Late summer lull

With the removal of the spent melon cages, the snack peppers are finally getting the sunlight they need.  Maybe they'll produce something now.  

I've planted peas in the space left by the melons from which I hope to get a bigger supply of seed for next spring.  (If I can refrain from eating them raw when they're juicy and small.)

The purple hull cowpeas have virtually finished producing, but the plants still look pretty.

Same goes for the 'Henderson's bush' lima beans.

Over in the purely ornamental sector, the perennial bed is starting to actually look like a perennial bed.

I'm getting anxious to get in all the tulip and daffodil bulbs I ordered, but in the meantime, I did get a bleeding heart in the mail.

I'm feeling a bit skeptical.  But I planted it.  We shall see.  I've gotten other things by mail that looked doubtful, but which nevertheless grew.  So far, the only thing I ordered didn't make it was a fern.  They always seem to be iffy for me, even when I buy them in pots.

The roses, finally having been relieved of the Japanese beetle scourge, are blooming without the buds being "bagged".  It's not been a good year for them at all, but a few are doing well in spite of it.  Not the 'Razzle Dazzle', unfortunately, but it recently did produce this beauty:

 'South Africa' is one that has managed to fair well enough: 

And 'Grande Amore' is growing to an unusual 7 feet tall again this year. 

Unusual as far as the literature for them goes. I guess for this one, it wasn't a fluke last year when it grew to such heights when the weather was perfect for the roses then.

Now, what's this all over the milkweed pods? 

Why, yes, it's milkweed bugs.  Juveniles.

When I was seeing one or two of the adults around, from my old memory banks I was seeing them as boxelder bugs.  Here's a Wikipedia picture of an adult milkweed bug with a couple young:

And here's the boxelder bug:

My memory was a bit off.  As it may often be.

Til next time.

Faery rings and other things

'Queen Lime red' zinnias

I've harvested the last of the cucumbers, beets, carrots and melons.  I'm only sad about the melons.  

There are still tomatoes ripening on all the plants, including the cherry tomatoes and the volunteer whatever it is - appears to be a cross between a cherry tomato and a full sized one I had planted last year.  I'm going to save some seeds from it and see whether it reverts to a different type or if maybe it got planted by a bird or other critter from someone else's garden.

There's about one more light harvest possible from each the cowpeas (black-eyed peas) and the lima beans.  Both have produced a good deal more beans than I've gotten from them in the past.

Purple hull cowpeas

'Henderson's Bush' lima beans

After all the tribulations getting cabbage growing from early cold, wet soil to rabbit and insect dining, there are one of each variety I planted left and making heads.

'Violaceo di Verona' (l) and 'Kalibos' (r)

'Violaceo di Verona'

Next year, I'm going to plant a fall crop of cabbage and skip the spring planting.  I'm also going to try something I saw online about ways to combat cabbage moth (and thus cabbage moth caterpillars).  Suppposedly, the moths are territorial, so if you hang decoys, they'll go elsewhere. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a try.

Speaking of insect pests,  aside from my new grapevine, which seems to be a pest magnet, I had very little in the way of problems in the vegetable garden this year, perhaps because of the hard cold winter we had.  Normally, I've had quite a few tomato hornworms and oodles of grasshoppers.  This year, I only caught three hornworms and saw less than half a dozen grasshoppers.  I'm not complaining.

'Golden Muscat' grape 

The Japanese beetles were also much reduced this year, thank heaven, but I did still have to spray Sevin and bag my  raspberry and rose buds for a couple months.  They seem to have moved on for the season - fingers crossed.  

'South Africa'

I found this guy on my celery, but I don't think it could do much damage by itself.  It's the larva of a black swallowtail butterfly, so I'm happy to leave it alive.

 It's been a frog-filled year.  They've been hopping about my garden all spring and summer.  Here's one at the water hydrant:

Last year, there was one large toadstool in the yard.  This spring, there were two in its place.  Now there's a whole fairy ring.

Till next time...

Happy trails.

Lazy, hazy, crazy (and darned hot) days of summer

Other than the cucumbers and onions have all been harvested for the year, there's nothing much to write about, so here's another photo dump post.

The black-eyed peas (cowpeas) are nearing harvest time.  These are the purple hull variety.  You'll see why they're called that when you get to the third picture, but you can probably already guess.

Last time I wrote about the canteloupes, there was some powdery mildew on the shady side of a couple of plants that I was going to keep an eye on.   I kept an eye on it, but I didn't do anything about it, so this is what the plants look like now:

It didn't seem like there was any good reason to spray something on them since they're pretty much done producing anyway.  I did get some delicious melons...

...but for every one I got, the critters got two.  Fortunately, I planted a lot of them.

A little Missouri primrose volunteer showed up when I pulled the dying Mexican sunflowers.  There hadn't been any planted there before, so its seed made its way from elsewhere by bird or by beast.

Something I ran across recently that I'll share:  You may recall I've described how to tell a Viceroy from a Monarch butterfly by the black stripe through the lower wings of a Viceroy. 

Viceroy butterfly

Recently I came across a photo showing the difference between a male and a female Monarch on a site called ButterflyLady.com.  This might be a little trickier to see out in your garden.  To spot the spot, so to speak.

The japanese beetles have dropped off to just a few now and then, and that combined with bagging the rose blossoms when the buds start to open with little organza drawstring sacks, I've been able to at least get some nice bouquets.

'Pat Austin' (salmon orange), 'Grande Amore' (red) and 'Domina' (white) roses

Daylilies, 'Yellow torch' Mexican sunflowers, orange 'Queen Lime' zinnias, 'Snowdrift' marigolds,

'Audray' white and 'Strawberry Fields' red gomphrena (globe amaranth), and 'Dark Desire' roses

 'Neptune' (lilac hybrid tea), 'Poseidon' (lilac grandiflora), and 'Dark Desire' (dark red hybrid tea) roses,

'Carmine' gomphrena, 'Cora deep lavender' annual vinca

Keep your cool.

Till next time.

Critters and other stuff

Harvest time is always nice.  The few tomatoes that managed to set and ripen have been good, and I've actually gotten enough for slices on tomato and bacon sandwiches (one a day - I limit myself!) and to freeze half a dozen quarts for winter soups.

The melons have been ripening enough to get one every two or three days.  'Petit Gris de Rennes' - the frist year for this French Charentais - has been more prolific than last year's favorite 'Savor' (which was also a first for any canteloupe in my garden, never mind French Charentais).  They're also bigger and earlier to ripen than 'Savor'.  All of that would allow it to displace 'Savor' in the garden except for the fact that it's not quite as tasty and sweet, and the ripe flesh is not quite as firm.  It's a good second best, though.  Next year, I'll try a third Charentais ('Escorial') and decide between it and 'Petit Gris' to plant in addition to 'Savor'.  If I only planted 'Savor', I'd have to plant the whole garden in melon to get enough to harvest.

Surprise!

Silly little guy.  Fortunately, I've not had any more raccoons tearing up my garden.  I did see a huge groundhog strolling through the yard one day, and he was perhaps one of the critters who gets to my melons when they're almost ready to pick.  But I imagine this little possum is in on the game.

Since the possums don't tear up everything in sight like the raccoons, I decided it's not worth hauling them off, so when I trapped this scroungey little thing, I opened the trap door for him (or her?) to run off, but he wouldn't budge.  So I propped the trap door open and went on about my business.  When I came back forty minutes later thinking he'd have figured it out, he was still sitting in the trap, facing the door.  I squirted his behind with the garden hose, and he reluctantly left.  This was the same possum I'd trapped and released a few days earlier, but who'd eventually left the trap on its own. 

The next morning, he was trapped again!  Same story: He wouldn't leave when I opened the trap door.  Again, I propped open the door, and when I came back, he'd curled up and gone to sleep!   I think he might figure if he waits around, that tin can will magically contain cat food again.  Either that, or he has Stockholm Syndrome.  This time, I picked the trap up and shook him out.   Still no raccoons, so I put the traps away.

My air layering to clone roses hasn't been a smashing success.  They developed roots, but after potting them up, they eventually died.  The 'Julia Child' clipping that I stuck in some potting soil to root, on the other hand, made it and actually has put out a little rose.

 Out in the yard, where there was one large toadstool last year, this year there are three.  These guys are 8-10 inches in diameter when they're fully open.  I'm kind of a fungus nut, although I never bother to find out what kind they are. I find all the various types fascinating.

 The snack peppers are finally ripening.

 

 And the cowpeas are flowering.

Till next time.