It's Almost a Wrap!

One would imagine that the Kitchen Garden as well as the Rose Garden would be settling down for a long winter's nap. One would be wrong.

Even though we had frost and a freeze in both October and November, we are now experiencing a period of balmy, Spring-like weather here in the Piedmont of NC. So, my December pictures of the harvest from our gardens are quite unexpected.

Enjoy them while you can. At least that's our approach to this wacky weather!

Raised bed of greens:
7-Top Turnip (left and right); Collards (center)

Raised bed of lettuces; hoops and row covers showing

Ready for my salad:
bibb and red sails lettuces; spinach; and carrots

What is this narcissus doing blooming
in the Rose Garden in December?

Christmas centerpiece: roses, mums, n
arcissus, rosemary, and pineapple sage...
all from our garden!

Back Where I Belong

Confession is supposed to be good for the soul, so here goes: I have neglected my garden terribly this year. And it shows. 

Oh, sure...I have excuses. First, I was nursing a stress fracture and then a ganglion cyst in my foot (3 weeks, no walking...or gardening allowed). Next I spent a couple of weeks dog-sitting my grand dogs in GA (2 weeks, no gardening). Then I had another flare up of the DeQuervain's tendinitis in my wrist, followed by DeQuervain's Release surgery (6 weeks, no gardening); and wedged in amongst the health issues were some trips that gobbled up a good part of September: one week to Disney World to celebrate Mr. T's milestone birthday; a week to Iowa to attend and present at the International Master Gardener Conference; and finally another week at Dear Darling Daughter's in Georgia (3 weeks, no gardening).

  

You neglect your garden for 14 weeks and what happens? Yes, things began to look wild, and weeds do indeed take over where there is no mulch. The caged Block Garden, that had hosted our sweet corn, is so overgrown that it is heart-breaking to look at it. And even well-mulched but moisture-sensitive plants succumb to lack of rain. The beans (lima as well as garden beans), purple hull peas, melons, squashes, cukes, and pumpkins are all history. The tomatoes are on their last legs, although I did get a few tiny Juliets today and may be able to harvest a few more before frost, as there are green tomatoes on several of the survivors.

But, remarkably, some veggies just keep on growing...and growing...and growing...

When I checked the garden after the torrential rains of last weekend, I was immediately drawn to the first row in the Kitchen Row Garden, where bright colors were calling to me. The peppers, as usual, are finally coming into their own. I harvested green (bell), gold, purple, and red sweet peppers...they may be small in size but they are lovely to look at. I'll bet that if I dice all those up, it will look like "confetti!" 

Further along the same row, I saw them. Reds and golds and greens...all jumbled on tall, healthy, lush-looking plants. The two hot pepper varieties I planted last April (Dragon Cayenne and Tabasco) are groaning under the weight of all their fruit! "Prolific" does not begin to describe it! More hot peppers than we could use in years. These will make fabulous Seasonal gifts...Patricia's Pickled Peppers!

And then I did a double-take when I came upon the eggplants. These are the two plants I babied from the moment they went into the ground on April 13, putting tomato cages around them, and covering the whole thing with row covers to protect them from the wide variety of pests that seem to love eggplants. I removed the row cover in early July, but had imagined that the neglect of August and September would have done them in. Amazingly,  they are healthy...and the fruit on the Black Beauty is gigantic! Probably not edible, but enormous nonetheless. 

Turning to Row 2, I tripped over the sweet potato vines. They have reached out to Rows 1 & 3, even! What a mass! And I could see some pretty large sweet potatoes pushing each other out of the planting holes which were cut into the landscape fabric that serves to keep the weeds at bay. 

I had planted 15 slips of Beauregard Sweet Potatoes in the 35' row, along with trialing 3 slips in the center square raised bed, last May 8. This row had been the recipient of a good addition of composted leaves last year, which Mr. T had tilled in well. He again tilled this row to a depth of 8-10" to allow the roots to reach down deep. If you go by the plant tag and the calendar, Beauregards require 90-110 days from transplant, so I should have been able to begin harvesting mid-August or so...during the height of my neglectful period. Didn't happen. 

But, after the recent excessive rains and ahead of frost (which is an enemy of this warm-season plant) and Mr. T's upcoming knee replacement surgery and 4-6 week recovery period (which will probably be another good excuse to neglect the garden), I decided to tackle the chore of digging sweet potatoes today. If not now, when?

Oh. My. Goodness. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into! I first pulled back the vines. Then I gently wedged the garden fork down the outside edges of the holes...trying to avoid stabbing the tender roots. Then I loaded up my small trug, since I really shouldn't be carrying much more weight than it will hold, and carried the harvest to the deck, where they could dry out in the sun. All-in-all, I loaded up my trug 5 times! 

I weighed each haul, recording a total of 130 pounds of sweet potatoes. You read that right. One. Hundred. Thirty. Pounds. The largest weighed in at 11 pounds (no, not even close to the record, which was over 89 pounds!). And the funniest looks a lot like a duck!

Oh, and my trial of growing sweet potatoes in a raised bed vs. a (raised) row? Of the three slips that I planted in the center square/raised bed...I harvested one usable root. One. So, growing in the the row wins hands down!

Elsewhere in the Way Back, the signs of neglect are evident. It appears that some of the roses lost all of their leaves and have weakened canes, due to lack of moisture. Still I am hopeful that the recent rains can save most bushes from death. Of note, I see that several are putting on buds for a final show of the year. We shall see.

Both the Berry Patch and the Orchard are showing signs of the approach of Fall, with the pear trees having lost most of their leaves in the strong winds of the weekend. I need to give the strawberries a good trim, but will wait until it's time to cover them with straw for the Winter.

Yes, I'm glad to report that I'm home again, playing in the dirt. Back where I belong...

Happy hoeing!

July is Jumping

The rains that were absent without leave for most of June finally made an appearance in the final days of the month. And now we are (1) reaping the benefits and (2) paying the price. Ah, gardening...a double-edged trowel, to say the least.

First, a comparative series of photos, showing the progression over 6 months:

Box Garden in January, 2015

Box garden in the first week of May, 2015

Box garden in the first week of June, 2015

Box garden in the first week of July, 2015

As you can tell, the beans have taken over the tutuer in the Center Square. And with Mother Nature's moisture, the plants have begun to flower and produce again. Yay, rain! Of course, the wet conditions are perfect for supporting a growing Mexican bean beetle population. Boo, rain. And since I have been benched recently due to problems with my left foot (read more in the latest blog post. Click here to go there.), I haven't been able to keep on top of the pests, both weeds and insects. What a challenge!

Still, Mr. T has been stepping in (no pun intended) to keep things going. And our tomatoes are really going, and going, and going...

As you can tell, we are getting tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, okra, cukes, and zukes, as well as beans. The yellow squash are beginning to give, and the Lima beans are starting to put on. And we are excited about two ripening crops, that we can almost taste:

Fingers crossed we get to eat our watermelons and corn this year...and not the raccoons, as in years past. We noticed that a coon had visited our suet feeders this weekend, so in spite of the dogs we still have the critters in residence.

And it looks like the tomatoes are beginning to show fungal problems (late blight?), so we will need to use the "suckers" we have potted up and well-rooted as pinch hitters. Need to get them in the ground this weekend, though, as we are coming on the last date for transplanting tomatoes in the Piedmont — July 15th.

The pumpkins I seeded just before my foot problems began have germinated and are beginning to vine, as are the Georgia Rattlesnake watermelons. Mr. T sprayed the vines with Sevin to try to keep the squash bugs and squash vine borers in check; he also sprayed the newly forming corn ears to combat corn worms. Although I prefer organic pest solutions, I had to concede that these take time and a dedicated gardener in residence...and that he is doing his best to fill in while I'm on the DL. "Needs must," as they say across the pond.

The report from the Berry Patch isn't quite as good. Although we had what appeared to be a record crop of blackberries, we are actually seeing very few. The blackbirds seem to know the Head Gardener is currently unavailable, and they are making the best of a bad situation. Or a good one...from their perspective, I suppose. 

The Rose Garden is holding its own these days, with the Japanese beetles scoring significant victories, especially among the tender new buds. But Mr. T sprayed the bushes with Sevin again on Saturday, so we should see some control through the end of their season. 

'Pat Austin' rose

And the daylilies are putting on a show, albeit with smaller and fewer blooms than in years past. Chalk another one up to lack of rain in their formative period. 

Harem House, blooming for the first time

New Jersey Spider

South Seas, a variety we brought from Missouri

Here Comes Santa Claus (gotta love that name!)

So, even though my participation has been curtailed for the time being, things are moving right along in the gardens. Yes, one might even say the joint is jumping. In July. 

One might....

Say Hello to Summer

With the thermometer approaching 100 degrees on a daily basis and little (if any) measurable moisture in the rain gauge, we are seeing an alignment of the calendar and our concepts: Summer has definitely arrived in High Point. And nearly everything in our garden seems to be on the fast track to harvest...or wilting. Sigh. 

Kitchen Gardens —

In the Box Garden (shown in the photo above), I've pulled most of the cool season crops (broccoli, lettuce, etc.) and succession-planted most of the raised beds with several varieties of beans. And I have already harvested several pounds of green and burgundy beauties. 

In the Row Garden, I've harvested quite a few Juliets, as well as my first slicer (a Celebrity) for my first BLT of the season. 

I've also gotten a couple of sweet peppers, mini-eggplants, plus the first zucchini and cucumbers. 

I see several tiny watermelons peeping out of the vines. This little Sugar Baby baby may be our first test case on how to support melons on a wire-fence trellis (we're thinking of repurposed T-shirts threaded with wire coat hangers).

Because of some mislabeled seeds, we will have twice as many cukes (like this guy, below)...and no cantaloupes this year. I looked it up...June 10 was the last day to plant them in the Piedmont. 

And more beans...pole, as well as Limas. I sprayed with Sevin to help combat Mesican bean beetles and Japanese beetles...both of which devastated our bean crop last year. I do need to spray again, but it's just too hot. The label recommends temps BELOW 85 degrees (and the thermometer in the center of the Way Back is reporting 101.1 as I type this!)

And in the Block Garden, the corn is getting taller and the pumpkins have germinated. I have to water, water, water all of the above just to keep it alive.

Orchard —

While we have more fruit on the trees than last year when the late freeze zapped all of the flowers, we also have more pests to contend with. I've sprayed once with Orchard Spray, but need to spray a second time. Unfortunately we have usually passed the upper temperature limit of 85 degrees by 9:00 in the morning. Sigh.

Roses —

The first flush of blooms has come and gone on the David Austen English bushes. And now it is time for the hybrid teas to shine! I've fed and applied all-in-one product to the bushes, and I've sprayed with Sevin to protect against Japanese beetles...which showed up extremely early this year. We are now up to 74 roses, including our "bucket brigade:" we set up a temporary 'holding' area for several bareroot roses we got from Jackson & Perkins at their end-of-season sale...$9.95, plus a coupon for no shipping charges. While it's too hot to plant them in their permanent locations, we got 10 (5-gallon) buckets, drilled holes for drainage, and filled with a rose-friendly mixture of garden soil, compost, and leaf mold...and they stand in a shaded area like soldiers getting ready to do battle.

One fella (who was a container rose when purchased at Roses Unlimited on our recent trip to Lauren's, SC) is looking pretty good in his new home next to the fence, sporting a bud already. Don Juan is a red, climbing rose, which will need the support of the trellis and the fence.

Day lilies —

The show has begun! Even though our lack of rain is showing up in smaller and fewer flowers, you can't stop these beauties from producing. Here are a few stars:

Forever Redeemed 

Symmetry in Yellow

Buttered Popcorn 

Purple Pinwheel 

Alabama Jubilee 

Dad's Best White

Berry Patch —

The blueberry harvest has begun, and even though the lack of rain means fewer berries, it does seem the ones we are getting are sweeter. Amazingly, the blackberries are ripening at the same time as the blueberries. And while the grapes appear to be full of fruit, I noticed that the size of the clusters is smaller than last year.

That's how are garden is growing (in spite of the lack of rain). Hope yours is surviving.

Happy hoeing!

May Flowers

My previous post mentioned all the rain our gardens had been enjoying, apropos of April. Now, let's talk about the positive results we see in May.

This morning, I took a pre-breakfast coffee walk with a purpose. I had noticed on Sunday's walkabout, that in addition to the mountain of flowers, there were several nearly-ripe strawberries in the beautiful bed on the edge of the Berry Patch. 

I just knew I would find at least a handful in the first harvest of the season...but I was hoping for enough to make my bowl of Raisin Bran worth eating. I was justly rewarded for my two-day delay in picking.

While in the Berry Patch, I was thrilled to see all the lively blueberries on the bushes...won't be long now before the berries on my cereal will be blue instead of red! And the blackberry bushes are loaded with flowers, foretelling a heavy harvest in a couple of months. The grapes are adding leaves on all the vines, except one that was lost to winter damage. So far, so good.

Over in the Orchard, I noticed fruit on the pears, peaches, plum, apples, and crabapples. I need to spray sooner rather than later, since the trees have all finished flowering and this is one of the most vulnerable times to pest damage.

Checking on the Block Garden, where the (English) peas are busy vining up the fencing and flowering, I spotted some corn leaves poking out of the ground! Hooray! Ok, I admit I'd had my doubts. I planted those seeds of Silver Queen (some of which were from 2012!) on a rather cool day...and in extremely muddy conditions (I almost lost my garden clog to the sucking mud when I stepped in the wrong spot!). It was a case of having to plant that day...or wait another week or so until I returned from Georgia. So, maybe it will work out after all.

Then I moved on to the lettuce in Box #3 in the Raised Bed garden. Oh my goodness, what a delight for the eye! 

Of course, seeing all that lettuce reminds me of two stories:

1) After my parents retired and moved to Smithville, TN (buying my Aunt Christine's house on Jennings Lane), Daddy took on the weekly chore of going to the grocery store. He would start out with an early run to Webb's Drug Store on the Square for coffee...and the latest "news." Following any other trips (to the post office, to the hardware store, etc.), he'd eventually wind up at the Sav-a-Lot, where he thrived on getting the best bargains...and hopefully most of the items on Momma's shopping list.  One particular week, they had iceberg lettuce (the only kind he knew) 5 heads for $1.00. Granted, that's a great price, but remember it was just the two of them at home...and he was always more of a meat 'n potatoes kinda guy, calling salads "rabbit food." Anyway, he comes home with 5 heads of lettuce...to which Momma said "Sidney! What are we going to do with all that lettuce?" And he famously replied "well, we can freeze what we don't use...can't we?"

Ahem.

2) In 2011, just after we found out that Momma's lung cancer had returned, she became withdrawn and began staying home most of the time. So, I was preparing three meals a day, rather than counting on many meals eaten away from home. At about the same time, we were enjoying a bumper crop of salad greens. We had mounds of leaf lettuces on every sandwich; spinach leaves in omelettes; and a salad with almost every supper. When the Hospice volunteer came by for a visit, I overheard her ask Momma if she was eating well...meaning, did she still have an appetite for food? Momma exclaimed, "heavens yes! Patricia gives me a salad from her garden every time I open my mouth. I'm going to turn into a head of lettuce!"

Looks like 2015 might turn out to rival the salad days of 2011!

I did say this post was about May flowers, didn't I? The irises in the Rondel (the ones that are descendants of ones passed along to us by my Lunn cousin Betty Jean) are looking so pretty, with the red-bronze ones in full bloom and the yellow ones just beginning to open. 

And the (mostly purple) irises in the front yard have been putting on quite a show for us this year. We divided the ones around the lamppost last year, so I had little expectation of flowers this year. Wow! Did they ever surprise us!

The rhododendrons in the back yard are both in full flower, as the azaleas end their run for the year. 

And the roses are loaded with buds, poised to pop open into a riot of colors over the next few weeks. As usual, the winner of "first bloom" in the Rose Garden is the David Austin rose "Susan Williams-Ellis." Although small by comparison with most of the so-called English roses, SWE has proven both hardy and reliable...and we are always assured of having white roses in bloom to honor the memories of our mothers, Edith and Maryen. 

Around the path from SWE is this Winchester Cathedral (also white, but with a pink edge, denoting its "Mary Rose" parentage)...

...and this Abraham Darby (on our lone remaining AD bush...having lost one to Rose rosette disease and one to winter damage). 

What you may not be able to see is the beautiful brown mulch that Mr. T spread last weekend in the Rose Garden...with Winston's help, of course. Along with black mulch to mark the paths, this brown mulch makes the roses really stand out.

So, How Does Our Garden Grow?

• This week, I planted Clemson Spineless 5195 okra in Row #2, as well as Nanking Green cotton seeds. Many of you will remember, I got my first few colored cotton seeds from the 2011 Seed Exchange at Old Salem; the seeds I planted yesterday were descendants of those, hand-ginned and saved in the fridge over the winter. I will get a couple of containers of sweet potato slips (probably 18 in all) from Soviero's Tri-County Garden Center and plant those just before the next rainfall. The landscape fabric I used last year for the sweet potato row...complete with perfectly-spaced holes...is already pinned to the north end of Row #2 (which Mr. T tilled a couple of weeks ago), just waiting to receive the slips.

• I planted seeds of yellow and zucchini squash; Sweet Slice and Straight Eight cucumbers; cantaloupes; and three kinds of watermelons (Jubilee, Sugar Baby, and Charleston Grays) on Row #3. The cukes will grow up the latticework trellis again this year, under which I transplanted 6 pots of basil. I put tomato cages around the squad seed hills and added some seeds of the Empress of Indie nasturtium And we are trialling growing the melons on either side of a 5'x35' fence, placed in the center of the north end of the row.

• We also put a fence down the north end of Row #4 to accommodate the green beans. I planted seeds of Kentucky Wonder pole (both white 191 and brown seeds) and Garden Bean Advantage. Then, I created a three-row bed for Fordhook 242 Lima beans on the south end of Row #4 (calling it Dixie's Bed, like last year...;-), along with a bean tower, planted with the gigantic seeds of the Garden Bean Tenderstar, a runner type from England.

• The tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers in Row #1 are growing well. In fact, there are yellow flowers appearing on several tomato plants already! Unfortunately I also see some lesions appearing on a few of the tomatoes, too. It's time to trim up the lower branches of the tomatoes (up to the first flowering branch), remove any suckers (rooting the more promising ones), give them a second dose of Tomato Tone, and mulch them with straw. I will also dust all with Dipel to ward off the tomato hornworms.

• Not to be forgotten, over in the Raised Bed garden, in Box #1, I dusted the broccoli and cabbage plants with Dipel after noticing a few holes in the leaves (of the cabbage, mainly) and a single green worm. Where there is one visible worm, there are probably many more I can't see. I also dusted the beans growing in Box #2 and The Center Square with Dipel after seeing some cutworm damage. The lettuces in Box #3 look great, as do the carrots, spinach, and beets in Box #4. I noticed some "volunteer" tomatoes in Box #4 (again this year...no doubt from the Sun Golds there last year), so I thinned out all except the three in the middle of each 3x3, around which I placed tomato cages. I know, I know...this flies in the face of all gardening wisdom (hybrid tomatoes don't come back "true;" you should never grow tomatoes in the same place year-after-year, etc.), but I figure "what have I got to lose?" They are free plants...let's just see what happens.

Remember I told you in my last post that May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Awareness Month.     I heard back from my dermatologist about the biopsy she took a week ago, after removing a suspicious mole on my back. Calling it a "dysplastic nevus with mild dysplasia," she said that she wants to observe it for any changes in the next three months. She also said that I should stay out of the sun from 10:00-4:00 each day; always wear sunscreen with a minimum 30 SPF; and wear protective clothing (long sleeves, hat) and sunglasses. I know I should not be surprised since I fit the description of someone at-risk for skin cancer (fair hair and skin; sunburn-prone as a child; works outside; and family history of skin cancer), and I am thankful that I got the next-to-the-best possible report she could have given me (the best being "it's absolutely nothing...go on about your business;" the worst being "it's definitely melanoma"). And, I am going to have to make adjustments around that "10-4" restriction. But I frankly am counting myself one lucky ducky!

Happy Hoeing!