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From faithful garden correspondent Marvel:
Summer’s had a ‘soft opening’ here in the Willamette Valley. Not too hot, a cool drizzle here & there — it’s made the heavily front-loaded tasks of the season pretty pleasant.
I’ve included here snapshots from the garden — there’s plenty out there that’s reached its prime (kale, artichokes, strawberries & peas, I’m talking about you) and much that’s starting to put on heavy growth (cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, popcorn, beans among them). With any luck, the hardest-working part of the season’s behind us.
Shasta Daisies — low maintenance, high entertainment value.
Borage — so fuzzy. These cucumber-scented blossoms keep the bees happy from Spring to Fall.
Artichokes, Year Two — yummy little Martians.
Summer Squash — the first zuke flower peeks its golden head out.
The last of this year’s peas — they were champs!
To be continued…
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
BillinGlendaleCA
Nothing; every time I plant anything the landlord or his minions mow, weed wack, pull or crush whatever I’ve planted. I give up!
Hillary Rettig
Marvel – outstanding plants, pictures, and captions! Thanks for sharing, and thanks AL!
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ☺
HeartlandLiberal
Well, at least you have pears. I have a dozen varied dwarf and semi-dwarf, and two full size fruit trees I have planted over the decades we have lived in this house. But this year, thanks to non-existent global warming which created conditions where it goes too warm too early, then rewards fruit trees with a sudden blast of arctic air after they have bloomed early, I refer this year to my dozen trees as my “fruitless trees”. At least the garden is doing well, I have been drying herbs for weeks in my dehydrator, the tomatoes are starting to produce, we have kale out the wazoo, and red radishes did well. All the white radishes, however, both icicle and round white, bolted to seed as fast as the could, along with the mustard greens. Again, thanks global warming and premature heat, hitting the nineties in June, for Pete’s sake. This is in south central Indiana, BTW.
Hillary Rettig
Interesting NYT article on organic ag in Cuba: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/dining/cuba-us-organic-farming.html
raven
Really nice! It’s burnin up here and there isn’t much relief in sight. It was so hot the princess didn’t even work outside yesterday!
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have the same problem, and now the tree jerks demolished a flower bed nowhere near the house so that their friends could load pickup trucks with wood. Lost a rose bush, hibiscus bush, and lots of expensive bearded irises, and they kept stomping through it even after I asked them to stop. My yard guy has girdled and killed at least 3 new trees over the years.
But Marvel, your garden and your energy in keeping it up let’s us enjoy vicariously, so thank you. It’s nice to be reminded that it’s possible to have beautiful gardens.
OzarkHillbilly
@HeartlandLiberal: Relief is on the way. We have a cold front coming thru tomorrowish and then a 2nd to reinforce it the day after. Our daytime highs are going to drop into the low 80s and nighttime lows into the 50s. You should see similar results.
satby
And good morning rikyrah and everyone!
Ultraviolet Thunder
It’s been dry.
Yesterday I dumped two 5 gallon buckets of water onto a transplanted tree. You’d have thought I was pouring it into a hole. Ground is so dry it didn’t even pool, just went straight in. I haven’t mowed in 13 days and it doesn’t need it. We’ve been in this house 16 summers and I don’t recall the grass ever giving up in June.
Hoping for some rain today, but we’ve been hoping for 2 weeks.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: aren’t you in eastern MI? Big storms predicted today I thought.
TheMightyTrowel
We’re in the depths of winter here so most of what I’m doing is pruning. This was the 1st sunny weekend in 3 weeks so i tamed the honeysuckle which was eating my fence. Next weekend I’ll tackle the 2 rose of sharons.
OzarkHillbilly
My own garden is pretty much the antithesis of Marvel’s (which is oh so beautiful). Even so, I do have tomatoes on the vine, and my sweet peppers are bearing fruit (even as they wilt in the daytime heat), the beans are climbing, the broccoli continue to produce, the cabbage and Brussels sprouts look good, and the onions and potatoes are proceeding tho looking like they are nearing the end due to the heat and lack of rain we’ve had the past couple weeks. Speaking of rain, I made it rain yesterday by watering my tomatoes. Gonna try again today by watering something else.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
By Detroit. We missed out on the precip south of us last week but we’re hoping for some today. We could use a day of solid rain. Or two. It’s getting so bad I’d wear suede shoes to dare it.
Just took a stroll outdoors and it’s already 70 degrees at 7:00 am. We need to get Doglius out for his walkies pretty soon. Lady Thunder doesn’t tolerate the heat so the pooch’s daily inventory of trees and fire hydrants has to be early.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Trust me, you didn’t miss anything last week. That rain showed up with hurricane cat 1 winds and my neighbors are still dealing with the aftermath. As am I.
Hoping for a nice slow rain for your area.
satby
I should have gotten a picture, but the Indiana DOT planted poppies in the median of interstate 31 near South Bend Airport. The flowers go on for almost 1/2 a mile. Beautiful!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
Yeah, I heard the Ents raided your homestead. I hope that’s getting straightened out for you soon.
We’ve missed our share of heavy weather this year but we could use the water. Probable thunderstorms late today. I don’t care about the cleanup, just get some rain on the ground.
germy
Strawberries in our backyard. The front roses have bloomed. Last week I was trimming a weird, tall, thorned privacy hedge in front of our house and got a thorn imbedded deep in my finger. Unfortunately, it was in a finger I use to play my uke. I kept hoping my body would eject it, but it just stayed in there and kept hurting.
My wife kept saying “I can take that out for you” and I’d say “Like hell you will.” (I’d seen her removing a thorn from her finger with an exacto knife and sewing needle.)
Finally yesterday I could take no more. And damn if she didn’t pop the thorn right out.
I’ll let it heal for a day or so and then I can go back to strumming the old concert ukulele.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy:
My mother said the same thing to me once. After 5-10 mins of digging around with a needle and getting nothing but blood I said, “Forget it. I’ll deal with it.” while muttering under my breath “Never again.”
Schlemazel Khan
We picked & pitted 18 + quarts from our 2 dwarf cherry trees (Montmorency). I am sorry for not taking pictures to share as the trees were more red than green. I broke down & bought a pitter and that helped a lot.
p.a.
After 10 years last fall my neighbor gave up on his fig trees; trenching or boxing them for winter got to be too much. I miss those free fresh figs. (I think the losses to birds was the last straw; got worse every year. Netting the trees would have been the next step. That broke his will.)
Raven
@p.a.: ours are huge!
Grumpy Code Monkey
We spent yesterday pulling squash and tomato plants that had finished their run (being Texas, the summer garden gets planted in March) along with a significant crop of weeds. We tried an experiment this year and didn’t pull weeds quite so aggressively. While we got a somewhat lower quality harvest, the garden stayed cooler and didn’t require as much watering.
While pulling some of the mint, I wondered who would win in a fight – mint or bamboo?
p.a.
@Raven: You’re Georgia, correct? No danger to them? Occasional frost is no problem?
Ken
Kill it! Kill it with fire!!
Ahem. Sorry, overreaction to my zukes last year. Remarkably productive. Day of the Triffids productive.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: I had a few experiences like that. I learned early not to tell my parents anything.
p.a.
@Ken: to quote Bob Marley, “kill it before it grows”
http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/nonnas-pan-fried
Recipes say use male flowers, but use both to limit the growth of the fruits.
Joel
The heavy rain this week flooded my potted vegetables and now they’re super leggy and unhappy.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I once got a splinter in my hip climbing onto a dock. I didn’t say anything until the pus started oozing out. I got into even more trouble that time.
OzarkHillbilly
World’s ugliest dog competition 2016 – in pictures And the winner is….
satby
OMIGOD they’re back. The tree morons. They were supposed to tarp the roof but didn’t and I added that to the list of complaints on my post on Quicken’s Facebook page (for fast results on complaints put it on FB and then tweet the link). I guess they’re here to tarp even though I told Quicken I didn’t want them back.
raven
@p.a.: None at all, these trees are going bananas!
debbie
I see your artichokes and peas, and I bang my head against my desk. If only!
satby
And for his first act he ripped off flashing that fell against one of the few undamaged screens left. I’m staying inside because if I go out there will be blood.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby: Oh, dear Lord. Protect us from those who would come to our assistance.
p.a.
@p.a.: crap link. zuke overload? google ‘fried/stuffed zucchini flowers’, your friends will think you’re soooo continental.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Me too, whenever my mother insisted on cutting my bangs. It was always a disaster.
I was moved from second to first shift at work this year, so I can now go to a farmer’s market about a block from my apartment. I can’t get there at the beginning, so I miss a lot of goodies, but I have been eating real, actual tomatoes for the first time in years! I also got a bunch of bing cherries that had been picked earlier that same day. What a difference!
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I think blood is inevitable whether you go out there or not.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Speaking of plants, we have a volunteer pin oak that’s just going nuts. About 14 years ago this sprouted in a garden bed 20′ from the house, near a fence line. I lopped it off and forgot about it. Next spring it re-grew and I decided “Okay, you get a chance”. I just measured the trunk and it’s now 40″ around a foot from the ground. About 14″ diameter. I had no idea these grew that fast. It really took off about 6 years ago when the neighbors took out a nasty mulberry tree that was shading it. It’s in a pretty good spot for shade, and has a great shape. I carefully trim branches that are growing toward the house to keep them from encroaching on the roofs and gutters. Looks like we’re going to have us a big oak. Funny how sometimes things just work out that way without being planned, but that characterizes most of what passes for gardening here.
debbie
@satby:
You’re wise to stay inside. My first instinct would be to call the cops, but these guys sound like they live for retribution.
p.a.
@raven: really cool article on fig pollination, as long as no one is a bugophobe.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: LOL! I have to leave in two hours for a baby shower back in IL. They better be done.
WaterGirl
@germy: Glad you are on the mend. I hope you told your wife “you told me so”.
satby
@debbie: I think so. My handyman buddy came by and came in to make sure they didn’t mouth off to me, because he’s in a bad mood that he has to go work today. So today I talked him down.
But we walked the property yesterday and this house is almost a total loss. The front wall is bulging out and the upstairs bedroom floor is separated from the wall in the middle by about 1/3 inch. Ozark will know what a “balloon” construction is and this house is. The top peak shows some separation too, even though the tree came to rest on the lower part of the house. Given that the value is under $80k it may be a total loss.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: One match in the right location would take care of all your problems. The balloon framing will insure it spreads very quickly.
OzarkHillbilly
Time to get busy. Y’all play nice now.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
Ouch. You have my sympathies.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t “get busy” a euphemism for something that is much more fun than choose?
debbie
@satby:
Yikes, should you even be inside it?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
That sounds pretty bad. I’m not a carpenter, but two family members recently have had serious damage to houses. If it’s structurally compromised it will probably be condemned as unfit for habitation. They don’t take chances with that.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: yep, I just wrote that in an email. Looking for alternative housing now, and may move back closer to my hometown Chicago, around the Cal City area. Gritty neighborhood, but I can afford something there and it’s close to the city.
Still looking around MI though too.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
What county are you in now? We’re in Oakland. I understand real estate around Chicago has been going up. But it’s a complex market and I don’t know all the cities. My brother lived in Berwyn and that seemed middle-class accessible at the time.
satby
On the plus side, next year I can get back to gardening pictures, though they’ll never be as good as Marvel’s or raven’s or lots of you all’s!
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Berrien
satby
And it sounds like they left. Cautiously going to peek. Yep, they’re gone.
Schlemazel Khan
I don’t know why but I got fascinated by the story of Christy Sheats, the Huston ammosexual who shot her 17 and 22 year old daughters to death in the street outside their home and was then killed herself by police. There are a lot of facts in the story that damage the NRAs bullshit so my guess is we will not hear a lot about it but it is what we don’t know is what made me want to dig deeper.
There was a family argument and apparently she pulled the gun on her daughters who ran out of the house. She chased them down & shot them multiple times. Meanwhile, dad was in the house doing . . . what? Reports are that the police had been called to the house multiple times in the past but no explanation as to why. The couple were separated for a bit I guess & hubby/dad had just returned.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
Pretty close to Chicago, then. You’ll already know that St. Joseph has inexpensive housing, but there are compromises there.
Iowa Old Lady
@Ken: Sample verse from Marge Piercy, “Attack of the Squash People”:
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: I’m so sorry this has been such a disaster. I’d say it’s good the girls are gone.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
This was one part of NYC I liked: helping tourists, whether giving directions or helping them figure out the exact change needed to get on the bus (because the driver certainly wouldn’t help).
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@satby: What a nightmare. I’m so sorry you’re having to go through so much now, and this year.
I don’t suppose there’s a MI version of Mike Holmes who is looking for a project in your area? :-(
I’m sure you are considering this, but don’t forget the land value remains even if the house is destroyed. The repairs might be less than you think. Fingers crossed.
Check your store, also too.
Hang in there!
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Iowa Old Lady
Have said it before and shall say it again.
Zucchini is evil, disgusting and tastes like one imagines spoiled toe jam would.
Will eat pretty near everything, however zucchini is the one item categorically disallowed to get within six inches of the mouth, in any form.
Mom used to make zucchini bread – the stench of it cooking was enough to drive her favorite son from the premises.
YMMV.
Jeff
My yard in Philadelphia is getting crispy due to lack of rain. It either goes north or south of us.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: MMDV. I absolutely LOVE zucchini. It’s one of my staples in the summer, from my garden, of course.
WaterGirl
@Jeff: I was just describing the leaves on one of my tomato plants as getting crunchy, but crispy is a much better description. They really aren’t crunch until the entire leaf is dry, not just the edges.
JPL
I just returned from shopping for groceries. Because of the oppressive heat, my garden dried up, but I’ll still be penalized for using too much water. There’s a light breeze so it definitely feels cooler today.
@satby: Just be careful. Sending hugs your way.
Gelfling545
@germy: Here is an “old wives tale” that has worked for years for us but it takes a bit of pre planning. First you plant a yarrow plant (perennial in most places). Then when you get thorns, slivers, etc. you pull off some yarrow leaves & mash them up, put them on the spot & secure them with tape or a bandaid. About an hour or so later, out pops the sliver. The only time this didn’t work for me was when the sliver was so deep it required a doctor & an incision.
WaterGirl
@JPL: I’m sorry about your garden.
Shell
Anne, what zone is Marvel in? So jealous they can grow artichokes.
germy
@Gelfling545:
[shudder]
PurpleGirl
@satby: Just had a thought about the timing of the tree falling — at least it didn’t happen while the exchange students were there. Having to go through this and possibly needing to find alternative housing with Valentina and Qunoot with you would be another complication you don’t/wouldn’t have need.
Anyway, I hope it all works out for you.
debbie
@Shell:
Whatever zone Oregon is in.
Oldgold
Last week I stated my garden had no zones. After some reflection, I determined there are actually 3 zones. My report:
1) Weed Zone: Thriving.
2) Rabbit Feeding Zone: Fat fur-balls bitching about spindly produce and weeds.
3) Entropy Zone: FUBAR.
p.a.
@Oldgold: yup. I know I’m not the only person whose grass does better in the beds than in the lawn.
Marvel
@Shell: Re our garden zone in the Willamette Valley: USDA Hardiness Zone 8a; Sunset Climate Zone 6. Most stuff grows well here, except Mediterranean goodies, e.g., olives, almonds, avocados.
Oldgold
@p.a.: I earned my gardening spurs growing grass in cracks in sidewalk and driveway.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Looks like there may be some rain later today.
Denali
@Satby,
Hope you can find alternative housing soon. Know the Red Cross helps in case of a fire- don’t know about tree disasters. Sending a hung your way.
WaterGirl
I forgot to say now gorgeous that pear is! It may be small, but in the photo it looks like it’s full size. All the photos and captions today were great fun.
Every time Marvel is featured in the sunday garden chat I think how apt your nym is – your garden really is a marvel.
moonbat
Interesting cultural experiment going on in our Philly community garden: The garden is divided into individual plots that are rented to members on a yearly basis and we also have about five “public” beds. Some are for flowers and ornamental plants, one is for herbs, and we have one long vegetable and fruit tree beds the produce from which is available on a first come first serve basis. Every year the garden committee carefully plans out what should go into the public fruit and vegetable beds according to color, visual interest, etc., and every year a gang of immigrant Chinese ladies in their 60s, 70s to 80s come in and rework it like it is a Mao-era work farm.
And boy do they get it to produce! I keep wanting to ask them how many families are getting fed by the stuff they grow. I tried to bridge the language barrier last night as they were replanting a bunch of squash vines last night but I don’t know if they understood my admiration for their doing so much with such a little piece of ground. On top of that, it is kind of funny to see the reactions of the aesthetic committee gardeners to this naked display of basic subsistence agriculture.
J R in WV
@satby:
You know, if they were taking your wood, against you will, and damaging your plantings, after being told to avoid them… you shoulda called the cops on them, just after telling the insurance company that their chosen staff was breaking the law and you were calling the cops on them.
Get a lawyer, right away, and see how much you can make from these cowboys. They will pay attention to a lawyer, guaranteed!
Shell
Don’t get me started on the Toni home perms I had to endure, until I finally put my foot down.
WaterGirl
@Shell: My two sisters and I were sent to a hairdresser when we were young, but I doubt the results were any better. We called him “Jerry the Butcher”.