'

'Our Lady of Guadalupe'

'South Africa'