Another photo dump post

There's really no rhyme or reason to these pictures.  They're mostly roses and insects making the most of these early autumn days.

If 'Pat Austin' weren't such a beautiful color rose I'd have moved her to the road bank.  I do wish she'd hold her blossoms up.  They don't work for cut flowers, either.  But, lordy, they're beautiful.

The bees like them, too.

I still have enough roses and gomphrena to make little bouquets.

The gomphrena just keep going and going.  They bloom from the first of May until the frost kills them.   I think they may be on their last legs, though.

Unlike 'Pat Austin', 'Grande Amore' is an excellent cut rose.  It has large blooms, sturdy stems and lasts a long time in the vase.  I can never get a good picture of it, though.  It's really quite stunning, but the color of it isn't good for photographing.  (At least not for an amateur.)  The light reflection makes all the petals kind of blend together and look out of focus.  The foliage photogaphs well, but not the blooms.  I keep trying, but in three years, I have yet to get a picture that does them justice.

'South Africa' photographs very well and is a real stunner.  Well-named.

I planted two rambling roses on the road bank this spring, and they did absolutely nothing aside from look bad.  Neither of them even produced one bloom.  It's shadier and drier there than the garden, so I transplanted them today into the perennial bed, which is coming along bit by bit.  Hopefully, these 'Tour de Malakoff' roses will take off here and do well next year.  

A few days ago, I received an order of allium bulbs which I planted in the perennial bed.  I have a few more things to do there, and then it'll be finished.  Of course, those few things include digging up the remaining wildflowers and grasses and turning the soil.  But, it's about 3/4 done!

Shame on the person who dumped this pretty and very friendly cat out on the highway.  He has decided he'll stay here, even though the other two stray cats don't like him.  (They don't much like each other, truth be told!)  He hangs out in the garden any time I'm there and kind of makes a pest of himself, but he's young and silly, and loving, so he's welcome.

Cowpeas are putting out a second flush of beans and still look lush.

The aphids that attack the milkweed plants are some of the prettiest aphids, if you can appreciate an aphid.  Thankfully, the only other plant that I've had an aphid issue with is the grapevine.  They certainly are plentiful on the milkweed.  A hard spray of water, or just a gloved hand scraped along the stem gets rid of them easily enough.  If you wait long enough, they'll attract lady beetles, which eat them.

Aphids are little procreating machines.  They don't have any males in the population, so there's no time wasted in fertilizing and laying eggs.  They just eat and pop out live babies.  They don't even poop.  Everything goes to making those hundreds of clone kids.  Almost everything.  What doesn't, slowly builds up in the aphid's system and eventually kills her.

You know it's an aphid if it has what one fellow grad student called tailpipes.  They're actually called cornicles.  There are two stuck onto the rear of the abdomen, and on these bright orange aphids (Aphis nerii), they're quite obvious, because they're black.

The milkweed plants also have another insect "pest" - milkweed bugs.  They're a bit less prolific than the aphids, but still plentiful.  Unlike the aphids, they don't seem to do much damage, and the plants are about done for by the time they show up, so I haven't bothered to control them.  

They moved over to nearby ornamental peppers, but I still can't see damage on the plants, so I'm okay with them for now.

Gardening season is drawing to a close, but I'll probably have a couple more posts before it's done.  I'm still harvesting tomatoes, cowpeas and herbs.

Till next time.

Extended summer

I thought the limas and cowpeas were done for, and maybe the limas are, but the cowpeas seem to be having a rebirth.  Tomatoes are still performing, and the weather has gone from scorching to mellow.

Purple hull cowpeas

Pink tomato varieties:  Missouri Pink Love Apple (delicious) and

Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian (so-so)

Fall peas - 'Improved Maestro'

So....here's another photo dump post.

I've been planting bulbs and more bulbs in the tulip beds.  I'm excited to see how they look in the spring.  Knowing I was going to be planting so many bulbs this year, i purchased a bulb planter.  The difference between using it and digging holes is immense.  It was a great investment, even if I never plant another bulb.  Which, of course, I will!

I've also added (right sidebar) Breck's to my list of places where I get my plant material.  While I've received some things that didn't make it, they have lots of desirable plants (not just bulbs), and they're very good about guarantees (lifetime!) and customer service.  They also send lots of pretty pictures in ads...beware. The drawback is that most of their bulbs are shipped direct from Holland, so they can be in transit for a month or so, which probably explains why some things don't survive.

The perennial bed is filling out.

Gaura and 'Blue Spire' Russian Sage

Roses are struggling, but producing some beatiful blooms.

'Pat Austin'

'Razzle Dazzle' rose bud

Red 'Grande Amore', yellow 'South Africa', godenrod, 

'Strawberry Fields' globe amaranth and lavender

This is the first time I've ever seen a wolf spider carrying her babies.  They're the only spider that does that.  Why aren't they called possum spiders?

Don't see her? 

Here...

 Enjoy your extra summer.

Early foggy morning in the garden

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.