Monday, July 14, 2014

State of the Garden July 2014

Vegetable Garden
Garden Lady Blog


Vegetable Garden


The vegetable garden is producing zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. With a crop of 12 plants, I'm picking every other day. The tomato plants are loaded, but green. I've started taking a few tomatoes for ripening in the house. I've lost a few tomatoes as they got mushy and fell off the vine. Research indicates that temperatures above 90 F can be the cause. I've lost a few to caterpillars, and am pulling Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs off the plants. (Click hyperlink for my previous post on this pest.)

Jalapeno Peppers are abundant. With 6 plants, I can pick every day. I've made 3 batches of Jalapeno Poppers - a family favorite. (Click for recipe video.)

Since Spaghetti Squash is a creeping vine, it's crawling up some tomato cages and over other vegetable plants. There are different sizes of gourds so I'll be able to stagger picking and not have to harvest all at once. (Check out my new book on Spaghetti Squash-growing and cooking-a link to Amazon page is below.)

Spaghetti Squash in Tomato Cage
Garden Lady Blog

Green Peppers are not producing yet. The eggplant has fruit, but it is green and not the usual black for the Black Beauty variety. I'm not panicking yet. Eggplant is one of my favorite garden vegetables. Our county extension agent thinks they will gradually turn black. I've fertilized just in case the cause is a Nitrogen deficiency. Click here for a delicious Eggplant and Garlic Sauce Recipe.

Vegetable Garden
Garden Lady Blog

Until today, the vegetables were pesticide free. An invasion of Squash Bug Nymphs was treated with powder Sevin. We also had our first Tobacco Hornworm (see video here) on a tomato plant. No chemicals were necessary to dispatch this gigantic specimen. The photo shows the Hornworm eating the tomato. To detect the worms before too much damage occurs, look for the following: waste material sitting on leaves and branches missing leaves.


Flowers

Video of Swallowtail Butterfly enjoying Butterfly Bush
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The Butterfly Bushes are finally blooming. I have baby plants sprouting everywhere including in the mortar of my front steps.

Brown-eyed Susan
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The Brown-eyed Susans look wonderful especially since I don't remember planting them. The Goldfinches are enjoying the seeds.

Most of my flowers are perennials, but an exception are the Cleome. I bought a pack of seeds 10 years ago, and the flowers are still reseeding themselves. In addition, my neighbors took some seeds and the whole neighborhood has stunning displays of Cleome.

Cleome
Garden Lady Blog


Many of my perennial bushes are overgrown and need severe pruning. Forsythia, azalea and camellia fall into this category. Over the years, the Forsythia and Camellias have provided great cover and nesting sites for birds.


Enjoy!


Garden upkeep seems endless this time of year. If you're like me, being outdoors working beats indoor chores anytime. Just remember, eventually the weather will change and then we'll be missing the hot days of summer.

Please check this post again as I plan on adding more photos and videos. Thanks for reading my blog.


Saturday, July 12, 2014

Praising the Pansies this Year


Most of my landscaping plant budget is spent on perennials. They come back year after year, and frequently supply offspring to give to my gardening friends.

There is one type of annual that is well worth the investment, however. Each Fall, I get a couple of flats of pansies. They provide cheerful blooms as the weather turns cold. Often, blooms persist in winter snow and revive again in Spring.

This year I was treated with a spectacular display in early Summer. No other flowers were blooming after the iris and before the peonies so the pansies filled that gap with a gorgeous yellow burst of color that brought smiles to anyone glancing at the front steps.

Although we're still in Summer, let us all remember to get our pansies this Fall. I will tweet a reminder so follow me @gopamnc.