Oh how I wish it would rain

The weather forecast keeps teasing rain, and it never happens.  Plants I've grown from seed are ready to go in the ground, so they have. And I've been forced to do a lot of watering.

We went from a very cool April (with some unfortunate freezing) to a very hot May - temperatures in the upper 80s.  Such is gardening in Missouri.  Maybe everywhere nowadays.

Lettuces I sowed earlier are coming up sporadically and sparsely.

Peas ('Kelvedon Wonder' and 'Lillian's Caseload') are up and coming along nicely, and the 'Calima' bush green beans I planted next to them are just now coming out of the ground.  The straw paths I made this year were apparently much more loosely baled than the bales I used last year, and these are just falling apart and blowing everywhere.  

Transplanted wasabi radishes are looking okay.  But I don't know how they're supposed to look.  I planted them once before and didn't get anything useful from them.  If they don't produce anything of use this year, I won't be trying again.

'Seaside' spinach - my first go at this - looks good.  It looks good to the rabbits, too.  It has a mild taste and a sturdy leaf.

That snap freeze we had got my potatoes, but they've come out of it and don't seem to be any worse for the wear.  This year I'm growing 'Yukon Gold', which I've grown before and know to be delicious, and 'All Blue', a purple variety. The picture below is 'All Blue'.

Hoping to get my small bed at the edge of the wildflower garden fleshed out, I purchased some small plants from the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery in Jefferson City.

The bed looks over the rest of the garden between the wildflower garden and a cut flower plot and the roses.  I envision it as a lovely place to sit and gaze some day.  Except it's awfully hot in the summer when everything is in full bloom, so I probably won't be doing any long term sitting.

Honeybees were out early this year, and they seem to appreciate the shallow water dish where they can sit at the edge and drink.

And it's apparently baby bunny season.

'English Charm' iris is supposed to be double-blooming, but this is the third year it's bloomed, and it's only been once in the spring; nothing in the fall.  At least it's charming that once.

'English Charm'

'English Charm'

The same is true for 'Victoria Falls'.

The oriental poppies have tons of buds this year.  

I revamped the pet cemetery, and hope I can keep it going until the rains come - if they come at all this year.  Chances are not looking good.  

Speaking of not looking good...yikes!  My 'Phenomenal' lavender died way back this year.  I don't know if it simply ran its normal life course or if the dry winter did it in.  I'm trying to nurse what's left long enough to get some of the living branches to root on their own.

 

I have no idea what name this iris has, but it looks a lot like 'Mother Earth'.

Until next time...rain dances welcome! 

Mostly vegetables

'Green Twister' echinacea (cone flower)

The vegetable garden is starting to produce harvestable things.

Peas and green beans are coming on.  The 'Premium' peas I planted along a fence have been producing edible peas for almost three weeks. 'Lillian's Caseload' have been producing this week, and 'Lincoln' hasn't had a chance, because the rabbits keep eating the plants.  I probably won't plant 'Lillian's Caseload' again, because 'Premium' produces much larger pods with more and juicier peas.  As I recall 'Lincoln' from last year, they were smaller, but had lots of peas per pod and were as tasty as 'Premium'.

'Premium' peas

The 'Calima' beans, while still small and somewhat bug-eaten, are starting to flower.  

'Merlot', 'Marvel of 4 Seasons', and some romaine lettuce have been producing for three or four weeks already, as well as three kale varieties: 'Red Russian', 'Nero de Toscana' and scarlet.  The scarlet plants are prettiest and still quite small, while the 'Red Russian' is getting quite large.

Left to right: 'Nero de Toscana', scarlet, and 'Red Russian' kale

'Red Russian'

scarlet kale

'Nero de Toscana'

'Marvel of 4 Seasons' lettuce

or in the original French, 'Merveille de Quatre Saisons'

'Merlot' lettuce

I'll have to try planting the chinese (Napa) cabbage again in the fall.  It didn't produce any heads from the spring planting; just went straight to bolting.

'Hilton' Chinese cabbage

I let volunteer lettuce come up wherever it wanted to this year.  This one that found its way into the tulip bed got enourmous.

First carrots: 'Red Kyoto', 'Uzbek Golden' and 'Little Fingers'.  The 'Kyoto Red' produced a lot of carrots that were all top and a thin, woody tap root.  

I caged 8 tomato plants today, so even if they sprout legs, they won't be able to escape the garden.

The pink celery is slow growing, like all the other celery I've grown over the years.  I did put some 'D'Elene' celery in a pot, and it's grown faster and larger.  I was going to try to grow it by increasingly piling up soil so it would bleach like store-bought celery, but I got lazy.

Pink stemmed celery

I got curious again and pulled up another garlic.  Still not ready yet.

Even though I was going to let my crowded onions grow on for a while and use them as green onions, I've had to thin them even for that.

Overcrowded onions

The miner's lettuce and corn salad (maché) didn't grow large enough to be of any culinary use.

Left: maché, Right: miner's lettuce

And that "melon" I was so shocked about overwintering: it's a hollyhock!  That explains it!  What I don't know is how it got there.  My hollyhocks are across the vegetable garden and then beyond the rose bed.

I'm not sure what I'm growing in the picture below.  There were pretty pink angelonias there last year that I let go to seed, so I'm hoping that's what these are.  They could just be some weeds.

Lots and lots of honeybees in the butterfly milkweed!

Until next time...

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.