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| Butternut To Be, August 25th, 2013 |
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| Early morning sunflower |
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| Look at the way the seeds swirl |
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| Double the fun |
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| Cleome |
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| Red salvia spike above an Okra leaf |
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| Butterfly weed |
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| More butterfly weed, red salvia in background |
Showing posts with label Sunflowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunflowers. Show all posts
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Sunday Saunter
Friday, August 23, 2013
Leaning Tower of Sunflower
Oops, this monster volunteer sunflower has been tilting more and more everyday. I have been trying to decide whether to prop it up or chop it up. Since I would like it to self seed again for next year, I decided on the prop it up route. So with a rope and a lot of push and shove, we got to this point.
Ah, that is a bit better. Yet I would not be the least bit surprised if it pulls down my whole trellis. That would be a bit worse.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Trying to Cope With the Heat
It's official. It's hot. July is now the Gold Medal winner for the hottest month in the history of record keeping in America. Both as a country and in the state of Delaware. Even gardening in the early morning does not provide much comfort when it is already 75 degrees with full humidity. Yesterday I was out at about 6:30, and a haze was hanging everywhere.
This is a shot from the corner of the garden. The two rows of tomatoes are behind the black eyed Susan clump at the right of this photo. We have been lucky to have had two separate one inch rains in the last couple of weeks. I try not to water often, especially the flower beds.
It is time for breakfast. More importantly, it is time for some air conditioning. This has not been a summer of open windows and dinner on the porch. The expected high today, 95 degrees. And lots of humidity. The weathermen said it would feel "tropical". Duh. And to think that they get paid for those pearls of wisdom.
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| Hazy walk between rows of tomatoes, August 8, 2012 |
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| Nice big Brandywine tomato on the vine |
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| Haze and Joe Pye Weed at the end of the tunnel |
This is a shot from the corner of the garden. The two rows of tomatoes are behind the black eyed Susan clump at the right of this photo. We have been lucky to have had two separate one inch rains in the last couple of weeks. I try not to water often, especially the flower beds.
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| Joe Pye Weed |
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| Mixed Phlox |
It is time for breakfast. More importantly, it is time for some air conditioning. This has not been a summer of open windows and dinner on the porch. The expected high today, 95 degrees. And lots of humidity. The weathermen said it would feel "tropical". Duh. And to think that they get paid for those pearls of wisdom.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Bellevue Park Community Gardens
This will be my fourth year for working my plot at Bellevue State Park. I am a mere newbie, as some gardeners have been there since the breaking of ground 28 to 30 years ago. The plots are 40 feet by 20 feet, and water is available by frost free spigots every 80 feet. There are a total of 178 plots, with another seven or eight smaller plots. I started over at the park to be able to have a veggie garden in full sun. On these 90 degree days, it is more pleasant to garden in my partially shaded garden in the back yard.
There is a Pin Oak lined drive to the left side of the barn that separates the two groupings of garden plots. My plot is nearly in the middle of all the plots on this section closest to Interstate 95. That is at times a drag to have to haul soil improvements into the middle, but probably lessens the pilferage from both two legged and four legged beasties being more comfortable around the edges.
Here is a patch of swiss chard ready for some harvesting. Lou's nephew planted his first garden this year, and planted the chard too thickly. These are thinnings from his bed, to go along with two smaller plantings here and a larger bed at home. Now I am the one with too much chard. But since the squirrels ate my Bright Lights chard starts down to nothing, more is better than none. The glass in the picture is actually a stack of most of the glass panels for my extensive cold frames at the park. I am very happy to be able to store them all in such a small space.
These pepper plants are off to a good start. Most people have difficulty with peppers at the park, as the plants usually wilt and die at some point. So it is a challenge to see if I can get a good crop. All of my peppers were started by seed back in January, so it is already one success so far.
The rest of the peppers at the park. These were all extras after I planted 16 plants at home of eight different varieties. A few plants have not even made it into the ground yet. Usually there are losses at planting time. This year I have lost only two plants, and have my first volunteer pepper plant. That is a little sweet banana pepper in the above shot.
What is this growing between the chard bed and the north side of the compost pile? A couple of volunteer mustards, with the rest being arugula. Did you read that Barb? Arugula in the heat of July. It is doing quite fine in the shade of the compost pile. I have not seen any arugula start from the many places I threw seed pods. But this planting must have resulted from some seed stalks that spent too much time on top of the pile before being cut into compost size pieces. Maybe I will try to transplant some, or I may leave the patch as is just for snitching when I am at my garden.
All of these pictures were taken around 5:45 AM this morning, during my attempt to beat the heat. Is a sunflower really a sunflower before the sun is up?
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| Bellevue Park - July 3, 2012 |
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| Looking north to the sign to Philadelphia |
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| More views of the extensive gardens |
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| My garden, on the 40 foot side |
Here is a patch of swiss chard ready for some harvesting. Lou's nephew planted his first garden this year, and planted the chard too thickly. These are thinnings from his bed, to go along with two smaller plantings here and a larger bed at home. Now I am the one with too much chard. But since the squirrels ate my Bright Lights chard starts down to nothing, more is better than none. The glass in the picture is actually a stack of most of the glass panels for my extensive cold frames at the park. I am very happy to be able to store them all in such a small space.
These pepper plants are off to a good start. Most people have difficulty with peppers at the park, as the plants usually wilt and die at some point. So it is a challenge to see if I can get a good crop. All of my peppers were started by seed back in January, so it is already one success so far.
The rest of the peppers at the park. These were all extras after I planted 16 plants at home of eight different varieties. A few plants have not even made it into the ground yet. Usually there are losses at planting time. This year I have lost only two plants, and have my first volunteer pepper plant. That is a little sweet banana pepper in the above shot.
What is this growing between the chard bed and the north side of the compost pile? A couple of volunteer mustards, with the rest being arugula. Did you read that Barb? Arugula in the heat of July. It is doing quite fine in the shade of the compost pile. I have not seen any arugula start from the many places I threw seed pods. But this planting must have resulted from some seed stalks that spent too much time on top of the pile before being cut into compost size pieces. Maybe I will try to transplant some, or I may leave the patch as is just for snitching when I am at my garden.
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| Volunteer sunflower |
All of these pictures were taken around 5:45 AM this morning, during my attempt to beat the heat. Is a sunflower really a sunflower before the sun is up?
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sunny Sunday, July First
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| Backyard garden, July 1st, 2012 |
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| Tetraploid day lily |
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| Lily and phlox |
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| Pink phlox |
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| White phlox |
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| Six foot African daisies |
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| Volunteer sunflower |
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| Tranquility, before the day's heat |
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| Bicolor day lily |
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| Rose campion |
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| Cleome |
It is the first of July and it should be hot and humid. The yard should be a monotone dull green fading to brown. Well I can't control the weather, but I can throw color at the boring green palette. Have a beautiful first of July!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Turning up the Heat
Today starts a stretch of four days of scorching heat. Supposed to be 97 degrees today, 100 tomorrow, and three more in the nineties after that. I was out to the park early today, where my volunteer sunflowers are just starting to bloom:
It is only June 20th, and this volunteer sunflower is already taller than the seven foot stake right next to it. Is that seven foot stake too much to hope for the little tomato plant at its base?
The Gloriosa Daisies are just starting to bloom at home. They are very sparing in their self seeding efforts, so I really appreciate them when they do pop up in the garden.
I dragged the hose out to the garden to water this morning before it got too hot for me to stand the heat. It is not even 9:30 AM, and I suspect that I am mostly done for the day. Here is a bed of 16 tomato plants, with peppers planted in front. Behind is a second tomato bed with onions planted in front. I have a bunch of basil plants that will probably get tucked into the second bed.
There is activity again in the wren house. I had intended to clean out the first nest, but now we have the case of a remodel rather than a new construction. The birds have been doing a fine job keeping down the insect pests.
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| Pollen on leaf just under sunflower |
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| Jack and the sunflower stalk |
The Gloriosa Daisies are just starting to bloom at home. They are very sparing in their self seeding efforts, so I really appreciate them when they do pop up in the garden.
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| First of the Gloriosa Daisies, 6/20/2012 |
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| Day Lily from plant give away |
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| Orange Tetraploid Lily from plant give away |
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| Tomato beds, 6/20/2012 |
There is activity again in the wren house. I had intended to clean out the first nest, but now we have the case of a remodel rather than a new construction. The birds have been doing a fine job keeping down the insect pests.
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