Beautiful weather after the rains

Lush and green, flowers blooming...it's lovely out there.

New growth on the tomatoes looks strange to me.  Curly, like there's been herbicide damage, which there hasn't.  I assume they're responding to the weather, but I don't recall this ever in the past.

The potato-leaf 'German Johnson' variety shows it clearly.

'German Johnson'

And the 'Speckled Roman' are showing it all over, even on the old growth.  I haven't grown these before, but it just doesn't look right.  

'Speckled Roman'

I'm very interested to see if they look different later in the year, and whether there's any resulting effects on the fruit.  I sure hope not.

The walking onions are heading.  I don't use these in cooking, because I don't care for the flavor, and they're tough.  Also, they're really hard to control.  They pretty much become a weed.  They're taking over my compost hill.  In this spot in the garden, I keep them limited by pulling.  I like to keep some, because I think they're interesting to look at.

'Egyptian walking onions'

Arugula, which grows fast, is coming out.  I've learned to sow the seed after lettuce has come up and begun to get good growth on it so I'll have comparable sized leaves from each for salads.

I haven't grown beets for several years.  I'm excited to see how these 'Babybeat' plants turn out.  I'm planning on having beet greens to mix in salads, and I hope the small beetroots will be tasty.

A few 'Primo Vantage' cabbage plants that I didn't pull completely out of the soil are leafing out.  I don't know if there will be any useable heads from them, but I'm leaving them grow to find out.

Small Persian melon plants look quite happy after transplanting.  I've surrounded them with marigolds to hopefully mask the aroma and discourage raccoons.

'Savor', my favorite, on the other hand, are not doing well.  They didn't do well in the propagation chamber, so I'm assuming the seed wasn't still good.

'Seaside' spinach is looking very good.  I'll be planting this again in the future.  It has a nice mild spinach flavor with a substantial leaf.  

Roses are beginning to bloom.  Always exciting.

'Pat Austin'

'Zepherine Drouhin' climbing rose

I'll end with pretty flower pictures until next time, which will probably be in about three weeks when I return from a trip to Wisconsin.

A little rain goes a long way

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

This year there's only one stem of 'Penny Lane'.  I hope that doesn't mean it's giving up.

'English Charm'

'Jade Eyes' white allium, 'Tangerine Gem' Spanish poppy, 

and orange-scarlet oriental poppies

honeybees buzzing an oriental poppy

'Tangerine Gem' Spanish poppies

purple blooming 'Orange Balsam' creeping thyme 

covering the ground in the rose garden

Oh how I wish it would rain

The weather forecast keeps teasing rain, and it never happens.  Plants I've grown from seed are ready to go in the ground, so they have. And I've been forced to do a lot of watering.

We went from a very cool April (with some unfortunate freezing) to a very hot May - temperatures in the upper 80s.  Such is gardening in Missouri.  Maybe everywhere nowadays.

Lettuces I sowed earlier are coming up sporadically and sparsely.

Peas ('Kelvedon Wonder' and 'Lillian's Caseload') are up and coming along nicely, and the 'Calima' bush green beans I planted next to them are just now coming out of the ground.  The straw paths I made this year were apparently much more loosely baled than the bales I used last year, and these are just falling apart and blowing everywhere.  

Transplanted wasabi radishes are looking okay.  But I don't know how they're supposed to look.  I planted them once before and didn't get anything useful from them.  If they don't produce anything of use this year, I won't be trying again.

'Seaside' spinach - my first go at this - looks good.  It looks good to the rabbits, too.  It has a mild taste and a sturdy leaf.

That snap freeze we had got my potatoes, but they've come out of it and don't seem to be any worse for the wear.  This year I'm growing 'Yukon Gold', which I've grown before and know to be delicious, and 'All Blue', a purple variety. The picture below is 'All Blue'.

Hoping to get my small bed at the edge of the wildflower garden fleshed out, I purchased some small plants from the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery in Jefferson City.

The bed looks over the rest of the garden between the wildflower garden and a cut flower plot and the roses.  I envision it as a lovely place to sit and gaze some day.  Except it's awfully hot in the summer when everything is in full bloom, so I probably won't be doing any long term sitting.

Honeybees were out early this year, and they seem to appreciate the shallow water dish where they can sit at the edge and drink.

And it's apparently baby bunny season.

'English Charm' iris is supposed to be double-blooming, but this is the third year it's bloomed, and it's only been once in the spring; nothing in the fall.  At least it's charming that once.

'English Charm'

'English Charm'

The same is true for 'Victoria Falls'.

The oriental poppies have tons of buds this year.  

I revamped the pet cemetery, and hope I can keep it going until the rains come - if they come at all this year.  Chances are not looking good.  

Speaking of not looking good...yikes!  My 'Phenomenal' lavender died way back this year.  I don't know if it simply ran its normal life course or if the dry winter did it in.  I'm trying to nurse what's left long enough to get some of the living branches to root on their own.

 

I have no idea what name this iris has, but it looks a lot like 'Mother Earth'.

Until next time...rain dances welcome!