September 2020: Can We Be Done?

It feels like I spent plenty of time in my garden during the month of September, but I don’t have a lot to show for it. I think most of that time was simply spent watering. It’s been very dry for over a month now, which makes it quite a project to water.

At the start of September, I finally had some zinnias bloom. They were all volunteers from the giant bed of them that I planted last summer. I’d hoped a few volunteers would pop up, and they did. I intentionally left them wherever I saw them and have carefully stepped around them where they’re growing in the middle of my garden paths.

A variety of sunflowers bloomed, though they were strangely short. I didn’t get the seeds in the ground until late this year, so hopefully I’ll get them in the ground earlier and they will have a better time of it next year. They’re such cheerful plants, along with the marigolds that have grown really well this year. They’re also joined along the back fence with cheery Cypress vines and cardinal creeper. I haven’t grown the cardinal creeper for a few years, but I particularly love the jagged shape of its leaves. I’m glad to have it back again.

My sweet potatoes have exploded out of their raised bed. They’re sprawling everywhere and climbing everything. As an added bonus, their pretty purple flowers are decorating everything. I saw on another garden blog that the leaves are edible and can be used in place of spinach in recipes. Since I have such an abundance of leaves, I decided to try it. Of course, I made something super complicated: handmade pasta. I’d seen a recipe for handmade spinach pasta, so I thought it would be interesting to make that but with sweet potato leaves in place of spinach. I picked the leaves, cooked them, added them to the pasta dough, and rolled it into pasta. John and I made a vodka cream sauce using fresh, local tomatoes (I could only find yellow ones, so it’s much more pale than you’d normally expect), and I added a peach cobbler with pecan sandy topping for dessert. It was all tasty, but was also a full day project.

Through the month, all the plants slowly got browner and crispier, despite my weekly watering efforts. I was particularly disappointed that the cowpeas were among the first to dry up. They hadn’t produced many beans before they did. They were another set of plants that I got into the ground later than I would have liked. I continued to have a few tomatoes, despite the rough-looking plants, and more of the little Mexican sour gherkins that look a little like tiny watermelons. I also had plenty of basil.

By the end of the month, my garden has definitely reached the point where it’s ready to be finished for the summer. The plants are crispy and increasingly brown, despite my efforts to keep them watered. They look tired, and I feel tired, so I think we’re all ready for a little wintertime dormancy.

August 2020: Now We’re Cooking

The first two weeks of August were officially my vacation, but it was mostly a “staycation” this year. My garden was glad for that. It meant that there weren’t the usual multi-week stretches when the sun is hot but I’m not around to keep everything hydrated. It really helped everything continue to grow nicely.

Continuing on last month’s theme, August brought further expansion of my vegetable jungle. It’s been several years since I had this kind of happy mass. It’s not good gardening, but I love its energy. Unfortunately a little melon got lost in all the green and I didn’t see it until it was smashed on the ground. A second melon disappeared (raccoons???) just before I was going to pick it. A third melon was deformed, but I grabbed it before the raccoons could. It was crisp and refreshing, even if I got barely three spoonfuls out of it. One squash escaped to the neighbor’s yard. Another made me a lovely fruit.

We’ve been eating well using produce from my garden. John and I made several rounds of pizza using my tomatoes and basil. I also got some peaches from a local orchard and made a new peach dessert with a wonderfully crispy sugar top. I made a tomato sauce for tuna (not pictured). And John and I set aside time to make corn fritters and tomato gravy. They take more work than most of the things we cook, but they taste like summer on a plate. Here’s the full recipe as my mom wrote it down. I shared it in a previous post.

I also made refrigerator pickles using my little Mexican sour gherkins. I decided to grow them just for fun. Cucumbers have grown well in my garden, even if they’re not among my favorite vegetables, so I try different varieties from year to year. These are definitely high on the fun factor, and they make neat little pickles. I may grow them again next year.

Aside from the vegetables, I’ve had a nice assortment of blooms. Included are a massive milkweed (I love the blocky details on each flower) and surprise lilies (aka naked ladies). I think it’s interesting to drive around Evansville when the surprise lilies are up. They’re so ubiquitous. Here, there, and everywhere you’ll find one, two, or a small row of these gaudy flowers on their tall stalks. More often than not, they’re popping out of seemingly random spots in lawns: 3/5ths of the way up a walkway and a little off-center. I’m glad to have a few myself so I can be part of the spectacle.

Drying Up

Things have slowed down considerably in my garden. My gardening activities are cut down to watering and harvesting the few odds and ends still popping up. In contrast to the 12″ of rain we got in 4 weeks in June-July, in the most recent 4 weeks we’ve gotten about a third of an inch of rain. Especially with the ever-increasing herbicide damage, my whole garden looks tired and ready for the winter’s rest.

Without so much gardening to do, I recently took a tour of new, odd garden art discoveries I’ve made in my neighborhood.

There’s my friend Jane’s bottle tree with quirky bottles:

And the awesome squirrel garden sculpture that, from the angle I photographed it while I leaned over her fence, looks like it’s begging for food from the Greek goddess nearby:

(By the way, a parent in Patchwork’s children’s program gave the squirrel to Jane. I’m envious, but then this weekend at an art fair I claimed a concrete arm holding a solar light before Jane could get it, so maybe we’re even. Plus I got another bizarre raccoon sculpture at the same art fair, so it was a total win!)

Jane also has a row of massive sunflowers that are beautiful but too big for my garden. I’m envious of those, too.

And she has other nice flowers in a wild and weird garden:

Then there’s this community garden not too far away from me with wonderful, healthy hops, unlike my sad specimens.

And these wonderful, weird cat guardians that have popped up on Washington Avenue:

And this, that I happened upon while circling the block to get a better look at the cats. I’m not quite sure what’s all going on here, but it’s awesome:

Meanwhile in my garden, there are highlights, including the scent of autumn clematis, okra blooms, the last hosta blooms, a wonderful variety of white marigold that I love, a butterfly, and a monarch caterpillar:

This year has not been good for tomatoes. I chose all new varieties this year, and the ones I chose just aren’t my favorites. And then it just wasn’t a productive year for tomatoes, so we haven’t had many to eat. Here are the varieties I had:

The stripey one is “Green Copia”, and I thought it tasted the best, but it’s a beefsteak and it cracked and the caterpillars dug into what was left, so I didn’t get many that were edible to me. The bigger yellow/orange one is “Djeena Lee’s Golden”, which apparently won first prize at the Chicago Fair 10 years in a row. It has a spicy flavor, but isn’t very juicy, so I’m not fond of it. The little yellow ones are “Sunrise Bumble Bee”. I thought it was a tasty sounding name, but (alas) I don’t like the flavor and I can never tell when they were really ripe. I liked the flavor of the little pink ones enough that I might plant them again next year. They’re called “Blue Berries”, but were mostly pink. These also were difficult to discern when they were ripe. Another downside is that they are the ones where the insects ate half of every tomato all summer, leaving very few that were appetizing to me.

And then, my total disappointment: the death continues in my garden. Since it’s been so dry, the death due to herbicide blends in with the death from the dry weather (despite our inflated water bill due to my watering). Still, the state of the honeysuckle on the back fence clearly has nothing to do with water and everything to do with herbicide.

Here it is on September 7. Much more dead than my previous post about the poisoning, but still with some green hints of hope:

And September 13, with pretty much no hope left:

And from the inside: September 6 and things look happy and nice, though a little hole has opened up in the back corner (center of photo) because the vines are dying:

And the hole is considerably wider by September 13. (It surprised me how much of a difference I saw when these photos were side-by-side)

Here’s a closer photo. It took two weeks or more for things to really die. I think a lot of the slower death was on plants that got a drop or two of herbicide on them, not a direct hit.

Thanks, City of Evansville!

Late Summer Harvests and Art!

During our Michigan vacation, I enjoyed shopping for a little garden art. I chose a glass globe from the amazing Gallery Garden that John and I visited, and now it’s joined the orange twist by my hydrangea. And some enameled flowers and a butterfly from another gallery are in the succulent pond with the turtle (hopefully a raccoon doesn’t steal them). And a big wind spinner on the top of my blackberry trellis (it was 25% off, so hopefully that doesn’t mean that it only works 25% of the time).

I also planted a small garden gnome that my friend Jane left in my mailbox at work and said was a gift from the universe. It’s kind of ugly, but is pretty good as a gift from the universe.

And the snails have been adding their own ornamentation to my concrete raccoon. I loved the warty look.

Meanwhile, my garden produce is looking a little downtrodden by the heat. The tomatoes are a little crispy around the edges and so many have cracked open this year. I’ve got ripe tomatoes, beans, and tomatillos. It’s also the time of year when I really start to notice bugs everywhere. There are cicada shells on the undersides of the mint, a praying mantis by the back gate, huge spider webs popping up everywhere, and tobacco hornworm on my tomatoes.

And the clematis on the fence bloomed, proving that autumn is not far away. It looked wonderful twined behind the sting of bells that hangs above the purple chair.

 

 

Not-So-Famous Bike Tours of Evansville

I was inspired to go on another oddball neighborhood garden tour last weekend, and I figured that the best way to do it was on my cute 1968 Schwinn Hollywood bicycle.

I started at my friend Jane’s new garden. Recently, she and her husband have become part of the landed gentry by obtaining a couple lots next to their house that were empty due to the city’s urban blight reduction through empty house demolition. Jane has a great yard aesthetic, and she has applied it to her new yard. My favorite part is that she’s used bouncy balls as garden art. She just tosses them out to ornament her lawn.

I also like her wild front gardens, especially her bowling ball gazing balls.

Next on our tour, my friends Phyllis and Anitra who have a great, grass-free lawn out front filled with lots of interesting bits of art and plants including a branch riding a bike. I was sorry I didn’t get better photos of the many points of interest up there, since that was what I’d originally gone to photograph.

Out back, they have a great little garden space that includes several things that I wish I had in my own garden including okra (if only for the beautiful flowers), fully blue/purple tomatoes, and giant sunflowers. I got some stunning photos of the sunflowers.

From there, I stopped to wistfully gaze at an amazing piece of garden art. It’s a huge windspinner that I happened to notice in someone’s lawn. It’s at least 6 feet tall and has all kinds of moving parts. Here it is for you to enjoy:

I was almost at Evansville’s waterfront, by this point, so I detoured there for a photo.

Next, I stopped in Patchwork’s garden for some more plants I wish I had growing in my own garden: zinnias. They’re so bright and cheery and the butterflies and goldfinches love them.

From there it was a quick jump over to another of my favorite neighborhood gardens at my friends’ Billy and Tom’s house. Tom’s cultivated a loose, wild garden whose color matches their house.

Finally, I stopped by my friend Alan’s house where there are more zinnias and Mexican sunflowers. There is also a great ground cover that squeezes itself into the cracks in his walkway. I tried to transfer some of it to my garden last summer but I was disappointed that it didn’t work.

And finally, there is the most amazing tree that can be seen from the alley between Alan’s house and my own. I’ve tried to capture its immense beauty, but so far I haven’t quite done it. It’s a box elder and the trunk has to be 5-6 feet across. It’s knobby and lumpy, it spreads beautifully, and it has a wonderful spirit about it. It’s back behind an empty house.

 

 

Five Years in the Garden

Five years ago I started my garden. It’s grown beyond my wildest dreams.

In 2009:

In 2014:

In 2009:

In 2014:

To celebrate all that new growth, here are some images of this spring’s plants emerging (click on any one for a slide show):

I’m discovering that I went a little crazy planting lettuces and greens in my new raised bed. I was too excited by all the new possibilities that the extra space would afford me and now it’s ALL ready at the same time. John and I are doing our best to eat it before it expires!

We’ve done a lot of salads, John’s making green smoothies for breakfast and lunch, and I’ve got a great soup recipe that can incorporate giant fistfuls of all of these greens. We keep harvesting it by the bowlful and laughing because afterward you can’t see the spot where any is missing.

It all tastes so good. The list of what’s growing is:

• Vates collards from Seed Savers Exchange
• Cilantro from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Apollo Arugula from Seed Savers
• Rocky Top Lettuce Mix from Baker Creek
• Salad Blend Siamese Dragon Stir-Fry Mix from Baker Creek
• Tatsoi from Baker Creek
• Shanghai Green Choy from Baker Creek

Autumn’s Approach

I can’t believe that August is almost over! It’s hot and dry and fall must be on the way because the autumn blooming clematis is starting its annual show:

Around my garden the tomatoes are going gangbusters:

And my vegetable garden has become a mass of green:

The cucumber and melon vines are pretty, though not productive at the moment (although I am grateful to our cat sitter who collected the one melon that ripened while John and I were on vacation and saved it for me to try!)…

I have a volunteer cypress vine blooming in the middle of my beans. I’m glad for it because the morning glories I intentionally planted have failed to thrive (and they sounded like such a beautiful variety, too!).

I also have a few more varieties of hosta that are still putting out blooms…

An in another sign of autumn’s approach, the toad lilies are blooming.

Recently a few of my indoor plants spent a little time outdoors when I repotted my orchids. I was sorry that it meant that I needed to trim the bloom off of one, but hopefully the plant will stay happy now that it’s in a real pot. I’ll enjoy the bloom while it lasts.

And then there were the surprise lilies that had just started to snake their way out of the ground right before we left for vacation. Surprise!

 

 

Luckily they were still blooming and only a little past their peak when we returned. Because of the drought last year then never bloomed, making this year even more of a surprise.

 

The Life of a Volunteer Sunflower

Planted by the birds. Growing in a small crack in the concrete. Goldfinches cling to it. Going full circle.

 

 

Things that are making me happy around my garden right now

Bean blossoms…

This year’s tomato color palette…

  

Happy blackberries ripening in tunnels of green…

Zinnia and sunflower explosions and the goldfinches who love them…

Ferns and begonias in my rock garden…

Blueberry Pies Forever

It’s blueberry season! I’ve made two pies already and have I-don’t-know-how-many gallons of berries in the freezer. Yay! I may even make one more trip over to Wright’s Berry Farm to get one more batch.

Another fun thing from the last couple weeks is that one of the guys who was repairing our porch found a stone oddity under the porch and pulled it out for me because he saw all the odd stuff I have in my back yard. Very cool! Right now, it’s serving as a lookout mountain for my garden guardian.

Meanwhile in my garden, things are still looking nice. For the Fourth of July, lots of things were in bloom.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I tried different sunflowers this year. Before, I’ve done Mexican sunflowers but they take forever to bloom–though the monarchs love them. My new sunflowers are blooming happily already and they’ve attracted goldfinches. I love it. I look out my back door and see a shard of yellow sunflower zipping across the yard on wings.

New tomatoes are ripe. This year I decided to try all new varieties for a change of pace. They all sound so exciting in the seed catalogs. I’ve got a couple new color variations.

I love this brave little volunteer marigold that is toughing it out in a crack between some of my containers. It’s even managed a bloom.

I also love the effect of water droplets on caladium leaves.

This year, one experiment is a melon plant. So far, so good–but it’s got a long way to go. I’ll keep you posted!