Leaps and bounds

I didn't get anything written up while the peonies were blooming, and sadly, the last of them, including those cut and brought in, are now a memory. 

'Bowl of Beauty' peony

'Sorbet' (dark  pink) and 'Sarah Bernhardt' peonies

However, the vegetable garden is finally taking hold.

onions and tomatoes

The peas that I had to replant because of late spring cold and wet weather, are finally producing.

I put out my little cabbage seedlings, setting them amongst carrots and lettuce and dispersed in a tulip bed whose bulbs are long past.  I read an article last year that suggested putting up images of cabbage white butterflies would deter the actual pests because they're territorial, and if one appears in the vicinity, the others will go elsewhere.  I figured it was worth a try.  If nothing else, they won't all be in a nice open row where it's a walk in the park to be located and destroyed.  Of course, this will do nothing for the presence of cabbage loopers and cross-striped cabbageworm moths.

Little cantaloupe plants are settled in, and I expect them to start running rampant any day now.  I'll need to cage them at that point.  I planted a perimeter of marigolds around them to see if the strong aroma of the flowers will confuse or discourage raccoon feeding on the melons when they ripen.  I know it's a long shot, but you can't blame a person for trying, especially when the raccoons have been getting over half the melon crop.

The little tomato plants are growing rapidly and had to get their cages on before it became too late to do it without breaking the plants.

Something I'm trying for the first time: ground cherries.  This variety is called 'Aunt Molly's'.  I wanted to see if they make a good jelly.  They're just starting to blossom and fruit.  I planted them atop my large compost pile so I don't have to stand on my head to harvest them.

The 'Red Swan' bush beans I planted in the row that was supposed to have climbing peas (three times attempting to plant them and only got about three plants!) are fast growers.  They'll have maroon colored beans.  Little pink and white flower buds are just forming.  I'm eager to see what they look like when they are in full bloom.

I put out three little pumpkin plants just for something different: 'Jarrahdale' in the catalog pictures is a gray-skinned one.  It has a typical beautiful yellow squash blossom, which are eaten both cooked and raw in Mexico.  I'm not growing enough plants to spare any blossoms.

Blackberries are blooming and forming fruit.  (As are the grapes, which I'll try to remember to capture and post next time.)  Blackberry blossoms are so beautiful.  What pollinator wouldn't be attracted?

This year I'm starting a wildflower bed with a variety of species.  The huge wildflower bed it borders has, over the years, reduced itself to the three or four varieties that were obviously most suited to the site.  And grass!

Stay well, stay safe, and be kind.

The long spring

In the six years that I've been back in Missouri, this is the first time we've actually had a spring.  And, boy, it's been a long one.  I'm not complaining.

This year's tulip bed was magnificent.  

'Louvre'

'Louvre' and 'Mistress Mystic' seemed determined to last forever.  Eventually a big storm came up and beat on them.  They still managed to look pretty the next day, but their petals soon fell.

Left: 'Louvre', right: 'Mistress Mystic' after the storm

These bulbs were from John Scheepers.  They were large and very healthy.  Also, the daffodil bulbs I ordered from Sheepers were excellent.  That will be my nursery of choice for future bulb orders.

Over in the new perennial bed, the 'Persian Blue' alliums are blooming, and the 'Jade Eyes' alliums are starting to open.  I got these from Breck's. About 1/3 to half of the things I've ordered from Breck's have failed to thrive.  I'm going to drop them from my list.  But, these alliums are looking good.

'Persian Blue' allium

'Persian Blue' allium

'Jade Eyes' allium

I discovered a mole run directly beneath where I planted 'Maxigolt' peas (which didn't come up) and what appears to have been a den beneath the plot where I transplanted cactus zinnias.  I blasted water into both with the garden hose and left the holes open for several days.  I don't know where the moles went next, but I won't be surprised if its just another piece of my garden.

The moles weren't the only problem for my peas this year.  It stayed cold and wet too long, so even my second planting of 'Lincoln' and 'Little Marvel' peas germinated poorly.

I couldn't get the peas I've had such good luck with in the past - 'Improved Maestro' - so I can't be sure it was all due to the weather (and the moles), and not in part due to the pea variety.

I transplanted peppers into the bare areas of the pea rows, but now I'm thinking they won't be able to grow fast enough to keep from being overgrown by the peas.

Peppers and peas

The 'Red Swan' bush beans I planted in front of the aborted row of 'Maxigolt' peas germinated about 100%, it appears.

With the help of my sister, tomato plants are in the ground.  I sowed crimson clover seed along with a third of them to see if there's any benefit of its nitrogen fixating properties on the tomatoes.

In addition to my favorite variety, 'Missouri Pink Love Apple', this year I'm trying 'Valley Girl' and 'German Johnson'.  After last year's intense heat spell thwarted fruiting for so many weeks, I wanted to find another variety that will stand up to the heat.  I chose 'Valley Girl' for the claim it will do that. I got both varieties from Johnny's.  

'Valley Girl' is a determinate variety, which means they grow and ripen at the same time, making them a good candidate for canning or juicing.  It's advertised to do well in both heat and cold stress.  If that's true, it's a boon, because here you never know which they'll get, but they're bound to get one or the other.

'German Johnson' is an indeterminate variety like 'Missouri Pink Love Apple', so the tomatoes come on consecutively throughout the growing season, rather than all at once.  It's a regular leafed pink variety, as opposed to the potato leaf of 'Missouri Pink', and is advertised to be more productive.  I can't imagine it tastes better than 'Missouri Pink', but if it tastes as good, and it produces more fruit, it may become my new go-to slicing tomato.  

By the way, "pink" tomatoes are red.  Just not as deep red as red tomatoes.

Lettuce and carrots are gaining now.  The lettuce is harvestable as tender baby leaves.

Mixed varieties from saved seed

'Merveille des Quatre Saisons'

The pea and lettuce beds are on the east end of the garden around the tulip beds and under a mimosa tree which is just now leafing out.  Warm season plants that require full sun don't do well there, but the cool season veggies are just fine, and in fact seem to appreciate a little shading as the weather heats up.

My sad, sad basil seedlings have not liked this cool spring at all.  Had I known we'd be having one, I would have waited longer to start them.

I chose not to purchase another trellis for my cucumbers this year (they lost their previous years' trellises to grapes and melons) and just make do with what I could cobble up, which turned out to be old fencing materials.  This is it:

How's THAT for "rustic"?  It won't win any beauty prizes, but in a few weeks, it will be covered with vines anyway.

The 'Golden Muscat' grapevines are in their second year, and I'm excitedly hoping they'll actually produce grape clusters.  Last year, there was only one flower cluster, and it aborted.

This year, there are quite a few little flower clusters. Hopefully, they'll get fertilized.

Stay safe.  Wear your coronavirus mask in public to keep others safe.  Take in the Missouri spring.  We may not get another one like it.

Gardening in the time of coronavirus*

*A lame reference to Gabriel Garcia Marquez' great novel, Love in the Time of Cholera.

Spring is trying to come on, but winter doesn't want to leave and creates some nasty, freezing nights, with lots of rain.  Therefore, I had to replant my peas, which are again struggling to come up, and aside from lettuce and carrots, I can't get anything else planted.

So, we'll just look at the beautiful things that are managing to stay alive (and avoid being eaten by deer), like this little 'Jane' magnolia.

Pay no attention to those dandelions at its feet.

The new tulip beds are not disappointing.

'Cassata' - the earliest daffodil

'Louvre' tulip

'Pink Enchantment' daffodil

'Altruist' daffodil

'Thalia' daffodil and red-veined sorrel

'Mistress Mystic' tulip

'Mistress Mystic' tulip and 'Pippit' daffodil

In the meantime, I've been nursing along my seedlings, which are looking good and wanting homes in the earth, and have been receiving some live plants that I'm going to put in my perennial garden.  I've been hesitant to order live plants other than the roses, but I like the way Ohio Spring Hill Nursery packages theirs, sealing them up in cardboard sleeves and gluing down the cellophaned root ball so the plant doesn't slide around.  I'm going to add a link to their website in the right-hand column of places "Where I Buy."

On sunny days, the stray cat, who is now a permanent resident, likes to hang out with me in the garden.  The bed of crimson clover makes a comfy, sweet-smelling spot to rest when he's finished leaping about in it pretending to stalk jungle game.

The lilacs are blooming.  Ah, the lilacs.

Stay safe.  Stay at home.  This, too, shall pass.