The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: kohlrabi

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

We're not getting as much rain as we need, but we're getting enough that I can stop watering for a bit. Things are really taking off.

The 'Calima' bush beans are up.

Wasabi radishes are filling out. I hope they decide to make an actual radish this year. Otherwise, they won't be planted again. Well, they may not even then, depending on whether I like them.

This is the first year I've planted roma style tomatoes. 'Speckled Roman' looked beautiful last summer in my sister's Wisconsin garden, so I thought I'd give them a shot. The plants all look like they were hit by herbicide. They weren't. Maybe they just don't like it here.

'Tender Sweet' carrots are up and very weedy. They get lawnmower clipping trash sprayed on them by a careless lawn mower, and I have a heck of a time pulling out little grass seedlings. After my first year of carrots that did beautifully, I haven't had much luck. Thinning carrots is a difficult job, so this year I tried very hard to sow the seed sparsely. It looks like I managed it ok. Maybe too sparsely. Hopefully the carrots will grow nicely and be both tender and sweet. I recently planted another patch of 'SugarSnax' carrots, but they have yet to germinate.

Newly emerged potato plants were hit by a freeze, but they've come out of it just fine. I planted 'Yukon Gold' and 'All Blue' this year. This is 'All Blue':

I'm looking forward to finding out how the blue ones compare in texture and taste.

I have several varieties of lettuce, most of which got off to a poor start due to the unexpected cold weather early on. The 'Green Ice' and 'New Red Fire' varieties were sown at the same time, and they've certainly responded differently.

'New Red Fire'

'Early purple Vienna' kohlrabi plants are getting established, but they're not nearly as big as the ones I still have in pots to give away.

My favorite cantaloupe - 'Savor' - seeds germinated and grew poorly. I transplanted three anyway, but I'm not expecting much. It was last year's seed, so maybe it doesn't store well, even in the freezer. Or maybe I should have direct seeded like I usually do. I'll order more for next year.

In the meantime, I ordered some small Persian melons to try. The catalog promised very sweet fruit, so I'm hoping they'll be at least nearly as good as 'Savor'. I set them out a little earlier than I might otherwise do, but I need to get things established well before I leave later this month for two weeks out of state.

Small Persian melon

Tomatoes are caged, peppers are planted, oregano is starting to get out of control, and chives are blooming.

I have never met so many mole tunnels in my life. The whole garden seems undermined. I've been trying to drill holes with the water hose and flood them, and put mole bait in the tunnels they reuse. I planted a row of basil along my tomatoes, about 20 plants, and I hit a tunnel setting in all but 2!

My poor zinnia patch looks like it was bombed from my attempts to rid it of moles.

I planted some 'Giant Rattle' annual poppies for the first time this year, and the foliage is looking like the giant part isn't a lie.

I still don't know what variety this iris is, but I love it. The blooms are huge, and so lovely.

And now I have another iris whose name I don't know. I know the plants I ordered for this bed did not include a rich purple one, so I can only assume the seller got one mixed in of another name, but I'm not complaining.

I would like to know its name, though. I suppose I can just give it one. Or find a dark purple iris that looks like it and call it that. It looks like one from the company I ordered from called 'Titan's Glory', so that's probably what I'll call it.

'Victoria Falls' (pale purple), 'English Charm' (two tone orange), 'Penny Lane' (brilliant orange), pink Gladiolus bizantinus, and oriental lilies yet to bloom