Approaching Hell

Wildfires are raging from Canada to Hawaii, and much of the mainland is experiencing devastating weather events. 

In mid-Missouri, it's about to get too hot to garden. 

So this post is from more recent tolerable, and even mild, weather.

Aphids have appeared on new rose growth, so I've been trying to stay on top of them - unfortunately with Sevin, but the last couple of years I tried to use only neem oil and soap, unsuccessfully.  This past week I've been in Chicagoland, so I don't know what I'll find when I get back, but the 'Mother of Pearl' I managed to propagate from a cutting (the mother of Mother of Pearl died over winter) was looking lovely when I left.

The whole of the garden was actually doing pretty well, considering all the crazy weather this season.

But not the cucumbers.  They're barely hanging on.  

I harvested less than half a dozen early on, and nothing since. I planted two varieties: 'Marketmore' and 'Beit Alpha'.  Neither has taken off. They should have those wagon wheels hidden by now.  That's two years in a row I haven't had a decent cucumber crop, and they're usually coming out of my ears.

Surprisingly to me, the 'Calima' green beans are still producing well.  Were, I should say.  Surely by the time I get back in a few days they'll be done.  But I've thought they were surely done several times already.

I have three varieties of celery that are all performing well, so they obviously have no complaints about the weather.

This is the one I bought from a nursery that was labeled only "celery".  It has the largest stalks of all the varieties.

This pink celery is one I grew from seed.

Besides the pink celery, I started a dark green variety as well. I don't know which seed produced this plant that has white stalks, because I didn't have any seeds that should have produced it.

This one 'Brunswick' cabbage plant has become a giant.  The others of its kind are about half this size and more what I would have expected.

'Brunswick' and 'Ruby Perfection' (bottom-most) cabbage

'Cardinal' basil is happy enough. No problems there. But I never have any problems with basil.

I got one - count 'em, one - decent cantaloupe this year.  The caged ones have produced essentially nothing, and the ones that sprawled on the compost hill were the Small Persian variety that tasted only barely sweet.

Small Persian melon

The wire net bags kept the raccoons from eating them, though.  So next year I plan to plant my favorite sweet variety 'Savor' in a space where they can sprawl on the ground and bag them this way.

I don't know if the damaged part is where raccoons tried to get at them or if they were the result of insects in the wet soil beneath the melons.  Maybe both.  Whatever it was, it didn't get through the rinds.

Fun stuff:

One day I noticed a group of ammophila wasps on the tarragon.  I noticed them because I was trimming the plant (that's now quite large so I cut it in roughly the shape of a pyramid with hedge clippers).  I didn't want to disturb them since they're a beneficial insect, preying on moth and sawfly caterpillars, so the plant didn't get a finished haircut.  I don't know which particular ammophila these are, as there are over 200 different species.

I assume this is worm casting.  It looks like it, but it would have been a very, very large worm if it is.

So...until next time (and hopefully the garden hasn't burnt up by the time I get back to it)...

Biding time, waiting for melons

My blackberries are suffering from a condition called white druplet (the little individual units are called druplets).

You can eat them, but the more white druplets, the more it tastes like cardboard instead of blackberry.

From a University of Arkansas extension page:

White druplet is associated with a drop in humidity and an increase in temperature. As this happens there is less moisture in the air to deflect solar radiation from directly contacting the berries. This increased solar radiation is blamed on individual or groups of druplets turning first white and then later brown in color. [...] ‘Apache’ is a variety that is more prone to this disorder.

I have 'Navajo', which sounds like it could be a related variety, and we have certainly had decreased humidity and increased temps this year.  Both my blackberries and raspberries (which produced absolutely nothing) would have benefited from watering.

'German Johnson' tomatoes are ripening.  It's suggested that they be picked early when they are just starting to soften and then let them ripen indoors the rest of the way, so that's what I do.  It helps me get them before the raccoons do.  But not always.

Pink celery:

The melons growing up tomato cages aren't producing anything.  They get more shade than the ones on the compost hill, which have several full sized fruits already, so that could be an issue.  However, I haven't grown them sprawling on the ground before, so maybe they just do better that way.  

I have no doubt the raccoons will be after them before they're fully ripe, so I've put several in wire baskets in hopes that will allow me to get some ripe ones.  I've read that, while melons will continue to ripen after being picked, they stop the sugar production process at that point.

I'll wait.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot

This much heat is good for only one gardening task: washing out plastic pots for reuse next year. I get quite wet doing this chore, but I don't care when it's this hot.

The field poppies are looking a little more like the fields in Wizard of Oz.  Honeybees absolutely love these poppies.  They're abuzz all day long, so I don't know how Dorothy and the crew traipsed through the fields unstung.  

The small Persian melon plants are making their way up their cages and looking quite healthy despite the extreme heat and lack of rain.  (I've been watering from time to time, but they're in a spot they don't get as much as the rest of the garden. They do get some shade.)

Potatoes are harvestable size.

'All Blue' potatoes

'Yukon Gold' and 'All Blue' potatoes, 'Calima' green beans, 

'Tender Sweet' carrots, and 'Babybeat' beets

Cabbages have felt the heat for sure.  I was gone another week recently, and things were neglected.  Young cabbage plants obviously needed more attention.

'Brunswick'

Jalapeño peppers are not looking good.  I was hoping for a good crop this year in order to make more jelly.  Not looking promising.

The snack peppers look much better than the jalapeños and are flowering.  

I don't think this is going to be a successful year in the garden.  Much too hot too soon, and so very little rain.  I planted more tomatoes than ever before, hoping to have enough to put up some juice, but it's too hot to even set fruit.  Flowers dry up and fall off.  And if they do set fruit, it's too hot to ripen.  What a bummer.  I think my only hope at this point is for a cooler autumn and a late, late fall frost. 

The roma type tomatoes are doing better than the slicers, but I wonder if that's because they get some shade.  Their foliage is an ugly mess, but I've been told that's just the way they grow.

'German Johnson' slicing tomatoes

'Speckled Roman' roma tomatoes fronted by 'Cardinal' basil

'Speckled Roman'

'Babybeat' beets actually look good and are at the beginning stage for harvest.  They also get some shade.  Beet greens have been eaten up by insects in earlier years, so this year I'm trying to remember to spray neem oil on them.  Not bad so far.  I like to stir fry the greens with slices of roasted beets.

The celery I bought from a nursery this year seems to be coming along nicely.  I don't know what variety it is.  Sadly, it was only labeled "celery".

The pink celery I grew from seed is still very small.  Celery I've grown, no matter the variety, has always been such a slow grower.

Here's Ben's video on growing celery:  Growing Celery from Sowing to Harvest

After harvesting cabbage last year, I didn't bother to pull out what was left of some of the plants, and one of them took off again this spring.  It's now a triple-header, and one head is ready for harvest.  I think I'll leave this fall's plants in the ground overwinter and see if I get a repeat.

overwintered 'Primo Vantage' cabbage

overwintered 'Primo Vantage' cabbage

Unfortunately, I was up north when some things were ready to harvest, including this 'Seaside' spinach.  I'm letting it flower, and I'll try to harvest the seed for an attempt at a fall crop.

'Seaside' spinach

Some of the perennial flowers did better than the vegetables with the poor weather and lack of attention.

Drumstick allium

pink 'Shazam!' and yellow 'South Africa' roses

'Razzle Dazzle'

The forecast doesn't have any milder temperatures in store, but there is some rain showing for next weekend.  I hope it's still there when we get that far.

Early summer vegetable progression

Although my original plan for this blog was to grow and discuss vegetables, most of my posts in the last year or two have been about flowers.  

This post is going to be all about vegetables.  (And berries.)

I grew some long sweet peppers from seed I collected from a grocery store pepper.  They're nice and long, good sized, but haven't yet colored up.  They should mature as red peppers.  I have a feeling they're going to fall short of the store bought ones in quality because we have been in such a dry spell for so long.  I've watered the garden well twice during this long heat spell, but I think that still won't be enough for nice thick-walled peppers.

I also planted some chilis, jalapeños and short sweet peppers.  All are fruiting, and all are still green.

Jalpeño peppers

Thankfully, even with the incredible heat we've been having, I do have some tomatoes that set fruit.  I've read tomatoes will only ripen at temperatures between 50° and 80° F, so these may take a very long time to get to harvest.

'German Johnson'

My pink celery didn't grow any larger stalks than all my previous green celery, but like the green ones, it has a nice strong celery flavor.  I've let it flower, and I'll try and collect the seed for future planting.

Still no fruits on the cucumber plants, but they're flowering nicely and climbing the makeshift trellis I created out of pliable forsythia limbs early in the year.

'Marketmore' cucumber

I plant okra every other year when the farmland abutting my garden is sown in corn.  (The alternate years it's in soybeans which attract hordes of Japanese beetles, and they also infest okra.)  I direct sow both the okra and cucumber seeds, and while it's recommended to soak okra seeds overnight before planting, I don't bother.  I just keep the soil from drying out until they sprout, and I haven't had any trouble.

This year's variety is 'Carmine Splendor'.  I recently harvested a half-dozen pods, so they'll be coming on strong now.  

I've grown several varieties over the years, and the red ones are my favorite.  They're always tender, with a lovely size and shape. Plus, they're pretty plants.  All varieties have been harvestable by the first week of July.  'Jing Orange' was a tall variety, and this year and last, I planted a short variety, 'Carmine Splendor'.  Tall is nice for the fact that you don't have to bend over to harvest, but they got very large, taking up a lot of space and resulting in a lot of plant material to clear after the season was over.  I prefer this compact variety.

'Carmine Splendor'

I had a couple of varieties of cabbage selected to grow this year, but failed to get the seed, so I just started what I had left over from last year: red 'Omero' and green 'Primo Vantage'.

The 'Omero' didn't grow or produce well last year, and I thought maybe I had just transplanted them too early or too densely.  I corrected for that this year, but they're behaving pretty much the same way.

You can see the difference in the varieties in the following pictures:

 

Green 'Primo Vantage' and red 'Omero' cabbages

'Omero'

'Primo Vantage'

Winter killed one of my three raspberry varieties: 'Latham Red'.  The other two, 'Glencoe' and 'Fall Gold' survived, but certainly aren't flourishing.  A few 'Glencoe' recently ripened and were tasty, but they were very small and shattered when picked.  I think I recall them doing the same last year.  'Fall Gold' hasn't yet set any fruit.

My 'Navajo' blackberry bushes started out beautifully, and then one day after I got back from a week away, I went out and found much of it broken down.  I don't if there was a microburst storm event, because there apparently was a storm while I was away, but I suspect raccoons.  They do so much damage.  Nevertheless, there are a good many berries on the plants, and four of them have ripened.  They were delicious.

I don't know when we'll ever pass out of this heat, hovering around 90° every day; I just hope August isn't even hotter.  I'm not going to count on it.