This week I have an all-shades-of-pink garden: the first luxurious flush of Zepherine Drouhin roses along the front of the house, Karmina and Dilys geraniums below them, Jeanne La Joie mini-roses in the raised bed competing with the white-bordered fuchsia sweet william (dianthus) that was last year’s supposed-to-be-an-annual impulse purchase, Cosmo Sonata Mix rising above the white allysum and shades-of-blue lobelia in the triple-basket planter by the front steps.
As a general rule, pink is my second-to-least-favorite color… just ahead of purple, which was last week’s garden theme. Fortunately, it’s true that Mother Nature is an excellent color coordinator; when you’re as lazy a gardener as I am, the convenience of brute survival usually conquers all lesser prejudices.
Exciting vegetable news of the week: There is a tennis-ball-sized green fruit on my Stupice tomato already! Of course some of the cherry tomatoes are fruiting as well (one or two of them were starting to set fruit when I bought the plants), but getting a ripe “real” tomato before Independence Day is rare around here. (And, yeah, if the last three days of 90-degree-plus weather are a leading indicator, by August it’ll be so hot everything will stop producing.)
How are things doing in your gardens this week?
JGabriel
Anne Laurie @ Top:
Oh God No, please don’t let it be Weiner twittering with the broccoli.
.
Violet
Birds got some of my tomatoes today. First time all season. I hadn’t checked them this morning and when I went out there tonight they had holes in them and one was on the ground and a right mess. Well, the tomatoes are near their end anyway, as it’s too hot for them to set. Except for the Matt’s Wild Cherry, which is just running everywhere and seems to ignore the triple digit weather and keeps setting new tomatoes.
In other exciting news, I’ve got quite a few cantaloupe setting. I have never had much success with it, but since it’s so incredibly dry I think it might do better this year. I think I’ve always over watered before.
Still harvesting green beans, but mostly the plants are going. Cucumbers are trying to hang on, but they don’t like triple digits either and wilt during the day despite heavy mulch and plenty of water. I’m doubtful the zucchini will do anything, but it seems determined to try. Squash usually do poorly here, so getting even one is kind of exciting.
Just Some Fuckhead
I gave up on gardening, too hot, too much hail.
I’m digging up one of the garden beds beside my back patio and putting in a koi pond. I broke ground today.
KyCole
I’ve given up on the back yard for now. With the galloping puppy and the neighbor’s shady trees, there’s no hope. In the front I have a beautiful redbud tree, which shades my impatiens, coleus and ferns. The other side of my postage stamp yard has coneflower, butterfly bush and other perennials. The only vegetable I’m growing this year is a cherry tomato in a pot which is in the sun. However, I have two farmers markets nearby, so I can get locally grown vegetables all summer. (I am also ashamed to admit that I had to look up three of these words in the dictionary in order to remove the red lines denoting misspelling.)
Violet
We are in such severe drought that I heard on the radio today that they are declaring it an emergency for trees. They suggested people try to water trees, even old ones with deep roots, because otherwise many of them will die. You can see how badly the trees are affected driving around. Many of them have large dead spots. Or are dying altogether. I’m trying to keep ours watered, along with other things in the garden. Hopefully they’ll be okay.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Your local raccoons will thank you. Sushi bar!
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: Mmm…koi sushi. Now I’m hungry again.
KyCole
Just found out today that the ex had the beautiful huge fir by his (what used to be our) house cut down because it had died from the drought last summer. God forbid the lazy asshole throw a hose next to it once in a while.
feebog
I’m in SoCal and we have had a very cool spring. Only a couple of days in April where we hit 90 plus, with most days in the high sixties to low seventies. We have had lettuce sinde mid-April and plenty of zukes and crook neck squash, but that’s about it. Peppers are getting there, but it too cool for the tomatos, we have a few thumb sized early girls and a few cherry tomatos just coming around. It does look like the cantaloupe is going to be outstanding this year. All of our herbs have already gone to seed and we are about ready to replant some of them. Not going to complain, it will be hot soon enough.
Martin
So we have a new bird issue here in the neighborhood – wild red-crowned parrots. Noisy buggers, and there’s about 8 of them in our immediate area. They’re very endangered, only about 3,000 left, so I’m going to let them have our Meyers when they want.
MikeJ
Blues skies today, got up to 72°. Still listening to Kagen’s Greek history class while hiking. Yes, he goes on and on about VDH and goes on about how teh mean ol libruls won’t let anybody say good stuff about the greeks even though he’s doing an entire class at Yale about it. Still, fascinating stuff when he stays with events more than 2200 years old.
Salmonberries are in full fruit, blackberries just past peak flower, raspberries have started to flower.
jharp
My tomatoes, peppers, basil, horseradish, rosemary, thyme, are kicking ass.
It is going to be a good year I think. Hotter than fuck here in central Indiana. No winnings yet but that’s as expected.
Might I suggest that posters cite their location?
Martin
@jharp:
Deep inside the Orange Curtain in SoCal.
Yutsano
@MikeJ:
Personally I can’t wait for that season to start. I’m gonna try to haul my mom over and get some harvesting done. They’re mostly a weed here true, but as weeds go at least they have one good purpose.
@jharp: North side of Seattle.
Elie
Here in the Northwest we have had a slow, cool early summer. My roses, which by now are usually blooming their heads off, are just setting buds! EVERYTHING is way back. My freakin GRASS is just getting itself into a green velvety mode.
I have done my first round weeding and feeding and mulching.. Now I am just hoping for some warm weather and some fun in the sun… I would be thrilled with 70 degrees —
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Have to laugh about blackberries. My brother and I just recently realized that when we visited our grandparents’ Tennessee farm in the ’60s the big “adventure” of going “blackberry picking” was mainly just a way to get the kids out of the adults’ hair for most of the day.
“Here, y’all kids take these bushel baskets up to the ridge and fill ’em up with blackberries. And make sure you fill ’em all the way to the top. Don’t come back until you do. Yeah, we used to do this every day when we were kids. It’s fun!”
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Much easier to pick blackberries than huckleberries too. I can pick a gallon of blackberries in no time at all, but with huckleberries it’s just grabbing them one at a time, usually only four or five per bush at one time are ready. Last year I got something between a pint and a quart after an hour. And that’s after getting up above about 2000′ to find them.
I’m sure I’ll be out in Snoqualmie pass in September to pick ’em again this year though.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: Oh yeah. Mom used to make us stand on the side of the road and crawl into bushes until the buckets were overloaded mostly to keep us busy on weekends. But at least we did get good stuff like blackberry jam and cobbler and such. The real adventure was going up into the mountains of Idaho to go huckleberry picking with my grandma. I’m still amazed none of us ever got bit by snakes. But she could make some good shit with those little goobers.
@MikeJ: As I recall they were much more plentiful up in the Idaho hills. But fucking hard as hell to find. Also if you go to Snoqualmie check out Lake Kachees if you haven’t been up there recently. It’s as full as I’ve see it in years.
MonkeyBoy
I’ve been wanting to put in Rhubarb for a while.
I finally dug up a bed of clay/rubble soil to prepare and upgrade and then picked up a Grow Fast 3 root pack that was in a 8″ tall box at my local Home Depot (I really hate that place – they have eliminated all of my before nearby 5 alternatives).
When everything was ready I unpacked the roots and found that they were at most 2″ long in an 8″ package. (maybe like some animal penises or Republicans).
Anyway the rhubarb small animal penises have been in the dirt for a week and they all have one small stem with a small leaf sticking up in a rather jaunty fashion. I think they might actually grow and thrive.
[PS. I didn’t plant them near the chives. From my recent digging up of things I think the chives were sending out masses of roots to deprive the nearby basil and stunt them last year. I’ve separated the two and will see if I get better results this year.]
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
True, we did get that.
I still get a little nostalgic twinge every time I have even store-bought blackberry jam on a biscuit.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I’m half-tempted to get some at the store this weekend just because they’re on sale and I’ve been wanting some. I also happen to make a really awesome berry mix that just macerates so nicely it screams for either a shortcake or an angel food cake. Now I’m all kinds of hungry again dammit. :)
R-Jud
Got half a gallon of strawberries and a good pint of raspberries out of the garden first thing this morning. I’ve dead-headed all the chives and cut them back to 2″ to get a second flush of herbs. The valerian flowers are finally dying back, the potatoes are flowering, carrots looking all right. The apple tree has wee fruits on it, too.
I have a weird invader in the flower bed– borage. I planted some there two years ago. Last year I didn’t have any, this year I planted a row of four, but now I have nine little ones sprouting all over the place. I guess something made the seed sit dormant for a bit.
stuckinred
Our garden is doing ok but that’s is with a good bit of watering. Chances of rain are improving so we have that going. I built a ginormous rose arbor this week so we can get the eye level thorns off the gate.
stuckinred
Sheesh, Morning Joe has the Chrenshaw High School Band and students up at 3am for their show!
Opie-jeanne
Currently in Lake Arrowhead, CA and the mice in the cabin ate keeping us awake. We have live traps baited with peanut butter and released mouse #6 before we went to bed, but it sounds like a herd of them in the attic and walls now. Whatever is up there is not dainty.
We are told that the garden at our house East of Seatle is doing well, but I need to ask some detailed questions tomorrow. Our youngest should be getting some strawberries and lettuce, and we know the radishes were ready by the 1st of June.
I wonder if she’s picking up the mail.
Kirbster
I’ve got snow peas, lettuce, and rhubarb, but the rest of the vegetable garden always lags here on Cape Cod. Yesterday was the first really warm day of the year. Things almost always start to take off in the second half of June, though.
Linda Featheringill
@MikeJ:
I tried to listen to his history of the Greeks and got disgusted and quit. They weren’t that frigging wonderful. Slavery and domination of women to make your average Taliban jealous. They did a good job of developing a republic though. I think you could cover all their good stuff in about two hours of lecture and then spend another hour talking about what assholes they were. That should about cover the entire era.
dsc
Lilies lilies lilies in shades of pink and white; planting the last two rows of heirloom tomatoes today (to make 60 plants–I’m a mad canner); laying off rows for okra and Silver queen corn, in the HOPES the 30% CHANCE of rain seems like it might be at my house. The pepper plantation will get another row of Habaneros and new-to-me purple jalapenos. sowed my first basil bed last night–lord knows it’s hot enough. Got to get those cantalope starts in the ground too –whew! WEll, as you might guess you see, I’m unemployed.
this 95 degree heat and 12 days without rain makes me want to fill my larder from the store and just quit. I fear the blackberries will not make juciy fruits again this year–they weren’t worth picking last year as we got NO RAIN in june.
Every time it f***king snows in winter Rush is all “Global Warming huh!” But let the whole country suffer under record breaking heat wave and massive wildfires and ……………….silence!
cleek
we’re on .09 acres, so our garden is in a little metal planter on the windowsill in the kitchen. it’s growing salsa (maters, cilantro, jalapeno).
Linda Featheringill
Container garden in NE Ohio is growing. Tomatoes and peppers are blooming. I got the seedlings potted yesterday and wonder how many of them I killed during the process. :-)
I now have 33 plants, plus lettuce and stevia.
Does anybody know anything about stevia? This is an experiment for us. We live far enough north that it will have to be an annual plant.
jibeaux
Here in zone 7, a couple of my Juliet tomatoes are actually starting to ripen. I have never had tomatoes start turning red in early June before. Usually July 4th is about the earliest I can get them and here I am on track to pick by mid-June. But that’s the only one ripening, although plenty have set fruit. Eggplant, okra, cukes, peppers, also coming along nicely with added water.
Southern Beale
I’m just doing herbs this year, which is what I did last year. But here’s a weird thing: I’ve got little tiny basil weeds popping up everywhere. I guess it’s from last year’s basil, when it flowered? I don’t really know. It’s very bizarre. Never seen it happen before. If I’d known the little suckers would fly around the garden and all I wouldn’t have bothered to buy new plants!
Southern Beale
@Linda Featheringill:
I saw my first stevia plants this year. I don’t know anything about it, or how you use it … but I was very intrigued! Keep us posted.
Linda Featheringill
@dsc:
@Southern Beale:
Stevia: The first thing I’ve learned is that it takes them longer to sprout than other plants. The rest, we’ll see.
chopper
we got a touch of hail last night, and i haven’t been to my garden in a week so i’ll be lucky if everything is still alive when i get there.
Linda Featheringill
Speaking of heat and drought:
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Map of the drought in the South and Southwest.
And these are the very same people who adamantly refuse to think about global climate change!
Kirbster
@MikeJ: I listened to Kagan’s course lectures a few weeks ago, along with Blight’s course on the Civil War. History classes always impress upon me the the immutability of human nature and our endless capacity to screw things up that we only see in hindsight.
gelfling545
Buffalo, NY
We finally cleared away some of the rampant water lilies in the pond & found that the fish are doing fine in spite of the pond freezing just about solid last winter. We put the fish in about 8 years ago & no matter what the weather have never had to restock. A few of them may be getting a bit big for this small pond.
The roses are a treat this year. One that has moved from place to place with me from my childhood home (it is thought to be a Dorothy Perkins rambler) is covered in bloom. I had tried Zepherine Drouhin twice here with no luck. I was interested in it mainly for it’s reported ability to bloom with less that optimum light. What has worked well for me in a lower light situation is the Blaze climber now blooming well in it’s 30th year. Care has involved hacking it down when it gets obstreperous – no fertilizer, no insecticide, etc. & always reliable bloom.
I finally have tomatoes in the ground. 4 Juliets & 2 Viva Italias. Last year was rather disappointing in the tomato realm – blossom end rot took a lot of the crop. I’m hoping for better this year & paying strict attention to watering. I’ve already been able to use parsley, basil & oregano from the herb bed. Of course the chives have been in use since Easter & the thyme which, if I can locate it under the snow is available all winter.
I’m thinking of attempting to propagate 2 shrubs that are just the right size/shape for some spaces I need to fill. I have never tried that before & am a little intimidated by the prospect. If anyone has experience of this I would be glad of advice.
jane from hell
Why oh why does my plant porn only get posted in the middle of the night on Thursdays?? Here in NC it’s been way too hot & dry to plant anything. My porch is filling up with stuff waiting for a forever home…Datura, a chartreuse butterfly bush, Hyssop, Iris, Four O’Clocks…
jane from hell
@gelfling545: No (successful) experience propagating, just curious- what kind of shrubs? So many methods to use…
keestadoll
Hi Annie! New house, new family, and new opportunities to garden, and I came out running. With so many changes, I thought it best to stick to planter box gardening where I can really keep watch on daily conditions of soil and such and VOILA! I have sage, cilantro, oregano, kale, bok choy, arugula, red romaine, Early Girl tomatoes going berserk! I also planted some French lavender for dried use in a bath tea that’s lovin’ its galvanized steel tub in the sun.
Now, if I could just keep my roses from getting that damned black spot thing…!!! Advice here would be helpful. :)
keestadoll
@Opie-jeanne:
Put a cat to work on this problem ASAP
gelfling545
@Violet: my sister had to give up planting tomatoes after several years of having hers eaten by …pugs. Her dogs like to take a bit out of every tomato – even green ones. They also ate all the strawberries and one is a great fan of chives. I mean, wild critters is to be expected but PUGS?
gelfling545
@jane from hell: a spirea (gold flame) & a deutzia.
R-Jud
@gelfling545: One of our cats has been eating our strawberries. It is the weirdest thing to pick him up and nuzzle his head and find it smells of jam.
gelfling545
I would be interested in knowing what everyone’s favorite tomatoes for planting are. When I view the possibilities my eyes glaze over due to the astronomical number of choices so I end up sticking with the tried & true. I know I am missing many excellent varieties but the growing season is too short & my garden too small for too much experimentation. So, what are your favorites?
Mark D
Two questions:
1. Anyone know how to get a dog to stop licking herbs? Our whippet mix LOVES to lick the sweet basil and lemon thyme. Not a big issue, but it is damaging parts of the plants. Note that the strawberry pot they’re in is way, way too big to put on a table or our flower stand, and it’s impossible to keep the dogs off the deck, so any ideas are welcome.
APHID QUESTION: We had aphids on our tomato plant, so we moved it to the back 40 — but never dumped it out of the pot. The thing is, it looks totally fine now, as if those little suckers were never there. Yet we don’t see any of the aphids natural predators (ladybugs, primarily) anywhere near it. Should we assume all is safe with this thing, or still consider it a lost cause?
Thanks in advance.
jane from hell
@gelfling545: I would imagine Spirea you could just divide. As for Deutzia and Hydrangea and other hardwoods…I think the most important thing is not to use a flowering bit for rooting.
ETA: I prolly have no idea what I’m talking about but PLAAAAAANTS…#plantpr0n
@keestadoll: I think spraying religiously is the only thing you can do. I’m lazy, and I don’t like poisons (or fertilizers) so I stick to species like chinensis ‘Mutabilis’ or whatever I found in my backyard when I bought the place.
gelfling545
@Mark D: Plant him his own pot of herbs & put it in front of the other pot so he gets to it first.
jinxtigr
My garden is shite- I’m a computer nerd and don’t know a thing about anything, and my whole backyard got eaten by Virginia Creeper. I’m now trying to cut down a dead tree that got strangled by creeper vines, with a half-dull bow-saw, and I’m about to call in the cavalry and nuke-and-pave the backyard completely.
The one thing I can think of worth doing is nuking my whole front planter-box, including the railroad tie-like things that enclose it, and trying to put these roses in the backyard out there instead. Might be too bright or something, but if I did that at least I’d have a chance year-round: ‘roses’ stays, ‘not roses’ gets whacked. I can’t cope with the profusion of stuff around here, all these perennials I’m theoretically supposed to like. It’s all weeds to me, man.
Mark D
@gelfling545:
Hmmm … that’s actually a dang good idea. I bet she’d love that.
Thanks for giving me some gardening to do tomorrow morning!
artem1s
NE Ohio
Gardening at the community garden this year. finally have most of it in. looks like it will be a very hot summer now that the April/May deluge is finished. I have about 3 dozen tomato plants, most started from heirloom seeds. I think most of them are going to make it. Snap peas are just coming up along with radishes, lettuces and other greens. Some of the more delicate stuff got too much water early and I don’t think it’s going to make it. Plenty for a second round but these will probably go to seed. Finishing touches will be a couple of sweet pepper plants and various herbs and maybe some fancy melons and squashes.
Does anyone know anything about growing sweet potatoes? got some from the garden committee. Never growth them before. What can I expect?
Tom Hilton
My garden is the State of California, and as of a couple weeks ago parts of it were blooming quite nicely. I’ll see what I find tomorrow (maybe on the Peninsula, maybe up toward Mt. St. Helena); with all the rain and cool weather we’ve had, I’m hoping it’ll extend the season.
And then in July and August, the Sierra should have some spectacular wildflowers…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Isn’t Sonata wonderful? It’s all I use in cosmos anymore because I like its bushiness. I don’t have any this year, so I need to make a shopping trip. My buddleia is about to burst into bloom. Columbine has set seed which was collected, so now is a lovely foliage plant. Monarda (Marshall’s Delight, speaking of pink) is budding up, so it’s going to get more colorful in front shortly. The hollyhock has just started to bloom, so I guess the flowers are progressing well, now that I report.
Anne Laurie
@Violet:
Can you put out a ‘bird bath’ (bird waterer, really) for them — doesn’t have to be fancy, just an old saucer or lid full of water? That’s what works to save my tomatoes, even in non-drought years. Even if the tomatoes are no longer an issue, the birds will be grateful for a drinking source!
opie_jeanne
@keestadoll: We always brought our cats with us when we lived in Anaheim, but we live in Washington, just outside Seattle, and it’s not practical to bring a cat 1150 miles, not to mention our last kitty disappeared a week before we left on this trip.
A friend offered to loan us a cat last week, but then she didn’t bring it with her when she came to visit.
We are attempting to “button up” the cabin, fill any cracks or holes we find in this 1923 building, scatter mothballs liberally, and until we head back home to Washington we will be using the live traps and releasing the little darlings elsewhere in the canyon, not near a house.
opie_jeanne
@Tom Hilton: Nice wildflowers just getting going in the San Bernardino mountains, and not just at the higher elevations. We got a lot of rain here this winter and spring, and we are seeing flowers on this property that we have never seen here before.
dsc
@gelfling545:
add a little calcium to your watering regimen as well–there’s probably some in tomato Miracle Gro
dsc
@gelfling545: Juliet is an awesome worrkhorse hybrid–fast growing, prolific, sweet and tangy–cross between a roma type and a sugar grape–grow in clusters of 10 or 12–doesnt’ mind the heat, produces till frost.
my fave heirlooms are Brandywine (very easy to grow), Aunt Ruby’s German Green, and Cherokee Purple. Good luck!
Platonicspoof
@gelfling545:
In case you check back:
Courtesy of Michael Dirr’s ‘Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation’, both should be relatively easy to do as cuttings.
If you haven’t rooted cuttings before, the spirea would be good to practice on; anytime they’re in leaf, but softer wood is easier. No cuttings with flower buds.
Take Deutzia cuttings June to July if in your area that means stems are green, but slightly firm.
My preference for rooting hormone is Dip ‘N Gro (liquid, not a powder).