End of the Season

We've had some uncharictaristically warm weather the past few days/weeks. Frost at night and in the 50's and 60's during the day. We got to 64'F yesterday. I took the opportunity to move some things around. I planted some Crocosmia Lucifer (that I had in a pot all summer) in the front garden by the lavender. I'm hoping the lavender will survive the winter- I started it from seed (wintersown) and it did really well- smells awesome! I moved Hippolyte (rose) from a weird spot in a corner of the fence to behind the mailbox. I hope it makes it. I kind of accidentally butchered it with the spade while I was digging it up. I put a raspberry bush where Hippolyte used to be. I have another raspberry bush in a pot -it's starting to rain so it might have to stay in the pot.

I dug up the dahlia's and the oriental lillies last weekend and let them dry out over the week. I dug up the lillies because the moles or other rodents like to eat them all in the winter and I can't get them to come up year after year. I cut the stalks off and knocked off the dirt, wrapped them in damp paper towels and put them in a damp burlap bag in the veg drawer of the fridge. I hope it works. I had a gorgeous pale, pale pink lily this year that I'd like to have again next year (see pic). I knocked off the excess dirt on my dahlias and put them in paper bags with pearlite- watered them all down and put them in a cardboard box and put them in the basement. I didn't divide them because I couldn't find any eyes. I'll wait until spring and hope I see some- if they survive. I'm kind of flying blind.

I did end up getting late blight on my tomatoes but not until late, late in the season. Like October, so I'm not complaining. I have the last of the tomatoes in the kitchen. They should be finishing up this week. The ones with the blight are rotting as they ripen so I'm pitching a lot of them out. I pulled up all of the tomato plants and put them in black trashbags- going in the dumpster.

Last weekend I finally got around to planting chard, kale, spinach and lettuce in pots on the deck. I have no idea if it will work. My aunt says they grow lettuce year round (in Zone 5) but I think she does it on her covered porch. I think I can jury rig some kind of clear plastic cover over the pots on the deck if it starts to look promising.

Some notes for next year: Either start the summer squash late (ie: end of June) or start a 2nd planting at the end of June in an attempt to foil the SVB. They got me again this year. I heard there are SVB resistant types but I love cocozelle. I don't see the point in planting zucchini if you can't get the kind you want. Every other gardener has zucchini coming out their ears, I don't know why I don't! I might also try clipping the blossoms off until after July 4, I've read that the SVB moth(?) hones in on the yellow.

I'm not doing eggplant again. I tried them in containers this year. I got a few tiny ones but it's really not worth the effort. I'm also not doing winter squash. Takes up too much space. I do plan on doing more tomatillo plants. I did 2 this year. I'm thinking a minimum of 6 next year. Tomatillos seem to be determinate so they came all at once, I put them in the freezer and had good luck using them frozen. I just didn't have enough to last me past October!

The butterfly feeder is going up again. That was very successful even though I started it so late in the season. I'm also focusing on butterfly host and feeder plants in the front garden next season. I started some butterfly bushes from cuttings this year so I'll plunk those out there either this fall or in the spring (over winter them in the sunroom).

I need more blues/ purples and less pinks in the flower bed on the southside. It was so pink this year I found it hard to look at. It was pretty ugly! I planted a balloon flower over there, I saved some seeds so I'll try to get some more of that. It seems to be a pretty good foil for the pinks.

Less tomatoes next year! As far as the small tomatoes go. I'll stick with Black Cherry, Matt's Wild Cherry and either Coyote or Champagne Cherry. For a GWR I'm going with Aunt Ruby's German Green. Pruden's Purple and Black from Tula are coming back. I think I'll give Black Krim a rest. Absinthe is going to have to go, it was prolific but they didn't seem to ripen very well, they'd go bad almost immediately. I'll probably do Dr Wyche's Yellow, Goose Creek, Berkeley Tie Die and KBX again. I need to really pare it down this year. I did can some but the main problem was the lack of really good tomato growing space. A lot of varieties didn't get a fair shot. I'd like to give Indian Stripe and JD's Special C-Tex a better spot.

The SWC experiment went really well. I plan on making at least 2 more next year. The worm experiment is going well too. I moved the worms into the garage this week. I set container #2 on top of container #1 (full of poop) about a month ago and the worms are starting to migrate up looking for food. I'll have to monitor the temps in the garage and will have to move them into the basement if it gets too cold. My Ruth Stout experiment went really well. It was less work putting the garden in in the Spring and the plants seemed happy this year, I need to put something on the paths next year, that's where the weeds came up. Maybe mulch or something. I didn't shred the leaves I put on the garden this year. Let's see if that works. If it doesn't I'm screwed because there's a lot of leaves out there!The compost tea experiment went really well. For the most part the plants seemed very healthy and prolific this year.

I did have a problem with cucumber beetles for the first time this year. I'm on the fence about planting cucumbers again next year- I ended up with a powdery mildew problem. If I do plant cucumbers I'll go with the lemon cukes- cute and taste great! No more Armenian cucumbers- I've tried and failed 3 years in a row.

As usual I need to keep up better with my mulching and weeding. I definitely need to get mulch for the front beds near the house. They looked BAD this year. I got a lot of compliments on the mailbox garden and a few requests to enlarge it. I'm going to try to convince the better half to move my lilac bushes to a spot along the driveway then maybe I can extend the mailbox bed eastward toward the house to encorporate the lilacs and then add some more plants on the south side.

I took pictures of the beds this year and made notes of where to move things and what to dig up. I need some kind of plan and need to stick to it. Some of the beds look a little schitzo. So that will be #1 goal for next year: Garden design like a sane person.

Goal #2: More butterflies. I have butterfly garden seeds in the fridge from monarch watch, I need to study up on what's native and what I need to plant to attract them and keep them hanging around. It's tough when the neighbors use pesticides.

Goal #3: Visit more professional gardens next year: The Plantations at Cornell, Sonnenberg Gardens, ect. Less time puttering and more constructive use of time.

Goal #4 for next year: Try to mae a cloning machine (ala 7th street cottage). This isn't a major goal but it sounds like a cool thing to try if I can do it cheaply.

The Results are in!

Rose race 2010:
Distant Drums (pictured), Clotilde Soupert, Winchester Cathedral, Heritage, Cornelia, Fantin Latour, Russelliana. Sweet promise doesn't have any buds on it but it looks really good- the foliage is gorgeous. Ghislaine de Felagonde is out of the running due to her cushy winter indoors. Hippolyte and Charles de Mills actually have a few buds. I wasn't expecting much from them this year as they bloom on old wood. Heritage has 52 buds on it this year! I don't think I've ever seen more than 4-5. I've been making compost tea and alfalfa tea. I think that little experiment can be considered a sucess.

The veg garden is in. So far so good. Onions and Beans are up. I was worried about slugs (using the Ruth Stout method of mulching with leaves) but they haven't been a problem so far. It's been pretty hot and dry so that's probably helped a lot. Most of the tomatoes are in. I have to make 1 more SWC (I made one this weekend for the Champagne Cherry/Coyote experiment) for Matt's Wild Cherry and Jaune Flamee. I also have an extra Red Zebra and a jalepeno plant that need to find homes. The tomatillos are blooming, Champagne Cherry has blossoms on it, Hungarian Hot Wax has some buds. Things are coming along!

April wrap up

Started digging up the new flower bed near the mailbox. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was. I had it covered with cardboard for a few weeks (I should have done that last fall) I uncovered about 2/3 of it and dug up squares of sod and turned it over- it took about 6 hours. I didn't get to the last 1/3, it rained yesterday and was pretty cold (we had a fire in the stove). I'm still undecided about what to plant in that bed. I was going to go with purple and red but I'm thinking that's going to be really garish. Now I'm thinking pastels (that will go better with the beds closer to the house). If I go in that direction I will dig up Hippolyte (rose) and move it down there and plant the red flowers up by my Winchester Cathedral rose. I also may move Distant Drums down there where it will get more sun. I'm also going to plant some veggies in that area since the space is so big. I'll probably put in some GWR tomatoes and maybe the lemon cucumbers and a squash or zucchini. Captain Sam isn't looking so good, the roses in that bed are being attacked by a little brown worm that's boring into the emerging leaf buds. I'm hand picking them and squashing them but the leaf buds are being destroyed in the process. Russelliana and Clotilde Soupert are holding up better than Sam. I'll try cutting him back and see what happens. I might move him out of there and put Gruss an Aachen there. I need to move Gruss because DH wants it's space to put the woodpile. I have a lot of work to do.

Volunteer Borage is coming up in the veg garden. Peas and fava's are getting bigger. Last years chard is still going. Spinach and onions are looking puny.

What's blooming: grape hyacinths, forsythia, cherry trees, azaleas, narcissus, primrose, tulips, bleeding hearts, creeping phlox, lilacs are just starting (about 2-3 weeks early)

Today
Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers through early afternoon...then becoming partly sunny. Highs in the mid 50s. Northeast winds 10 mph or less...becoming north. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Tonight
Partly cloudy. Cooler with lows in the mid 30s. Northwest winds 10 mph or less...becoming north and increasing to 10 to 20 mph.

Tuesday
Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 40s. North winds 10 to 20 mph...becoming northwest. Gusts up to 30 mph.

Tuesday Night
Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph...becoming west.

Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. Highs in the lower 50s. West winds 10 to 20 mph.

Wednesday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.

Thursday
Sunny. Highs around 60.

Thursday Night
Mainly clear. Lows in the lower 40s.

Friday
Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s.

Friday Night
Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows around 50. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Saturday
Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Highs in the lower 70s. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Saturday Night
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers. Lows around 50.

Sunday
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers. Highs in the lower 70s.

April!

It's been a scorcher! I took Friday off to work in the yard. We broke a heat record 86! No shade. Brutal. I planted the favas, peas and spinach. Friday was veg garden day: I put up the pea trellis, laid out cardboard on the paths. I also cleaned the grill- a 3 hour job that I wasn't planning on. Saturday (also brutally hot) I started a new bed by the mailbox. I mapped it out with the chewed up soaker hose, dug a trench around the perimeter and laid out cardboard. I also weeded the front, side and back flower beds and raked up some leaves. Big winds came in on Saturday night, blew over the pea trellis and blew more leaves into the side bed- I can't win! Yesterday (cooler, sunny highs in the high 60's) I put the plants that have been wintering in the sunroom out on the deck. Ghislaine de Felagonde has little buds on it! I really need to pot up some of the seedlings. I found the pots that I thought DH had thrown out (In a tub behind the kayak). The attached pic is one I took this morning of the lady's mantle. I found several volunteer lady's mantle when I was weeding this weekend- cool!

Mon04/05
70°
Breezy, Risk of a Few Showers
50°
Mostly Cloudy

Tue04/06
70s°
Mostly Cloudy, Showers/Thunderstorm Risk
50s°
Mostly Cloudy, Couple of Showers Possible

Wed04/07
70s°
Few Showers/Storms Possible
40s°
Risk of a Few Showers

Thu04/08
50s°
Cooler, Showers Possible
40°
Mostly Cloudy, Shower Risk

Fri04/09
50s°
Partly Sunny, Risk of a Few Showers
30s°
Partly Cloudy & Quiet

Sat04/10
50s°
Sun & Clouds
40°
Scattered Clouds

What's blooming now: Violets, Daffodils, Primrose, Forsythia

I thought I'd give Ruth Stout a try...

Since DH is in graduate school as well as working full time and digging up the entire garden on my own in a timely fashion while working full time probably isn't realistic, I decided to try the Ruth Stout method of gardening. Before I ever heard of Ms Stout I decided I was too lazy to drag the leaves to the curb last fall so I shredded them and piled them in the veggie garden and flower beds instead; figuring I'd turn them over with the soil in the spring (or wonderful husband would do that for me when the semester ended). Then I read about Ruth Stout and got excited- I don't have to wait for him to turn over the soil! (I usually get 1/4 of the garden done in the time it takes him to do 3/4 plus mow the lawn). I can plant stuff when it should be planted, not when the garden is ready! I won't have to water! I found her book "No Work Garden Book" on Ebay for a reasonable price and I started reading it today. Checking out the garden forums I frequent, there are clearly 2 well defined camps with a lot of middle of the road people: the Enthusiastic Tillers and the Enthusiastic Non-Tillers. Since I don't have a tiller, I'm going to join camp #2. A garden fork isn't much of a tiller and I'm lazy so I think I'll feel right at home with the Enthusiasic Non-Tillers, I can be pretty enthusiastic about not forking the garden in the spring- I hate dirt filled blisters. Should be a pretty interesting experiment.

About the pic- I have no mulch-related photos so this is a picture of a bunch of roses I picked from my garden just before a major rainstorm last year. You might be able to see some of the rain drops still clinging to the petals. It was worth getting wet to save the flowers.

Oh shoot...this is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday...I blew it...maybe I'll be quiet next Wednesday.

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has been hanging around here for about a month. My little 6 year old neighbor calls it the "Big yellow butterfly" she's tried to catch it but it's pretty elusive. I'm not sure what kind of bush it's sitting on, it was planted by the previous owners it has tiny pink flowers in the spring.

Heritage bloomed yesterday, Eden will go any day now. Something keeps nibbling off my Captain Sam buds but seems to be steering clear of Eden and Clotilde Soupert. Winchester Cathedral is still going strong despite being noshed on by rose slugs. Same with the Fairy blooming despite the rose slugs.

I finished planting the garden today. Starting seeds for the cukes and squash was a disaster. I dropped the tray and ended up with a lot of soil mixed with seeds. I have one questionable plant: cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash? I guess we'll have to wait and see. I decided to direct sow instead of buying plants. I also ds bush beans. The pole beans I planted last week are starting to poke throught the soil. The cosmos seeds I scattered around are also coming up.

Progress?

I've been a lame blogger but a busy gardener lately. I guess it's better to garden than to blog about it and not actually do it. I caught Winter Sowing fever and have planted a ton of containers. I have planted out most of the annuals. I am still starting new containers of perennials.

Most of the veggie garden is in, I still have 1 quadrant to go-squash and cucumbers. The pea fence is totally jacked up and the peas are grabbing onto the garden fence making the pea fence swing at an almost 45' angle. Nice. The lettuce is looking really good. Not a lot of slugs this year (knock on wood) I don't know if it's because I've been so ruthless with them in the past or if it's just too early. I've caught a few so far this year- maybe 4 or 5. The squirrels got my early tomato-I'm pissed! I rescued a tomato plant last fall that I had found growing up between a crack in the sidewalk and a wall downtown. I nursed it through the winter and it rewarded me with flowers a few weeks ago. I came home yesterday and something had ripped the top of the plant off. I stuck it in water and left it outside. Today something took a huge bite out of the tomato. Damn squirrels. What's left of the plant seems to be doing fine. My Silvery Fir Tree plants that I started from seed have buds on them. I'm very excited!

My first rose bloomed this week: Winchester Cathedral (6/7) it beat out Eden, Heritage and Sweet Promise. Some weren't included in the race: Captain Sam got moved so he had a set back, Gruss an Aachen got clobbered first by me then by my nephew before I put a cage around it. Distant Drums got clobbered by the dog before it got a cage. Capain Sam was moved to outside the fence so Bodie can't disturb him anymore-unfortunately now, the deer can- some buds are mysteriously missing....hmm.... Eden and Heritage will probably pop within the next day or two. I planted out all the roses I rooted from cuttings last year except Thor. Thor got clobbered (in the pot) too by my DH, Bodie and me. Poor thing! I put it in a dappled shady area hoping it will recover and will grow more roots and I will plant it out later or even next year if it makes it. The Fairy that I started from cuttings is blooming too. I didn't count that in the race because it spent a nice cushy winter indoors. I've had a problem with sawfly larvae (I think) little green worms skeletonizing my leaves. I'll have to remember next year to be more vigilant and try to pick them off early. It's hard- they're sneaky. I heard wrens like to eat them so I think I'll get a wren house too. I also have to remember to put cages around the smaller roses to keep them from being clobbered.

I scored big time free plants this week- free always makes me happy. Co-worker Cathy invited me over to her house for U-dig ferns, blackeyed susan and daylillies. I got a bunch and she told me to come back anytime for more. She bought a house previously owned by a master gardener. With 2 active teenagers she doesn't have time to keep up with the gardens so she shares with everybody she can think of. Nice!

I need to move the Allium mollis from the front of the house (in the shade- not happy- previous owners put it there) I think I'll put them in the new rose bed with Russelliana, Clotilde Soupert and Capt. Sam. I also have some dwarf sage planted there, ws nigella and candy tuft from my sister's "garden"(she gardens like my mom-what ever survives is her garden). Other new garden bed needs more topsoil. Garden store is having a sale this weekend- 40# bags for $2. Once I get that straightened out I'll put in some of the blackeyed susan and some of the ws stuff- clarkia, sweet william, bells of ireland. I think my ws lupines would be ok going in too- they grew like gang busters-they won't bloom this year but it gives me something to look forward too! She said the daylilies are orange so I think I'll put them in the bed by the deck-I'm not loving the mental picture of Eden roses and orange daylilies-yuck. I pulled almost everything out of the deck bed but the roses and the monarda and re plateded it in other places. We need to come up with a Bodie barrier for the underside of the deck, level the area off (lot's of Bodie pot holes) then replant stuff. The ferns are going where the alliums are being dug up. I need to make sure they don't crowd out the columbine. My columbine isn't blooming, I don't know if it's too early or the spot is too shady.

The clematis on the mailbox looks great this year. I'll have to look at my notes, I can't remember the name. I meant to take a picture but didn't get around to it and the petals are starting to blow off. The one on the light post looks gorgeous too-kind of. I get confused about pruning and I didn't prune that one last year and now it's all straggly-skinny on the bottom and top heavy with blooms and leaves. It looks drunk. I can't remember what kind that one is either. I have it written down somewhere.

What's blooming now: Roses, allium mollis, tradescantia, Peonies, chives, Salvia, yarrow, clematis, bleeding heart, weigala, thyme

Helllllooooo Ladies!

The new roses have arrived! I had a nice little package on the stoop when I got home today-it was like Christmas all over again! They were all neatly packed in damp newspaper and arrived in great condition. I'm going to Syracuse later this week where my friend Renee has a freezer full of fish heads and guts that she'll give me to put under the roses. My lovely husband thinks I'm nuts.

I decided to take the plunge with Winter Sowing after some encouraging words from Catherine at gardnerprogress. I read up on how the whole thing works and figured it might not be too late to do a little this year. I got a bunch of milk jugs that I was saving for the Early Tomato Experiment (that's kind of gone by the wayside) and 2 plastic tubs from BigLots. Drilled holes, made labels, got some more soil at HD. I went with Alyssum, Foxgloves, Cosmos, sunflower, chamomile, nigella and coleus. I also finally got the delphinum pots out of the tupperware container in the fridge and put them in a milk jug. Everything is sitting out on the back deck. I wrapped the heck out of everything with tape-we've got psycho squirrels in the neighborhood and I didn't want to give them an easy target. I did all of this on Saturday-by Monday the Alyssum was starting to sprout-CRAZY!

I also started on my trenching project on Saturday. I got a nice flat, square shovel from Bristol's Nursery- it's a Fiskar's "the Best Shovel Ever" or something like that (late Birthday present from DH). I have to say it's quite nifty. The Y shaped handle is very comfortable and there are little treds on the top of the shovel part for me to jump on to get it to go deeper in the soil. I had read somewhere that Victorian Trenches are very labor intensive and not for the faint of heart... blah blah blah. Whoever wrote that was kind of a whiner. It's really not that bad. I did the beds on the West and South side of the house in a few hours. I think the key is to do it when the soil is nice and damp but not frozen. I can't imagine it would be a lot of fun to do in July when the ground is hard as a rock. Or in January when it is hard as a rock for a different reason.

Tomato Update: I think97 is the final count for the tomato plants. I'm sending out emails to friends asking them if they want any. I sent some down to my SIL in MD along with some Grandpa Otts Morning Glories that I started from seed saved from my house in NC and a rose bush that I propagated from a cutting last summer. I need to take it easy with the tomatoes next year.

I saw a tulip this week- woo hoo!

A flower!

Yay! My first flower of the season. Friday was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and the crocuses came out! Today was equally as nice, I dug up a quadrant of the garden and planted the peas. I really need to come up with a better plan for the pea fence, the one I have is chicken wire on two poles. It keeps trying to roll back up. It looks jacked up.

The seeds are coming along nicely. I potted up most of the tomatoes this week. I planted flax seeds (the ones that I grind up and put in my yogurt) they sprouted really quickly and seem to be chugging along. I'll start cucumbers and lettuce tomorrow.

I got some more roses with my birthday money. I got them from Countryside Roses: Ghislaine de Feligonde, Russelliana, Cornelia, Fantin Latour and climbing Clotilde Soupert. It really is a sickness, I have no idea where I'll put them! I have 9 others in the sunroom (from cuttings) I don't know where those are going either. I'm plotting out another bed on the Southeast side of the house by the gate. I think I'll put Ghislaine on the wall outside the sunroom.

I'm looking for a trenching iron, I have decided to go for Victorian trenches around the beds. I know it's a lot of work but I'm cheap and refuse to buy (1) plastic anything or (2) something else that grass will end up growing through the cracks. At my old house I used bricks and that pesky grass always got through. I have discovered it's hard to find a trenching iron around here. One with a Y or T handle would be nice, I have only been able to find one with a regular straight handle.

I went around the yard today and took tons of pictures of everything that is poking through the soil and budding out-it's very exciting! The delphinium that I thought Bodie clobbered last year is coming back up. So has a random poppy that I planted-it's blood red-it doesn't match anything else in the garden (I usually don't do reds) but I love deep red poppies and I had a heck of a time trying to find the right shade (I got it at Baker's Acres outside of Ithaca last July when I was down there for the rose class). Usually the reds have a orangey or magenta undertone. This one is supposed to have an almost bluish undertone. Fingers are crossed. My Thor rose is also a deep, deep red, I don't know where that one is going to go...

Progress report

An update on the rose cuttings I took on July 12. Like I stated before: the class given by derRosenmeister was excellent. It was the hottest day of the year and I had a long hot car ride in front of me after class. Some of the cuttings didn't make it but the ones I did after the class using what I had learned are doing really well. 3 survived from the class: 2 "The Fairy" and one "Thor". The rest are unnamed lost souls from my moms "garden" (I use that term loosely as she doesn't garden much- she plants and then lets them fend for themselves) her roses are total mysteries. This picture doesn't do them justice -they are all thriving and growing and throwing out new leaves daily. I brought them in before the first frost and have been keeping them in the sunroom aka meatlocker. Our sunroom is supposed to be a 4 season room but it gets hella cold in the winter. We shut off the heat and put a heavy curtain in the doorway and it's around 55'F in there. The roses seem to like it. They get lots of sun and don't get too warm. I started to have a spider mite problem but derRosenmeister warned us about that so I gave them a nice hosing down in the kitchen sink a few weeks back. Alles gut!

Jack Frost nipping at my toes.....

....Well, not yet but he's gaining on me. The weather people were waffling on whether my area would get hit or not on Thursday night. I was out in the dark covering up my tomatoes. False alarm. I kept the big sheet of plastic hanging on the garden fence so it's ready to go when Jack arrives. Heritage is blooming (see photo) I forgot it doesn't have much of a vase life until after I cut it. Whoops! I also cut some zinnias and cosmos. The zinnias aren't really too impressive this year. I'm warming up to the cosmos. Some of the blooms are really tiny and delicate-lilliputian is how I would describe them, some are medium sized and some are large. The colors range from pale pale pink (almost white) to Raspberry pink. Some are pink with Raspberry edges. Very pretty.

Bodie got under the deck again this week. This time he decided to try the other end -right next to the Heritage rose. Aaaagh! Luckily, the rose bush came out unscathed. My perennial Helianthus wasn't so lucky-it had been infested with tiny red bugs so I cut it all down about 2 weeks ago. If it doesn't make it I won't be bummed. Some sweet peas got clobbered too they are the annual kind so they're about done anyway. Father in law was at the house when it happend (we were at work) he's a good one not to panic and got Bodie out from under the deck with a trail of dog biscuits.

I dug up one of the daikon radishes I planted back in July. Not at all impressive. Didn't look like much of anything so I put it back in the ground.

Well it's Sunday and Sunday in the Fall means Football!!! Go Bills!!!!! Hockey season is right around the corner-Wooo Hooo!

Tomatoes at last!

First regular sized tomato was harvested September 2- a Super Sioux. Since then the Garden Peach and Green Zebra have decided to join the party. I ate everything so fast I forgot to take pictures. Whoops. I have posted a pic of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market in one of my favorite bowls (by Richard Aerni a nationally known local artist). I wasn't at all scientific-I haven't weighed or measured anything. I have just sliced and salted and popped in my mouth. Mmmmm..Super Sioux has a really nice flavor-perfectly round and for the most part unblemished fruit (I picked a cracked one today we had a TON of rain last night and SS suffered as a result). Great flavor. I'm kind of weirded out by Garden Peach-it really looks like a peach and has fuzzy skin. I haven't tried to eat it skin and all yet. But I did try one that I blanched and peeled-it has a really nice mild but not too mild flavor. I made a fresh tomato sauce for some spaghetti for dinner the other night. I can honestly say it was the best spaghetti I have ever had. I shocked the heck out of myself.

2 of Each-Super Sioux, Garden Peach and Green Zebra-blanched seeded and diced

c. 1 Tbs fresh Basil -chiffonade

1 clove Garlic- minced

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Israeli Feta cheese (not as dense and less salty than Greek feta)

I put the olive oil and garlic in a large fry pan over medium heat, when the garlic started to release it's garlickyness I added the diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Brought the whole thing to a boil, added the basil and then poured over a bowl of spaghetti and topped with the feta- not too much more of a heavy garnish than an actual ingredient. Mmmm the salty creaminess of the feta was a nice compliment to the acidity of the tomatoes.

I gave up on the squash and zucchini-the powdery mildew really took it's toll. The plants weren't putting out much fruit and what was coming out was really weird looking. I ripped everything out this morning. I left the cucumber plant, it is still producing despite looking like hell. I also ripped out all of the lettuce-it has all bolted.

Good news is the roses are happy for the cooler nights (in the 40-50's) They have bloomed in the last 2 weeks in the following order: Winchester Cathedral, Sweet Promise, Gruss an Aachen. Heritage has 2 buds and will probably bloom later this week. Eden is growing like a weed. Captain Sam and Distant Drums are looking a little peaked but not too bad.

I potted up the rose cuttings I took during my class that I took in July with der Rosenmeister. Belle Sultane, Rosarie de l'hay and Illusion didn't make it :( in defense of der Rosenmeister, it was the hottest day of the year and my cuttings were in the hot car for quite a while that day when I was supposed to put them directly in cool shade. The Fairy is doing great and has been transplanted into a gallon container and Thor is chugging along (I'll see if it's ready to transplant in another week or two). I also took cuttings from my moms roses- all are mystery roses given to her by family friends and neighbors. They all seem to be doing well and have been transplanted to 1 gal containers-this is probably their only chance for survival as I had to plow through weeds to find the sickly plants to get the cuttings. This success with the later cuttings leads me to believe der Rosenmeister was spot on in his instruction and I'm just a schmuck for not having a better plan in place after the class.

Note to self: don't let DH drink two cups of coffee and then watch football-he gets WAY too agitated!

Woe is me!

Veggie garden is being assaulted on 2 fronts: squash vine borers and powdery mildew! That coupled with the green tomatoes has left me very discouraged. So far we have had 3 ripe (peacevine) cherry tomatoes 4 more are ready to come in. I harvested 1 black beauty zucchini and another cucumer and a green serrano- the serrano wasn't hot at all. We had a couple of cool nights (down in the low 50's) and the garden is starting to look a little sad. The powdery mildew seems to have taken off over night. Yesterday was a very warm 90'F and it's back in the high 80's today. I woke up this morning and the powdery mildew was everywhere! I cut a lot of leaves off the squash and zucchini and sprayed the rest with a milk solution to try to contain the powdery mildew. I've also cut out 5 squash vine borers from 2 plants (the only 2 plants that have produced thus far!) I'm thinking they are so stressed out now they will probably kick it. I hate squash vine borers! One plant that had them was planted early and not covered, the other was planted later and covered with a floating row cover until the week of July 4-obviously that didn't work well!

I broke down and went to the farmers market today and bought tomatoes. The ones in the garden don't seem to be producing much fruit and the fruit that is there isn't growing very fast and it's not ripening at all. I got some heirlooms, some hybrids and a ton of cherries for drying in the oven. I haven't tried them yet.

Good news: Winchester Cathedral, Gruss an Aachen and Sweet promise all have buds. Zinnias and cosmos are blooming-tiny flowers -it's weird! Veronica has sent up a second flush and the cone flowers are going bonkers.

I'm not feeling the garden today so I decided to share a picture of Watkins Glen taken on Aug 1 when DH and I went down there for a hike. A beautiful state park at the south end of Seneca Lake,

Progress...?

I think I may hav 2 potential zucchini's-it looks like 2 zucchini plants each have a female flower, fingers are crossed! It also looks like I may finally get some tomatoes to ripen-one of the cherry tomato clusters seems to be changing from green to an orangey color. I believe it is the peacevine tomato. Most of the seeds I have planted are sprouting.

On the flower front-Sweet Promise and Winchester Cathedral have buds again. Eden has little worms munching on it-I have been squashing them. My "Cut and Come Again"Zinnias are finally blooming-the flowers are tiny and rather pathetic looking. I really don't have much luck with annual seeds!

Sweet Promise

As promised-Sweet Promise. She must be pretty sweet because something has nibbled tiny little holes in her petals. This is her first bloom ever. She was planted bare root about 13 months ago. The color doesn't really show in the picture but she's got more of an orangey apricot tone. She's supposed to look like this:
http://www.helpmefind.com/plant/pl.php?n=50578&tab=10
She looks more like this:
http://www.helpmefind.com/plant/pl.php?n=11075&tab=10
She does have a nice fruity fragrance, like a fresh cut apple. Everyone has told me not to judge a rose bush by it's first bloom, it takes awhile for it to get into it's groove and start producing a nice show. I'll be patient and see what happens

The seeds came today for my late summer veggie garden-turnip, beets, swiss chard, carrots, rutabaga, peas, beans, cucumber, daikon radish. I also got white clover cover crop seeds to improve the soil. Now I have to figure out where to put everything....

I forgot to mention the annual dahlias I got a few weeks ago had powdery mildew-I segregated them (but not until AFTER my veronica caught it) and on the advice of a coworker I snipped of the really bad leaves and washed the whole plant with anti bacterial soap and rinsed with fresh water-that was about 10 days ago and it seemed to do the trick. They are still segregated but no sign of disease. I'm glad I didn't pitch them!

What I've been up to

I've been away the past 2 weekends. We went up to Uncle's place up on a lake near the 1,000 Islands for July 4. Different Uncle (and different lake) than Memorial Day Uncle. It's beautiful and quiet up there, we usually go up for the whole week but schedules didn't work out for that this year. Then we were at my moms in Syracuse for the rest of the weekend. My husband took on gutter cleaning duty (she had helicopter problem too that manifestited itself in the gutters) I really dislike cleaning gutters so I decided to weed the front "flower bed". Basically it was all weeds so I pulled almost everything out, hit some sales and planted a bunch of stuff. Then I put down a soaker hose and mulched the whole thing. My moms neighbors are very happy they don't have to look at the weeds anymore. I put in low maintenance plants that are deer resistant.

This past weekend I went to see my sister in Ithaca. There was a rose propagation class there that I signed up for given by Lee at http://www.derrosenmeister.com/. It was a wonderful class. He has a beautiful property with an amazing garden that was a hayfield 5 years ago! It was a 2 hour class and we each walked out with 2 cuttings of 5 different non patented roses and with the knowledge of how to propagate roses. It was the last class he offers for the year. I can't wait to take more classes next year. He's got a large selection of cold hardy roses, I'm studying up on his inventory and trying to narrow down my choices to put in the garden next spring!

Gruss an Aachen is blooming right now (see picture), it smells great, it's a beautifully delicate rose. I think the mystery Sweet Promise is actually Sweet Promise. The bud is unfurling as we speak. It's more of a deep apricot than I was expecting. It kind of clashes with the rest of the garden, I'd like to move it at some point to a new location. I'll have to research that and see if it's feasable.

What's blooming now: EVERYTHING! Echinacea, hostas, sweet peas, helianthus, yarrow, stokesia, foxgloves, delphinium, bee balm, cosmos, coreopsis.

Veggie garden update-we have tiny tomatoes forming! I have been harvesting lettuce for quite a while, tiny cucumbers are visible and the summer squash should be ready in about a week to ten days.

Sweet!

Fab news to report on the rose front: Winchester Cathedral is in bloom! Wooo Hooo! I planted it bare root from White Flower Farm on or about 4/23 (pre-blog). My SIL gave me a Gift Certificate from WFF for my birthday (and a Meyer Lemon tree!) I was laid up with a bad flu in early March and spent a whole week perusing their catalogue -Winchester Cathedral is the result. I planted it along the picket fence where I killed 3 roses last year. To be fair- I put the roses in at the end of June last year and it was a brutally dry-hot summer. This year has been ideal for the flower garden- a lot of rain and only a few heat waves-otherwise moderate temps. Gruss an Aachen is happily chugging along-definitely one bud maybe 2. Sweet Promise/Mystery rose now has 2 buds (!) Now Windchester has 2 blooms and 1 bud. Eden had 3 blossoms clipped yesterday to keep me company while I drudge away at my day job.

Sweet Pea bloomed today too-Yeah!!! I'm not sure what kind it is- I planted a couple of kinds and made notes about what went where and then Bodie went after the chipmunks and dug everything up. Sweet Peas are popping up all over the place! They smell fantabulous!

Picture courtesy of my video camera- doesn't take pictures as well as the dead camera but it works!

Good News!

Where to start? Sister's blue bird family had a second go around and so far so good (picture courtesy of said Sister)- Ma, Pa and 5 babies are doing well-Yeah!!! My Gruss an Aachen rose has a bud!!! Yeah!!! My mystery-Sweet Promise rose has a tiny bud too- Stay tuned to find out if it is acutually a Sweet Promise or if they mystery continues. Mystery plant (came with the house) has buds on it. I think it's a hydrangea but as it's never bloomed, I'm not really sure. I found out from my MIL that one of my other mystery plants is a Potentilla. Good to know! I like that one. Mystery Foxglove has been tentatively idetified as either "Candy Mountain"-spitting image but doesn't "turn it's blossoms up to the sun" or the Camelot series Rose.

I've been making a concerted effort to check out all the local nurseries. Upstate Gardener's Jounal did a bang-up job cataloging the places on the east side of the city. Luckily a lot of them are right around my area. I was very impressed with Lucas. There I got 6 -4" pots of creeping thyme to plant amongst my pavers for the low-low price of $5.60. I've planted half of them so far. They look a little fatigued but I think they'll make it. Hopefully it'll take and I'll have nice thyme growing between the flagstones instead of weeds! I also got some Serrano chile plants-some how I got them confused with Aneheim a nice mild chile -Serrano are 5x hotter than jalepenos-Whoops!

I had to go to Buffalo this week for work. I decided to stop at a really large gardening store on the west side on the way home- it was humongus! At first I thought: UH-oh this is going to be very dangerous... but I was able to control myself. I stuck to the list: potting soil and new gardening gloves. In the end I wasn't really impressed with the place for a few reasons: There were no birds or butterflies to be found. It smelled like chemicals (probably the reason I didn't see any birds or butterflies). Prices weren't any better than any other place. Selection wasn't nearly as good as some of the smaller places -they had a lot of stuff but it was a lot of the same stuff and pretty pedestrian at that-impatiens, geraniums by the acre. The place was so huge it was overwhelming. I do have to say they had a nice selection of landscaping bushes and pots. The staff wasn't terribly helpful or friendly. There were many bunches of kids standing around chatting. One nice kid put the bag of potting soil into the cart for me. Check out was painful 2 registers were open and they both had a hang up for some reason or another. When I checked out the cashier was too busy chatting with her coworker to even acknowlege me and as a result I was left on my own to wrangle the bag of potting soil into my car-It was a bulky 25-30lb bag and I was wearing heels and a business suit. I managed and didn't mess up my suit-Yeah!!!

Friends of ours just bought a new house in the city and moved in last weekend. It's a beautiful old house with a wonderful established garden complete with fruit trees and a pond. They don' t know anything about gardening and asked for help. I copied and printed some articles from old gardenig magazines about basic stuff and stuff specific to what they have in their yard and I found a nice book that should work as a good reference. It looks like the neighborhood has quite a few accomplished gardeners living there, and with gardeners being notoriously nice and helpful, I think they are in good shape.

Camera is still on the fritz and is probably dead. Hence the bluebird photo.

I place my Heritage Rose and Eden Rose in head to head combat last week here are the results:
Scent- Heritage by a landslide, vase life-Eden, maintenance-Eden (heritage has an aphid problem). Eden wins by a hair but the scent of Heritage makes it closer that it looks! Eden doesn't really smell like anything.

What's blooming: Lady's mantle, Yarrow, foxglove, delphinium, roses, spiderwort, potentilla, clematis

What's budding-Buddeleia, rudbeckia, echinacea, mystery plant (hydrangea?)

Can't see the forest for the trees....

I hate helicopters!!! Not the kind that fly around in the sky monitoring traffic congestion and video taping police chases in Los Angeles (although, really, is that necessary?) I'm talking about the seedpods for maple trees. I have shovel fulls of these things all over the yard, the patio, the veggie garden, the flower garden...and with all the sun and rain we've had, mini maple trees are popping up everywhere! I'm trying really hard to appreciate the beauty and force of nature. For millions of years this area was forest and within the last 200 years or so-probably not even that long-people have chopped down the trees, planted farms, tilled up the farms and planted suburbs. Nature is just trying to gain back it's equalibrium. I'm all for being one with nature, but I would like a little variety! Needless to say I've been pulling up maple tree seedlings and picking up piles of 'helicopters' all week. I really need to get out in the veggie garden and do some hoeing or I won't be able to see the tomato plants for the trees...

The hordes have left town and everything is back to normal. We went out to dinner with friends last night in the village. It was hot again, a cold front came through earlier in the week but by Friday it was back in the 90's. We went to the new "Irish Pub" in town...eh...I like the old Pub better. The new place is trying too hard to be authentic. The old Pub isn't trying to be anything but a place to hang out and drink beer and maybe have a little supper. During dinner the heavens opened up and it started to pour. Lightning, thunder- the whole enchilada. We decided not to have dessert at the new pub so we ran out in the rain and went across the street for ice cream. We sat on the porch along the canal and ate ice cream and watched the storm. It was really kind of nice.

With the thousands of tourists gone it was safe to go the the farmer's market again today. I tried to get as much produce as possible. Everyone is totally freaking out about the tomato/salmonella outbreak-OMG stop eating tomatoes!!! Eating tomatoes that have been shipped 3,000 miles is totally gross whether or not they have salmonella-they taste like crap! This time of year the farmers with the greenhouses have tomatoes ready. They aren't nearly as good as garden grown but they aren't picked when green and hard as a rock either (and shipped across the country while they ripen). Side note: is 230 cases of Salmonella in a population of 300 million really something to freak out about? I bet there's a lot of other things on those tomatoes worth freaking out about it but since you won't feel the effects of it for another 20 years or so, don't worry about it.

Anyway, I digress. In additon to the tomatoes I also brought home scallions, lettuce and radishes. I meant to pick up some scapes but I got distracted again by the flowers....damn flowers. I had a plan, it was a nice economical plan: only get the things on my list of flowers that I have space for in the garden, it was a short list. The plan got shot to hell and the list got tossed aside. I got another salvia (Salvia nemorosa "Blue Queen"). I meant to get catmint (to replace the one that died) but the salvia was really pretty and the catmint was looking a little stumpy. Salvia went in the catmint spot. I also got 2 foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea). I love foxglove. The original plan was to buy some in a few years when I put in a flower bed next to the gate. I jumped the gun. I couldn't resist. One looks like "Pam's Choice" and the other I'm not sure. I'll have to do some investigation. It's hot pinky-raspberry color....Sweet! I have space, I just need to dig up and move some newly planted iris (see below about the free irises). I tried to sneak out of there but Japanese maple-man stopped to chat about the status of my Green Cascade. Then-caught like a cheating lover-I got stopped by the lady I usually buy my perennials from (the best prices, heathly plants, nice variety, really friendly and helpful) she wanted to tell me what beautiful plants the foxgloves were (I got them from the grumpy, not too helpful chain smoker with a better than usual selection this week). Luckily she had delphiniums-they were on my list! Redemption!!! I got 2 delpiniums to replace the (1) delphinium that Bodie accidentally dug up this spring while persuing a couple of chipmunks under the deck. I could easily have gotten 8 -so I consider it a victory! Dear Husband doesn't quite see it in such a favorable light. He shudders everytime I leave the house on a Saturday morning. I tell him he's lucky...I could be a drug addict, an alcoholic, a shopaholic. I could get my hair done, my nails done, I could hire a decorator to re-do the house, a landscaper to re-do the yard. I don't do any of that. So what's a few flowers? At really good prices I might add...

...Also I saved him over $720 this week....how did I do that? I went to my pottery class and my friend Michelle gave me 16 Hostas, 6 irises(recently moved 4 feet forward to accomodate above mentioned foxgloves) and a columbine for free(!!!!!). Have I mentioned how much I love free stuff????? I planted everything and DH didn't even have to dig one hole. How do I calculate the savings? My friend Holly hired a professional landscaper to give her an estimate and a plan to re-do some beds in her yard. HOLY SMOKES! What a rip off!!!! I know these guys need to make money but A) it was a damn ugly design B) totally lacked imagination C) it clearly didn't take into account the mature size of the plants. Sell more plants, make more money, customer rips the plants out in 5 years and that's money down the drain, plants die a senseless, tragic death. D) Where do they come up with these prices? He charged $45 for a hosta!!! ONE HOSTA! That must be a damn fine hosta (16 hostas x $45= $720 savings to DH -I love it when math works out in my favor!). I know that includes labor but how labor intensive is hosta-hole digging? It's not like a rose or an ancient redwood, you don't need a backhoe! Luckily for Holly, she's a smart girl and realized she was about to be ripped off and it was a damn ugly design (complete with fake-red mulch). I told her to wait a few years and I'd divid my hostas and sell them to her for the low, low price of $39.99 each...I also mentioned to her that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell...

...I also got a (red) morning glory vine for $1. I planted it where it will totally clash with my pink perennial sweet pea. I'm big on having a color scheme in the front yard-pink and chartreuse. In the back yard my color scheme: God puked up a rainbow. My poor neighbors.

Blooming this week: Peonies (hurrah!!), salvia, veronica, spirea, bleeding heart, foxglove, delphinium, roses.

Rose Race final results:Captain Sam won the first to bloom race, Distant Drums was a not so distant 2nd. Eden and Heritage are about to bloom any second..so exciting! Winchester Cathedral has little buds on it. Not bad considering Distant Drums and Winchester were little twigs a few short months ago.....Gruss an Aachen doesn't have any buds but seems to be chugging along ok. I'm pretty sure Sweet Promise...isn't. I think it's whatever the root stock is. I diligently inspect it for buds but so far...Nada.

*about the picture-this is an old one- I busted Bodie trying to break into the garden to steal my eggplants. My camera has sh-the bed! I can't get the lens to focus and I get an error message on the screen. I'm hoping a little rest will set it right. If not, I'm formulating a plan B

Hot Hot Hot!!!

Ugh! Heat wave in WNY...it's been in the 90's for the past few days with oppressive humidity. All I'm going to say is that I hate it and I'll leave it at that. The people in the Mid-West are having flooding and tornadoes so I feel really lucky that natural disasters are few and far between around here.

I went to the nursery today (festival in town= 250,000 visitors the village this weekend=no farmers market for me!) I wanted to get a hanging basket and fill it with shade plants. The front of the house is kind of blah...and shady- Big red maple out front. Ideally I would like to put window boxes in the front windows. I have the inserts but need to make the boxes- not in the budget this year. So, what I got was some hot pink impatiens, chartreuse sweet potato vine (Marguerite), some chartreuse and pink coleus and asparagus fern. Throw it all together and I think it looks pretty good hanging on a branch of the red maple out front. I also got some Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea') I had intended to put it in the basket but ran out of room. I put it in a pot with the leftover hot pink impatiens. I'm going to try to over winter the asparagus fern (I'll bring inside and put in the bathroom), the coleus (cuttings) and I'll put the creeping jenny in the ground-I'll try to reuse it all next year in the boxes.....I wonder if I can save the sweet potato vine???? That thing was hard to find..they only had a few and they were all chartreuse, good thing I didn't want a dark purple one!

I also got a flat of marigolds and some purple sweet allysum. I love orange and purple together. I filled some of the window box inserts & clay pots and put them on my deck -not terribly fancy but my back deck was woefully bare- flowers are so expensive!!! I wanted some verbena and lantana but there was no way- too much dinero. Thats why I love perennials, they cost a bit more but they last! I have some Fordhook nasturtium seeds that I planted in the veggie garden last week left over so I put them in the boxes and pots too. Seeds are cheap...love seeds.

I had never been to that nursery before (we have a lot of them around here). It was really nice. Not too far from my house & they had a huge selection of just about everything and everything looked really healthy, not an easy feat with this heat. I found a rose that I want to plant next to the driveway "Happy Chappy" was the name. I'll have to look it up and see if it will work there. I could have gone crazy and spend a ton of money but I managed to control myself. Besides the creeping Jenny the only other perennial I got was Veronica alpina "Goodness Grows" beautiful electric blue spikes. I couldn't help myself. I love Veronica and used to have it at my old house it's like a butterfly magnet! I just planted it between my Captain Sam and Distant Drums roses. Yesterday those two were neck and neck: who will bloom first???? I think Capt Sam pulled ahead this morning. The first bloom is just starting to open..... Distant Drums bud is still closed up.

Weigelia is finishing up its blooms I should have taken a picture, it was gorgeous this year. Sage bloomed and is kaput. Allium moly is out in full force. My chives are going nuts! Thyme is blooming. Salvia blooming. Stokesia and echinacea buds are forming. Peonies are probably going to bloom tomorrow-I see a lot of peonies blooming in the area. Iris' are out in full force. Bleeding heart is looking really good. I need to pull out the Spiderwort in the front (also blooming). I love it but the purple blooms are clashing with my hot pink and chartreuse color scheme-it was planted by the previous owner who apparently had no color scheme or master plan. I may replace it with some Echinacea from the back yard garden-I've got plenty! I'll see if anyone in my pottery class wants the Spiderwort. That's a great place to get and give plants. Most of us are gardeners in addition to being potters. Picture courtesy of Aunt & Uncle's garden