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Showing posts with label 2025 gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2025 gardens. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

The Veggies

I took my phone to the garden this evening after I side-dressed everything that needed it. Earlier today I string-trimmed too, trying to keep ahead of the weeds, which are growing like,  well, weeds. So here's a look at what's doing what. 

The boxes are future mulch. I stripped off all the tape first, before carting them out here. Once in place, I will cover them with straw.

X

The experimental potatoes.  I just laid them in a trench and covered them with straw. As the tops emerged, I just kept adding more straw. Supposedly the potatoes will grow in the straw, instead of in the ground. So far? I don't know, haven't looked!


We have lots of cherry tomatoes! Now, I only bought 8, I think, 4 yellow pear and 4 red, but what I have seems to be 4 round yellow and quite a number of red! I like cherry maters, but this may be far too many. And where are the nice big round red tomatoes I thought I planted? There are some, true, but not as many as there should be. That's the down side of buying plants instead of raising them, I guess.


The chard and kale are looking ragged. They do not like this heat. Neither do I.


Looking toward the upper end of the garden. 

Hiding in there is a deep purple pepper. After a slow, almost stunted start, the peppers are looking amazing. 


The remains of the cabbages, and the broccoli. I just harvest more sprouts this morning. This weekend i will pull thr cabbage and plant something else, not sure what yet. That's butternut squash upper left, with horseradish behind it.


The zucchinin is doing terribly. I have no idea why. I planted these at the same time as the yellow squash which is doing fine. I hope the fertilizer i added tonight will help. I have never had trouble with zucchini before.


One side of the cucumbers arch, with celery in the foreground. The celery is also struggling in the heat.


An overachiever in the corn patch! The corn is getting ears now.


The other side of the cucumbers arch. 


Yellow squash. It is up to my shoulders almost! We are getting some nice small squash now.


As you can see below, the squash is under the arch that was supposed to be covered with lima beans. There are a few limas growing quite well, but I had terrible luck getting them to germinate. I planted three times. In front right are the carrots which are doing well so far, and peppers in front middle of the photo. 


An odd thing this year is that the un-mulched tomatoes look better and healthier than the mulched ones. The other difference is that I tilled this soil, but the mulched ones were planted without tilling. Hmmm....


See the difference in color? This is the mulched patch.  

The rattlesnake beans are really taking off. Although you can't really tell from the photo, they are also on an arch.


These are the candy roaster squash. Quinn sent me the seeds for these. They are on a stout piece of wire fence but I think they will soon cover it and spread at will!

Purple beans on top, a few flowers in the center, waiting for straw 


My late squash, just a couple plants.


Looking back down the garden.


The dill is happy under the cucumber arch.


That's about it. We have pulled the lettuce, radishes and spinach. I planted more lettuce but the tiny seedlings burned up. Rhubarb chard has come up, though, and is doing well.

It's less than we usually plant, as most years we have at least one other garden, but I think this will provide plenty for this year, and allow us to "eat down" our stockpiles in cellar and freezers.


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Monday, July 7, 2025

A Hot Time in the Old Garden

72°f at 8am, heating up quickly. Already 87°f at 11am.

I have some much garden work to do, and it is so hot that getting it done is difficult. I dodge out each morning to do what I can. Today it was watering,  followed by some weeding and cutting back the iris. I do like iris but cutting back the blades in July is a miserable task. I am making slow headway, as those iris seem to be everywhere in my gardens. I need to get back into the vegetable garden, perhaps tomorrow morning. And stringtrim.  Ack! So much to do and just me to do it. Larry mows and helps a little in the vegetable garden but
not as much as he used to. And the flowerbeds are strictly mine.

Enough with the bellyaching! Here's a look at what's in bloom now. Everything is suffering from the heat.

The Mandevilla is growing slowly but is full of blooms. This is a non-climbing variety.


A tiny miniature rosebud peeks out around a dog-barrier fence. These little garden fences have worked well to keep my dogs from cavorting in my flowers. 


The last little lemon lily bloom looks forlorn, surrounded by faded blossoms. I need to do cleanup in there.



Coneflowers seed themselves and come back each year. Not always in the best spot! I move them when I can.

Coreopsis, Shasta daisies, geraniums daylilies and coneflowers make a colorful mix right now. I have been trying to get more flowers that bloom despite the heat of high summer into my gardens.


I planted this little balloon flower last year and thought it had died, but here it is, soldiering on.


Coreopsis is one of my summer favorites,  and so dependable. Did you know this plant is also a favorite for making natural dyes? It can provide a range of shades, depending on the mordant used.


My ild-fashioned phlox have been with me for almost 50 years, since I dug them up at an abandoned cabin site. They have moved themselves here and there. The begonia is in a cracked crock. I have several I use as planters and they are excellent for that purpose.



I babied along this white phlox for five years, keeping it watered when it looked bad, adding fertilizers, talking to it, pampering it. And finally! It looks like it is well established at last. Now i planted another, bought for $2 marked down and looking pitiful, and I am babying it the same way. Will it survive? I don't know but it's worth a try.


This the most stunning and graceful daylight, a kind of peachy yellow with giant blooms.


I forgot that I planted any glass, but they are coming up in such random places that I begin to think I handed the bulbs to Larry or a grandchild and said to just stick them in somewhere!


My first zinnias to bloom this year. A friend gave me a nice clump of them, and they are earlier than my own that I planted from seed.

Another cracked crock. Down in front is butterfly weed I planted last year. I was sure they had not survived the drought but there are two strong plants out of the three i planted, which makes me very happy.


I still need some photos of the vegetable garden. Maybe tomorrow!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

In the Gardens

71°f/about 22°C, clear, humid. Supposed to reach 94 today, with a heat index of 108. 

A busy bee in the garden

This will be a good day to stay indoors.  As a matter of fact,  this whole week looks to be a stay-inside week, with temperatures in the high 90s predicted. Not fun. So we will be out early and maybe again late in the day until the weather improves.

Yesterday was nice, not too hot to be out most of the day. Larry and George put together the rose arbor I got for Mothers Day from George, and put it in place. I am going to love it. 

It's really level, just my picture taking is caddywhompus.

I did some weeding and picked things for a salad.  The other evening I planted more lettuce as this batch will soon get bitter in the heat, and also planted rhubarb chard, late squash and cucumbers. We got our first tomatoes,  little red and yellow cherry ones, which went into the salad.
Also got a second picking of broccoli, which is forming sprouts from the sides now. With care, these plants might produce all summer. 


This is Red Sails lettuce, my favorite.


In the afternoon George took me to town and bought a smart TV for my birthday! (He is such a good son---well, they all are, truly. I am a lucky woman.) We spent a good while trying to get it set up and have mostly accomplished that, just a few more odds and ends to sort out. Derek came over after helping his daughter move, and we all went out to dinner. Nice! Today the two guys are golfing, and Larry and I got outside early to do some stringtrimming before it got too hot. 



I stuck some sedum in an old meat grinder. I will have to keep it watered daily.




I have been pulling up handfuls of the Mexican primroses and yarrow, now that both are past their prime.





 These petuwas 3.00 for a large pot because they had no bloom on them and looked sad. Large planters and good dirt soon brought them out of it.


I have never grown this kind of begonia before, but I am in love with them! The iron rod is to keep the dogs from knocking over the planter, which they did as soon as I put it there. The rod works! No more overturned pots, thank goodness.




.I picked the blooms off basil and sage, then added a few coreopsis to make a fragrant house bouquet.


I continue my news boycott, but did hear through my son about the bombings last night. So, here we go again. It was justva matter of time before the Idiot-in-Chief used his power to push that button. He just couldn't wait, could he? We shall soon see what the repercussions will be.

Meantime, get out in your gardens, walk in the woods, read a good book or whatever will give you peace. It becomes even more important to hold on to that as our world,  and particularly our country, spins out of control. Hugs, friends, til tomorrow 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
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