Deirdre's Garden Diary 2008 June July Summer Vegetables

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:: August-September 2008 ::

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:: 09.12.08 ::

A Comfy Bed

The Oxblood lily bulbs I planted this spring bloomed for the first time yesterday. They seemed a little weak after they first opened; the petals were kind of wrinkled and limp...but the next day they filled out and looked a lot better. I only bought 10 bulbs and I kept them spread out when I put them in, so they don't make a huge impact, but they do add a nice touch of color. Hopefully in the future they will multiply and spread into a large colorful mass that fills the space like these at Zanthan Garden...can you say "jealous"! I might have to just go ahead and buy some more bulbs since I don't want to wait five years or more for them to fill in by dividing them. After all, I doubt you can ever have too many and 10 is obviously not enough to satisfy the craving for these little beauties.

It was very exciting to see them pop up literally overnight and bloom next to the Salvia in the new flower bed I planted last Fall. This bed is starting to fill in nicely and I think I'm going to expand the bed again this Fall by adding some other things into the mix. I already bought a few Fall asters and I think I will pop them in around the edges before they get ready to bloom. I will probably fill it up with more Columbine too since their foliage stayed green and leafy all summer long after the yellow blooms dried up.
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:: 09.08.08 ::

Shadows of Summer

Where does the time go? The American Beautyberry fruits have already turned bright magenta and are lighting up the lazy summer shadows. Fall is coming; and as bad as I want it to get here I am not ready for it.

I have to play catch up this week to get the rest of the garden in order and the bulk of the Fall vegetables planted. As I was working last week I just couldn't stop staring at the pecan tree next to the vegetable beds. It's large limb has been growing out over the garden area blocking one of the desired spots where I need sun most of the day. It was distracting my thoughts. I couldn't quit thinking about how much better the vegetables would produce if it wasn't there.

On a whim I convinced myself it needed to be cut down...now! Seeking instant gratification I went into the house and called a tree service for a quote. Of course they wanted to come out and look at it first, so I said ok, come look. Two hours later the huge limb was stacked in pieces in the back yard. I then spent the rest of the day worrying whether or not I had done the right thing; it's hard for me to cut back a tree, especially the older ones. But I finally convinced myself that my spontaneous act of amputation should have been done a year or more ago and everything was going to be fine.

The sun in that spot is now searing and bright. Too hot for me to linger in that spot midday without a stylish straw hat...but the vegetable plants love it.

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:: 08.08.08 ::

Ate.Ate. O-Ate

I rather like this idea and agree that it would make a great statement...

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Besides the petition mentioned in the video there are other garden activists like this who are reviving the idea of the Victory Gardens by taking an activist approach to encourage people to grow more edible gardens. They are helping their local community near San Francisco by offering a starter kit for sale and will even come to your house and help you set it up! It's part of a new movement for sustainable living and urban edible gardens as a way to help improve the ecological problems facing our modern environment.

Here is an e-book titled "The War Garden Victorious"; you can read more about the history and see some interesting vintage images. The Fenway Victory Garden in Boston is the oldest memorial garden still in existence. And long before World War II, Americans such as Thomas Jefferson knew the importance of keeping a vegetable garden at his home in Monticello...This site lets you take a historical virtual tour of that amazing garden estate.

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:: 08.1.08 ::

Fall Down

We moved into August with some rain in the early morning hours both today and yesterday. The thunder woke me so I got up and went outside to sit on the porch with the kitties to enjoy the cool breeze and sweet smell of a summer rain. It was really nice and the plants are loving it. I hope it marks a trend and we get more. The temperatures have been really hot, frequently over 100F for about two weeks now.

The big news here though is that I actually decided to finally do a Fall garden. That means I am having to plan it now and get things ready despite the 100F heat. This is the hardest part of gardening for me...juggling the seasons and figuring out what to plant when...math is kind of involved: counting backwards from anticipated frost dates, counting forward how many days until a seed will germinate, and how many until it can be harvested for each type of vegetable...it can get confusing fast. I made charts...I revised charts...but I stilI don't feel confident that I did it right. I keep checking and rechecking the calculations. Even with al this, it's relative at best and mother nature can change it all on a whim.

With all that anticipation and planning I did actually manage to get a start on Fall and sowed my first ever seeds indoors. Squash and Pumpkins had the honor of being first into the planters and the "pattypan" squash is the winning variety having been the very first to
break the soil surface and put out it's cotyledon leaves. It was a very exciting moment here at the newly formed Pope nursery and plant propagation facilities.

So Fall production is now officially underway! Over the next couple of weeks I will start more seedlings. The real work left to do is cleaning up the summer garden beds. This is not going to be fun since it has to be done NOW and now means it is still HOT, and that means whining will be involved.

Some decisions will also need to be made...some of the tomato plants are still producing. Should I sacrifice them and just plant new ones? Should I cut back the old ragged stems and see if they put out new foliage for Fall? It's a hard decision to make for one so prone to procrastination as myself. But it needs to get done and in frenzy of trying to avoid the scorching heat who knows what could happen.

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