Dog Dayz of August

It’s the first Monday in August 2020...must be time for a garden update! 

First of all, allow me to state the obvious: it is hot. And humid. When I clocked my morning walk today at 7:30, it was already 72° and 94% humidity. The forecast has a chance of rain today, but I’m not holding my breath...been there, waited in vain for that. You can probably tell how hazy that picture is. Hot and hazy.

Anyway...

It’s a good time to take stock of how this year is going in our gardens. One thing is certain, spending copious amounts of time in one’s gardens is a great pandemic survival technique! So, I will count “daily gardening” as a plus for this year so far.

We gathered an amazing amount of blackberries from the four 2-year old plants that are located in what we call “the fence garden.” It’s an area along the backyard wooden fence that runs north to south, which we have tried to protect from the dogs by adding a parallel wire fence, allowing for about three feet by thirty feet of fruit and flowers. Next year we hope to add some blueberries to the mix. The blackberries have finished for the year, so we will be cutting off the canes to prep for new growth for next year’s berries.

The year-old Rose garden is better than we’d initially thought, owing to our fear of losing so many new plants to the drought last Summer through Fall...when the poor babies had little to no established root systems. We did lose a few, but we’ve added six more from an auction of Alba’s roses (she the former president of the Gwinnett Rose Society who passed away late last year and who asked that her roses be auctioned for funds for the GGRS). Every single one of them seems to be thriving! And although the garden itself is starting to look weedy because it has been entirely too hot to work in it lately, it continues to give us bountiful blooms for our dinner table display. 

Also in the plus column was the decision to sow so many flowers in and around the kitchen gardens. The zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers have been attractive assets, both in color and in being pollinator magnets. From mid-morning to early evening, we enjoy the activity of a record number of bees, butterflies, and birds. And we pack the vases of roses with many more colorful blooms!

In thinking about the Kitchen gardens, I think if I had to pick a veg winner this year, it would have to be our beans. We have picked enough to eat and to freeze...and given several “messes” to neighbors. I staggered planting several varieties, starting as early as March, and I pick them on a near-daily basis in order to keep the vines productive. 

However, a remarkably cold and wet April delayed planting of almost everything else, meaning all crops are behind schedule as far as production is concerned. And then Mother Nature turned up the heat and turned off the taps in July, meaning more stress on the already-stressed tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and corn. More stress=less...and smaller...produce. Sigh.

Still we continue to enjoy our little slice of Heaven on Earth here in Georgia...hot and humid as it may be. I am spending some time, researching plants to create a Dye Garden, hoping to make a match between two of my favorite activities: gardening and knitting. Speaking of knitting...here’s a picture of a recently-completed cotton shawl that was done for a Ravelry Mystery Knitalong (MKAL) called “Dog Dayz.” Timely, yes?

Anyway...again...

I’ve identified the area of the yard that will be converted from lawn to flowers, and I’ve started purchasing seeds to start the plants for Fall. I’ve also designated my old crockpot for a dye-pot, and I’m researching how to create dyes from the plants I grow as well as how to dye different yarn fibers. More on that at another time...

Between now and then, though, we came up with a rather unique way to both kill the grass in that area AND beat the heat of August: a play pool on any old rug! Missy M ordered it to be delivered here in time for her week-long staycation this week; Mr. T aired it up with the air compressor; and we filled it and hopped in yesterday! Ahhhh...

Garden Party

As I said on a recent Facebook post, you leave for 10 days and your garden will have a party without you. Hoo-boy, howdy...no truer words!

See what you can see in this picture, taken on the morning after our return home.




It's a jungle out there!

Looking from the Box Garden (raised beds) back toward the southwest, you can see how some of the tomatoes have outgrown their cages...and almost over-topping their stakes.  The really tall ones you are looking at about center of the shot are German Johnsons, an Open-pollinated (AKA: "Heirloom") variety that is particularly happy here this year. In the right foreground, you are seeing the Fordhook Lima beans, growing up nicely in the box garden. Between the limas and the tomatoes, you can see the okra on the rise in the black fabric-covered row. And, off to the left, between the tomatoes and the fence and shed, you can see the daylilies in bloom.

Here are some of our daylilies, currently in bloom:

Elvis' Cape (and Abbie near Enon)

Alabama Jubilee

Joe Marinello

Persian Peach

Purple Pinwheel

Red Ribbons

No, I don't necessarily remember all of their names. I do need to look them up on occasion. Especially since we missed most of their blooms last year due to our extended stay in KY. Ah well, it's good to get reacquainted, don't you think?

Daylilies really bring the pollinators (bees and other beneficials) into the Way Back, which is good because most members of the cucurbit family are in bloom: the cucumbers (on a lattice-work trellis*), the yellow crookneck squash, the zucchini, and the watermelons (Sugar Baby and Crimson Sweet). The pumpkins and the muskmelons (which we persist in calling cantaloupes...:-) are not yet blooming...but that shouldn't be too much longer at the rate they are growing.

Crookneck Squash

 

 

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

Straight Eight Cucumbers on trellis

Now, all is not a bed of roses around the Kitchen Garden, sad to say. While we were away, the squash bugs came out to play...and lay eggs. Yuck. While I had kept them at bay for the early days of the vulnerable plants with row covers, when the cucurbits started to flower I had to remove the covers to give access to the pollinators, so they could do their part in giving us a good harvest. Upon my return, I was doing my due diligence in pest management when I noticed a few leaves that looked like this picture:



Where's my water bucket?

If you follow that link on squash bugs to the Organic Gardening site, you will learn that "they" recommend squashing the squash bugs on the leaf. My method is to cut the leaf off and dunk it in a pail of water. You see, I have a habit of tasting my harvest, straight off the vine...and I really don't want to think about having bug-egg guts on my gloves...or worse yet, on my fingers and under my nails.  Personal preference.

Speaking of tasting...

Sun Gold tomatoes

My tomatoes are beginning to ripen, and I just couldn't help myself. I popped one of these luscious Sun Golds from the bottom grouping in my mouth just after taking this picture. Can you blame me? Oh, how sweet it is! JA, my Master Gardener friend and mentor, was the first to sing the praises of this wonderful tomato. And, then I learned that it had won two out of three of the top honors in the Greensboro Tomato Festival last year. Promise: this one will be on my "must grow" list from now on!

Yes, the daylilies and the Kitchen Garden have been particularly productive while we were away, as has the Berry Patch. I was so excited to get a cup of blackberries and nearly 2 cups of blueberries.  My recipe for blueberry pie calls for 4 cups...and if I can stop eating the ones I've harvested, I hope to have enough to start baking this weekend.

If only I can stop eating the ones I've already harvested...

Blueberries!

Happy hoeing!

We've Been Slow to Mow

Keeping a tidy, well-mown lawn might be a reason to get outside for some...but not for me. I get no special thrill from a lawn, which is, as a Master Gardener friend of mine says, a monoculture...and b-o-r-i-n-g.

One of the reasons I love this property so much is how little of the real estate is dedicated to lawns. Of course, the main reason for that is the number of towering trees around the house, making grass-growing an exercise in futility in the heavily-shaded areas. Ah, but in the Way Back, where the full-day sun would support more grass than the shade around the house, there is no lawn. None. Can I get a hallelujah? 

We do have to mow...on occasion. And by "we," of course I mean "Mr. T." The weeds and wildflowers that pass for grass in both the Orchard and the Berry Patch can get pretty tall and unkempt-looking if left to their own devices for too long. 

But in the Spring, I make a special request "to leave the daisies alone." We need to attract all the pollinators to the Way Back that we can, and the wild daisies are just the ticket. 

Additionally, we have several good randomly-placed patches of bird-planted milkweed (the host plant for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars) that need time to develop and flower. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed, and their caterpillars only eat milkweed. Many folks cut milkweed down in their yards because it doesn’t smell very good, or they think it is a weed. But these same people don’t realize that monarch butterflies need the milkweed in order to survive, and the monarch butterfly population is dwindling. Plus, milkweed isn't an easy seed to germinate...or, to transplant once it has been seeded, usually by birds and usually in an inconvenient spot. Protecting it is almost a mission.

We are in the process of adding a small (64 sq. ft) Pollinators Garden in the Orchard, complete with a bird bath...the second one in the Way Back. We want to increase the habitat for bees, butterflies, moths, beetles (like that soldier beetle on the daisy above), hummingbirds, and other pollinators. There is a marvelous online resource at www.pollinators.org where you can enter your zip code, and then get a PDF guide and plant list for your area. We will have four fav perennials suggested for our zip (aster, coreopsis, phlox, and hollyhocks); annuals like zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers; and room for a couple more buddleias...as soon as I root them from cuttings from the one in the back yard.

Why all this attention on pollinators, you ask? According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife publication Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden: 

• Pollinators are nearly as important as sunlight, soil and water to the reproductive success of over 75% of the world’s flowering plants.
  
• They are crucial to the production of most fruits, nuts, and berries on which people and wildlife depend.
  
• Over 150 food crops in the United States depend on pollinators, including blueberries, apples, oranges, squash, tomatoes and almonds.

We want to make a conscious effort to ensure our little spot on this Earth is a welcoming oasis to the critters and creatures that make our plants healthier and our lives richer.  We have reduced our use of pesticides to almost nil (remember...even organic pesticides kill bugs, both bad and beneficials), and when we do spray or dust, we try for early mornings...when pollinators are least active. We plant herbs and flowers to attract beneficials as well as repel pests. We allow our natives as well as our weeds to have some growing room.

We will all benefit if we continue to be slow to mow.