The garden is growing gold these days, trucking along at full speed. I’m very nervous to be leaving it for the next two weeks as I tour English gardens and visit with some impressive horticulturists and designers in the U.K. Seeing as how my packing is yet to be done, I’ll jump right into the details of what was blooming and producing in the garden this past week. Notice above how the zinnias are starting to pop up at the front and the Metasequoias on the far right are getting very bushy. I’m thinking about pruning them, though I love their texture and fresh green growth so much that I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it.
The succulent container is absolutely stunning as all the plants have become very well established and are taking on their more intense color now that they are in the sun and the weather is quite hot. The reds and blues make me smile every time I walk by, as do the tiny off-sets the thimble cacti have started to produce. I’m relieved the 21 days (!) of rain we had in June didn’t swamp the entire container and leave me with a bunch of rotted out plants.
Speaking of beautiful containers, my main focal container is continuing to look spectacular. The hydrangeas are holding up like real champs, despite being in full sun and crammed in with loads of other plants. The coleus is shooting up through the middle and adding yet another layer of texture and some yellow-green highlights to match those of the creeping jenny below. I have been fertilizing my container with a cocktail of compost tea and fish emulsion once a week. Same goes for the varigated lime sitting below the big container. It has been growing like a weed and adding a nice accent to my container collection.
New to bloom in my ornamental beds this past week were the punchy Allium ‘Drumstick’ and clear blue Platycodon grandiflorus (ballon flower). Last year the ballon flowers were very short so I was unable to use any in cut flower arrangements. Now that these perennials have gotten established, they’ve stretched to a lovely height of three feet with straight strong stems. I promptly cut the two you see above and am currently testing their vase life – three days and counting.
Another new bloom in the garden is the patch of nigella. This is a pleasant surprise. I had direct seeded nearly six feet of a row in the very early spring only to have very slow germination and spotty with what did sprout. The seedlings failed to put on any growth for nearly 3 months. Since these are a spring cut, I pretty much gave up on them and was just thinking the other week that I should rip them out and put in more zinnias and cosmos. Well, ta-da! They’ve burst into bloom and are the most stunning cut I’ve grown to date, adding to the bunches of sweet williams, snap dragons, and dill flowers I’ve been harvesting by the armfuls. What I love best about the nigella is that I can harvest a stem that has a bloom or two open on it but several others that aren’t and the stem will continue to bloom in the vase, adding an element of surprise as it fills out the arrangment with additional fresh flowers.
Just look at that bucket of flowers! I’m still in awe every time I harvest a big bunch… it’s really that easy to grow amazing flowers like this to have tucked into vases around the house! My clients are really loving them too. I made a delivery the other day and couldn’t help getting a big smile across myself as I saw how much delight they invoked. Another gratifying harvest as of late has been the tea herbs; lots of yarrow, anise hyssop, chamomile and lavender still being pumped out of my tea garden bed.
In the vegetable garden, lots is happening. I have harvested about three quarters of both my beets and carrots. I am going to especially miss the beets when they are all used up. So very tasty! Also nearly used up is the broccoli, though the harvest has been a tad disappointing. The heads went from super small and tight to nearly bolting/flowering in just a few short days. Also, despite having row covers over the broccoli, a few cabbage moths got under it and laid some eggs so I’ve been very careful with cleaning the broccoli to get rid of the itty-bitty caterpillars. Next time I’ll seal the edges of my row covers more carefully.
The alpine strawberries have just started to produce, though the berries are so small it’s easy to miss them in the thick patch (just the right of the bucket above). The tomatoes and tomatillos are growing nicely. The peas are on their last leg, though they’ve had an amazingly long and productive season this year. I will miss them. Already planted at their feet and ready to climb the trellis are several summer squash plants. So far these plants have been under the row covers to keep away the squah bugs and squash vine borers. The plants are well established and flowering so I’m going to remove the row covers this weekend so they can get pollinated. Hopefully both these pests are on their way out so my squash can have a productive season. Usually both are done by the end of June but with the cool weather early in the season, I think their cycle is off a few weeks.
Just spotted today was the first harlequin bug nymph. Again, leaving for my trip makes me nervous when this pest is about to make its first assault. I will be ripping out my patch of mustard greens that I’d left in as a trap crop in hopes that I can greatly depleat the first generation.
