Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Under the Weather

 We've had a deluge almost daily for about a week, thankfully, and during yesterday's thunder and lightening we lost a huge limb. Thankfully, again, it hit nothing and fell in just the right spot in the empty-ish back yard. Hurray!!! I haven't yet found which tree it came from. I guess now we'll have to agree with Nick that we need a fire pit, as there are many more branches littering the yard beside this big guy.

 The rain has been heaven sent for the gardens and I am so thrilled at the growth and blooming. 


The zinnias that I planted from seed are opening and full of buds, and even doing well in the semi-shade. But alas, all is not well with the one of the clematis. It is a goner I am afraid, but I have another waiting in a pot to take over that spot. This dying business has happened to several plants, right next to ones that are growing just fine. I have no idea what is going on.

The peppers are doing GREAT and are all bearing fruit. They are in the hottest bed with sun that reaches them first.
 The other end of the pepper bed are sweet potatoes and just sprouting beets with four o'clock flowers filling in where the potatoes were supposed to be growing. Nothing happened with those tubers, but I imagine the sweet potatoes will fill in the empty spot. I am putting beets all over the garden, and seeing where they do best. Love fresh beets.

 And no surprise, the zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers are already gigantic.
 The tomatoes are also doing great, not getting out of hand and fruiting nicely. One died (???) so I got two more to replace that one, a Solar Fire and this tiny cherry variety which was miss-labeled, so I am guessing it is Tiny Tim. It is loaded with little berry sized tomatoes.

 The next bed has been a bit of a struggle getting started. Green bean seeds just didn't want to sprout, or were stolen by chipmunks. So I presprouted a second batch indoors and got them in the ground with a full root started. They came up almost overnight. And then the others did too. So I have various stages of green beans in this bed, along with red kuri squash and watermelon vines.

 The last bed has cantaloupe, pumpkins, and butternut squash and was to have potatoes, but only one sprouted. Dang. I had a baking potato in the house sprout an eye, so I am chitting it and will get it in the dirt this week. All that space with nothing growing in it. Grrr.

 One cool morning last week we decided to fence in the front yard, for the sake of the dogs, who have no grass to play in. During the winter I ordered this arbor and it has a gate, so that is the start of the fence idea, which to save our marriage we will have Nick install.

I am most happy with these Cheyenne Spirit coneflowers. They just keep on blooming and are orange, red, and yellow turning to cream. I already have pink and white in the garden and next season I will transplant them together for a fabu display.
The first year of a garden is pretty much an experiment, learning what works where. Next year I will have an earlier start and I imagine that some veggies will be put in the patio garden and some flowers in the veggie beds where the shade is now more obvious. A cut flower bed might happen. I am so impressed with the zinnia variety I planted, a cut and come again mix, with several branching stems on each plant. Imagine a big bed of those!
Image result for zinnia cut and come again

14 comments:

  1. Just beautiful, Melody! Seeing your garden has given me a lovely start to the day :-) Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And, beet greens, Melody! Soooo good. And, if you're growing any broccoli their greens are also delicious.

    Thank you for sharing. It's gorgeous! :)

    maggie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is that your house in the first picture? If so, it looks like something hit it along the bottom. Love your garden. Ours is no where as far advanced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The previous owner's dog ripped the siding on that side of the house, and it is on our list of things to get fixed.

      Delete
  4. So gorgeous! I really love the flowers... but with our ever-growing Prairie Dog population, know I would be fighting a losing battle trying to grow them here. It's been really dry this year, and the PD's are even eating the Penstemon and Iris leaves... neither which is a fave of theirs. My only hope is to grow flowers in raised containers, but nothing going in until our Monsoon season starts in a few weeks. Guess I'll just have to lust after yours! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All I can think of is poor little things to be that desperate. Locally we had such a drought that the rats were eating their way into the oranges and then eating the insides. Not exactly their first, second or third choice of diet. Rats don't exactly generate sympathy but I could only think about how desperate they must have been.

      Delete
  5. Cut and Come Again zinnias are my favorite and so nice for bouquets in the house. Such a beautiful mix of colors.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's all so lush Melody! We had truckloads of soil for new raised beds twice recently and both times 99% of the soil was fabulous, but I had my suspicions about the other 1% - where a plant would just up and die virtually overnight. Very peculiar. Too fast to be just a weak specimen, it was as if there was a patch of something very nasty in that area of soil. I ended up removing a bucketload of soil and that seemed to fix it. Both times it was Marigolds that died - are they particularly sensitive to Ph perhaps?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your gardens always inspire me. This year we decided we had been in the house for 5 years and were ready to make it happen. We put in a patio and hauled in dirt and added flowers. I watch and take note of your suggestions. I do have have the Cheyenne Spirit cone flowers in a gorgeous orange and yellow. Next year I will try your idea of the cut and come again Zinnias. The birds love it, too. We have woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, blue birds, goldfinch, hummingbirds and even an indigo bunting family. A garden is a lovely place.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Everything looks wonderful. You are so lucky to get all that rain. Despite the few setbacks your successes far outnumber the few failures.

    Lovely arching gate. What are you thinking of training over it? Roses? Wisteria? Morning Glories? Jasmine? Grapes?

    I'll bet the dogs will love having that front area to run around in. It will look lovely with that arbor and matching fence.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bravo ! the garden is doing great things...… I have the same arbor and gate and other pieces from the same "collection" to add to my back yard to contain the dogs... amazing that the posts for the fence are so easy to install = if the dogs are small and don't jump all over the section.... you have done a wonderful job. And yes I am a tad jealous..

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are truly working wonders with your garden design and planting!! Nice idea to fence an area for the doggies and love the arbour you're going to install, or should I say have installed!

    ReplyDelete
  11. It is soooo good to get a new blog entry from you. I can't get over those bright spice colored coneflowers. I wonder if you started them from plants or seeds. Everything looks wonderful. My zinnias from seed are blooming like crazy. I just stand and stare at them all the time. I'm going to love the fence for the dogs. The trellis is beautiful. We've had great rain here in Nashville, too.

    ReplyDelete
  12. How is your garden now? Were you to build again would you use cinder blocks again?

    ReplyDelete