Beginning harvest

We're getting beyond just the leafy greens and rhubarb now, which means we're heading toward the really good stuff.  The rabbits ate the peas down to about half what I might have harvested, but I managed to gather enough for about four servings, and they were delicious.  There appears to be at least that amount still coming on, so it wasn't a total bust.

This variety - 'Improved Maestro' - is so perfect I haven't tried any others since I found it in 2017.  Before it, I tried 'Wando', 'Sugar Flash', 'Sugar Snap', and 'Green Arrow', none of which was terribly impressive.  'Improved Maestro' doesn't need a trellis, it produces pods with an average of 6-8 peas each, and they are so sweet and juicy that even when they've gotten to be maximum size, which, in my estimation, is normally a pea that's good for nothing but saving for seed, they're still decent.  Anything before that stage is candy.

The onions I sowed as seed are about eight inches tall now, and I thinned them out to at least a couple inches apart, giving me two large bunches of green onions.

I harvested a couple stalks of 'Spring Tower' celtuce, and found that the outer ring is full of latex. I didn't figure that would be good eating.

I peeled the stalks and cut them into rounds - well, they would be round if I were a better peeler; they're rather limber, and the leaf nodes prevent a smooth stripping like you would get with a carrot.  At least, that's my excuse.

I thought they were pretty good and would make nice additions to a green salad.  They're less dense than a water chestnut, but they have a similar crunch.  There's a lot of water in them, and I didn't notice any difference in the taste of the younger stalk and the older one, the narrower top end or the larger lower end.  I asked three other people their opinions, and they all kind of turned up their noses.  "Strong" was the most used description.  To me, it tasted just like lettuce.

Speaking of lettuce, it's still looking very pretty, and I'm still not eating it.  It would be a waste, but I like it for its ornamental value as much as anything.  And it's cheap to grow.  I saved seed from a green arrow-leafed variety whose name I don't know, and ordered a mix of varieties with red coloring from Baker Creek called Red Wing mix.  So, now that I have the types I want, I'll try just saving seed for next year.  Even if they cross, I expect to have a pretty mix.

  

The 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' tomatoes are flowering now.  I decided this year to prune them a little to get less foliage to tomato ratio, and see if that improves the size or abundance of tomatoes.  If you're interested in how that works, check out this site.

The two 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian' tomato plants I set out later in two different plots are now very different in size.  Apparently tomatoes aren't happy in composted tree bark.  And the canteloupe I planted in that plot aren't as vigorous as those in unmulched plots.  Last year, the onions loved it.

'Mrs. Maxwell' without tree bark mulch'

'Mrs. Maxwell' - and the cat - in tree bark mulch

'Glencoe' raspberry is ripening, oh boy.  And yes, I did eat this first one.  Not very big, but it was fabulous.  Why didn't I plant these four years ago?

The 'Navaho' blackberry plants that the deer ate off are putting out a few flowers now, and there's one berry.  I'm watching it like a hawk.

Some interesting coloration in leaves has shown up in two plants.  I don't know whether it's due to a virus - which would be odd since they're two very different genera: Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) and Trifolium (clover) - or just a misstep in the genetics.  This is the first year the absence of chlorophyll has showed up in my garden, and it's there twice.  Too bad I can't clone them and see what I get.

Tithonia rotundifolia (Mexican sunflower)

Volunteer clover

And now that I've brought up coloration, let's just keep going.

I always heard that there's no true blue color in flowers, but if these belladonna type delphiniuims are not true blue, then I can't tell color.  My camera doesn't always capture exactly the color I see, but in this case, it's spot on.  Unfortunately, different computer and TV screens render colors differently, but if you know the color cobalt blue, then...

There's this rich cobalt,

and this sky blue with purple highlights.

But, I'm really getting into orange this year, and among other orange flowers, this zinnia is new to me, and I think a new addition to the Queen Lime line.  This is 'Queen Lime Orange':

It will definitely be an annual choice.  Seeds are available at Johnny's Seeds.

And how nicely this 'Forever Susan' paired with the Asiatic lily whose name I don't know, as it was on the property when I got here.  I think technically a Tiger Lily is downward facing with recumbent petals, but whoever this is, it's the same coloration as a Tiger Lily.

Last year I tried something I hadn't seen before: globe amaranth (Gomphrena).  I think it might be something that was in older gardens but fell out of favor.  I don't know why.  They're wonderful, and they make great fillers for bouquets.  I had orange ones last year, and so this year I tried all colors I could find seed for.  I got them from Johnny's Seeds, but this year, they're not carrying so many.  I found another source at Floret (whom I haven't ordered from before), but it seems globe amaranth might not be reliably available when you want it.  I saved a few seeds last year, but I better save more this time.

'Carmine' and 'Strawberry Fields'

Purple and 'Audray White'

I happened upon a new critter at the edge of the garden.  And then there was a pair of them.  This one looks pregnant.

I left the picture smaller in case you have a slinky critter aversion.  I had a hard time trying to find out who it is (which I believe is a five-striped skink), because I tense up when I'm clicking on links to slinky critters in case a picture of one eating something pops up.  

Let's talk about something else.

I'm trying to air-layer a couple of roses to start new bushes.  I haven't had any luck rooting cuttings.  I've written about it in the previous post.  On this second bush, I dropped the plastic bottle idea and went with a plastic bag with both ends cut out.  It was so much easier.

After girdling the stem and trimming back the terminal end, I slipped the bag over it, positioning the girdled part midway inside the bag.

Then I tied the bottom end of the bag shut and scooped my rooting medium in through the top opening.  

I  watered it from the top, sealed that end, then wrapped it in tin foil.

So far, both bushes look good - the tops of the air-layered canes haven't wilted.  Either they're forming roots, or they're reforming bark if I didn't do it properly.  I can't peek yet.  The literature I've read says roots should form in about three weeks.

In the meantime, the rose garden is abloom, and only the new white one, 'Domina', is showing some blackspot disease on the leaves.  I've cleaned out the worst and sprayed the rest with neem oil.  It's getting established enough that I'll go ahead and treat it with a systemic fungicide.  If 'Domina' is going to be a blackspot magnet, she's going to find herself removed and replaced.  I already have some choices in mind.

The cut flower garden is in high gear, too.

I love the orange butterfly weed with the purple yarrow and blue belladonna-type delphiniums.

 

 We're heading into some cool weather for this time of year, or so they say.  Is that an "Indian spring"?  Whatever it is, enjoy it.  It'll no doubt be hades again after.

Mostly roses

The first of June has arrived, and finally we've had enough sunshine and heat for the roses to start doing their thing.

The first rose that bloomed this year was on a new variety I planted (mudded in) in March, and it was stunning.

'Razzle Dazzle':

This gorgeous orange rose (if it's not a fluke of weather and newness) has a form different than any others I have.  And it goes through more color changes: from dark orange, to yellow gold, to reddish.

When it opens fully, its relatively few petals are very large and graceful, giving way to a yellow center.  They lay out fully open in the heat of the day, and pull themselves back overnight.

And then, another of the new roses and another stunner, 'South Africa', bloomed.  A profusion of blossoms right out of the gate.

Pure gold.

Here it is set off by the red 'Grande Amore' in front of it.

Poor 'Shazam!', the oldest bush in the bed, which was outstanding last year, started out to look like it would be again this year.  And then it lost half its canes to a twig pruner.  I guess the systemic imidicloprid I put on it isn't working.    For fear I'll lose the whole bush, and having had no luck rooting stem cuttings in the past (although I'm still trying again this year), I'm attempting to air layer one cane to get a replacement plant.  Instructions can be found online by Googling "how to air layer roses."  I took some tips from several different sites, and came up with the following:

I cut open one side of a small plastic bottle and made a hole in the bottom about the same size as the neck opening, then filled it with a mixture of sand, vermiculite and peat moss, which I then watered thoroughly, letting the excess drain out.  

After stripping the bark off completely girdling about an inch of a pencil sized cane, I worked that section of it into the bottle, smooshing the damp mixture around to cover the wound entirely, then velcroed the bottle shut.

I then wrapped the whole thing in aluminum foil to help prevent drying and to reflect sun so as to not bake it.  I had to brace the cane with a couple of stakes to keep it upright.

That was two days ago, and if the top doesn't wilt, which it hasn't so far, hopefully that means it's living long enough to form roots at the girdled section, and once it has enough of them, I can cut that off and plant it.  

I may be disappointed in this trial, as the stem I chose also has some pruner damage at the base.  My thinking was that a first trial just to get the technique down was probably going to be a failure, and I didn't want to lose any of the few undamaged canes the plant has left.  

If it doesn't work, I'm going to modify the technique to just make a slice into the cane and pack that with sphagnum moss to prevent it healing, rather than girdling the cane the whole way round, and then pack the bottle of soilless mixture around it.  Well, on a different cane, of course.  

The idea is that the cane will take up water and nutrients through the xylem - the inner conducting cells - and produce roots at the wound in the cells near the surface where roots form.  Well, they're actually at the surface now that the outer bark has been stripped off.

If I have luck with either method, I'll repeat it on all my roses so I can have a backup plant in case I lose the mother plant.

Years ago in college, in one of my horticulture courses, we grafted fruit trees.  In that procedure, you make a slice into a stem and place the end of another sliced off stem bud lined up with the outer edge of the growing stem so that the very thin layer of growing cells (the cambium) just under the bark on each line up and heal together.  I was one of only two of us who had successful grafts.  Unfortunately, I had managed to successfully graft a flower bud instead of a stem bud!  It flowered and grew no further.

Next to the rose bed, I have a cut flower garden.  Most of the lupines have finished blooming, as has the baptisia. Snapdragons, yarrow and liatris are budding, and in bloom are the belladonna type delphiniums, toothache plants,  globe amaranth and something brand new to me: Apricot Fudge lily.

Blue and white belladonna type delphiniums

Globe amaranth  (Gomphrena)

Top: yarrow; center: butterfly milkweed; bottom: toothache plant

I'm calling that plant at the base of the butterfly house butterfly milkweed because that's what I think it is, not because that's what I know it is.  When it blooms, I'll be able to tell you.  It came up from last year, and that's what I had planted there.  On the other hand, this used to be a wildflower bed, and it's possible something that was originally there found its way back to the surface.

Cut flower bed

The other oriental and asiatic lilies in a bed near the house have nice big buds, but it will be a while yet before they blossom, I think.

At the entrance to the garden, the 'Hungarian Blue' annual poppies have started to bloom.

Krazy Kat decided the other day that the best place to preen was inside a tomato cage.

We've finally had enough clear, sunny days that most of the garden is at a good moisture level for planting.  Of course, I've already planted most things, or rather mudded in most things.  But this gave me a chance to plant lima beans and set out my pepper plants.

Snack peppers

Canteloupes are coming along, reaching the sides of the cages and starting to climb.

The peas are producing pods now.  I just hope the rabbits left enough for me to have at least one serving!

Center row: 'Improved Maestro' peas

The onion seed I planted is doing well enough.  They're the size to harvest as green onions now.  I'll thin them out soon and eat them as such, allowing the remaining plants to form bulbs.  At least, that's the theory.

I don't know about the cabbages.  After the rabbits chewed them off, they've put out new leaves, but I don't know whether they'll get a chance to make heads.  That bed was supposed to have cabbages and zinnias, but along with the rabbit damage, the cold and wet stunted and discouraged zinnia growth, so I filled it in with crimson clover.  It also has a few marigolds that I planted with the cabbages to hopefully repel cabbage moth.  It's quite the mixed-up plot.

The celtuce is bolting.  I'm not sure when I'm supposed to harvest it.  Is it past time?  You're supposed to pull the lower leaves off and eat the stem, but not having grown it before, I don't know if it should have been taller but not bolting and would have been in a less watery year.  I guess the only way to find out whther it's ready to eat or past ready is to pull one and try it.

Tomatoes are flowering, but the plants are much smaller than they have been in the past at flowering stage.  Another effect of the cool, very wet spring and having to plant in mud.

Last year:

This year:

 'Missouri Pink Love Apple'

 The cucumbers are finally reaching out to climb.

I've finally been able to take down my portable greenhouse.  I had only three flats left, and today I planted two of them.

The  three varieties of basil I started this year didn't do well at all.  The first round of bush basil all rotted in the greenhouse, and the second set are still too small to plant out.  In the purple variety, the first round were saved seeds, and none of the plants came up purple leaved.  I then bought some seed and planted 'Dark Opal', and only a few just barely hung on. I put them out today, along with the second round of cardinal basil, the first round of those having also given up the ghost.  I ended up with so few basil plants that I changed my plan from a whole plot of basil to planting my lima beans there instead of as a second crop in the pea rows, and planting the basils mostly amongst the flowers.  With an experimental, ornamental vegetable garden and and an "oh well" philosophy, you can do that.

Not too bad for all the weather and critter issues.

UPDATE 7/8:

It looked like my air-layering attempt to get a start from 'Shazam!' might be failing, but when I opened it up, indeed there were some roots.  I can't tell, but I don't think they're from the area that I scraped, but from a node, which means I didn't really have any success, just luck.

I potted it up and hope it can stay alive.  The leaves are damaged and won't be able to produce much food, if any, so I'm not feeling optimistic.