Weed-free again

After 15+ hours of weeding (!) the garden is looking good again.  (Two weeks away at the end of May is not the best plan.)

This is what the whole thing looked like when I returned...

I came back to loads of fruiting blackberries.  My hope now is that I get to eat some before the raccoons eat them all.

'Navajo' blackberries

Bunnies apparently favor green beans.

'Calima' bush beans

'Calima' bush beans

The 'New Red Fire' lettuce looked bleached out, with very little red on it, but the new growth is coloring them up again.

Last year, my wasabi radishes had no bulb on them at all.  I thought I'd give them another try this year, and they did produce radishes.  They don't taste any different from a regular radish to me, but I think they're pretty.

Some 'Tender Sweet' carrots on the compost hill are big enough to harvest.  they're neither tender nor sweet.  They're  carrots.  I keep looking for a sweet variety.  I have some 'SugarSnax' just getting started.  I'm hoping they will be sweet, but I'm not holding my breath.

'Tender Sweet' carrots and 'All Blue' potatoes

The potatoes are tall and lush, but when I dug one up, the spuds were still quite small.  'All Blue' is not a particularly large potato when mature, but they surely will get larger than these are now.  They're a little hard to spot in the dark soil.

 'All Blue' potatoes

The little potatoes taste and have a texture much like a red or yellow potato.

After I got some weed control over on the compost hill, I found the small Persian melons and the one 'Sugar Baby' watermelon plants were coming along just fine, despite the dry heat.

Small Persian cantaloupe

'Sugar Baby' watermelon

The melons are at the top of the hill, which originally when I started the garden in 2014, consisted of sod lifted from the lawn area where I made my garden and was about 5-1/2 feet tall.  I now have a compost crate and use the much reduced hill for planting.

On the left this year I planted some Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia), and running along the south half of the hill's edge are 'All Blue' and 'Yukon Gold' potatoes.  Cilantro grows voluntarily now on the south side, and I sowed carrots on the east.

The pet cemetery grew up considerably in the two weeks I was away.

My vision of Dorothy's skip to Oz through poppies when I planted field poppies has been disappointed.  They're scraggly and kind of sad looking.

The roses were very happy in the dry heat.

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Shazam!'

I was able to put together some bouquets for a craft shop in Arrow Rock at the request of a friend.  I think they're lovely.

 Until next time, enjoy the early summer days.

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

 

Still roasting, no rain

I went away for 10 days, watering the vegetable garden to almost an inch of water by sprinkler before I went.  Everything there looked fine when I returned.

Not so lucky in other areas.  I didn't realize there was a raccoon trap propped open.  I know there was no bait in it, but during the wild tear they went on, one got itself trapped anyway.  I feel badly because I assume it starved to death in the hell heat we had while I was gone.

On the other hand, I'm really pissed at them for digging up and killing five potted saplings and for what they did to my new roses:

Also, before I left, there were beautiful white flowers on the 'Navajo' blackberry.

It looks like the raccoons took out their aggression on it while I was gone, breaking down large branches.  Maybe they were retaliating for their trapped comrade.

And, of course, that was the week the Japanese beetles showed up.

They hit the roses, which were looking really good before I left:

But, the vegetables were unharmed.  There was a load of 'Calima' green beans ready for harvest.

And some volunteer 'Cardinal' basil, which I was happy to see, because I didn't get any seeded this year.

All the tomatoes look great.  And there were three little ripe 'Supersweet 100' cherry tomatoes.  

'German Johnson' tomato

Before I left, I netted the 'Golden Muscat' grapes in case they got ripe enough to attract raccoons and crossed my fingers, thinking they'd probably just tear the whole thing down, trellis and all.  Fortunately, they were unscathed.  But I'm not holding my breath they'll remain that way.

The perennial bed, which didn't get any water, looks lovely.

drumstick allium

If anyone knows a rain dance, please do it.