Saturday, July 14, 2012

Today in the Garden- July 14, 2012

The day started off with a light rain.  I used this as opportunity to catch up on my harvests.  Lettuce, escarole, shallots, basil and the first 'Victor' tomato.  I then applied a solution of miracle-grow and Epsom salts to the containers.  The day remained overcast and the foliage never completely dried off so nothing else was done.  I don't like working with the plants when they are wet.

The home made bamboo trellis is quickly starting to fill up,  The pole beans have reached the top and the 'Diva' cucumbers are starting to climb.


'Diva' cucumbers starting to vine.

"Blush Potomoc" pole beans.  These have retained the hug leaves from parent 'Potomoc'.
The bush beans are blooming like crazy and are sizing up nicely.  The cherry tomatoes against the fence are growing like gangbusters and the bloom clusters are huge.

Part of the bean patch with cherry tomatoes trained against the fence.

'Black Cherry' tomatoes.
The zinnias are coming into bloom.  The 'Bon Bon' zinnias which had only a vague description are striped. The dwarf zinnias from Burpee were mislabeled as usual and are full sized cactus zinnias.

The first bloom on the 'Bon Bon' zinnias.

Cactus zinnia from Burpee's mixed up seeds.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be drier.  I need to finish digging out the 'Immortality' iris and the 'Clarence' iris.  When this task is completed. I'll have half of the area in front of the potager cleaned out.  Then I can start on the daylily section.

13 comments:

  1. Ed your garden looks great and I envy your Diva cucumbers.

    Lisa

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    1. Thanks Lisa, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 'Diva' cucumbers keep up their good growth.

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  2. Your garden looks so happy and healthy! You can send some of that rain up my way....please!

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    1. Thanks Robin. I'd be more than happy to send some rain your way. Unfortunately the clouds have not been consulting me in regards to their rain patterns :(

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  3. Garden looks very nice and healthy - you can send some of that extra rain to us as we're bone dry.

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    1. Thanks Jenny, I wish I could send you some rain! We seem to be getting everyone's this year. Yhis is the first summer that the lawn has not turned brown.

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  4. Looking good, Ed! I think they all mislabel their zinnias. Mine are all taller than they're supposed to be again this year.

    I picked four Victors and three Bloody Butchers today, and did a taste test. Bloody Butcher won hands down, but it's been fruiting a bit longer than Victor. I'll compare again after I've harvested a few more.

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    1. I thought maybe I mixed up the zinnias, but I did not plant any cactus this year. From now on I will only plant zinnia ssed that I get through the mail.

      I'll put up with the mild flavor of 'Victor' for it's amazing yields. I did try 'Bloody Butcher' but they all blighted here.

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  5. The zinnias look pretty. Last year I grew three types and saved seed from the darker ones, since I love the dark pinks the best. So this year I have dark pinks and a couple of oranges. Hopefully I'll be able to get the orange out of them next year or the year after.

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    1. I have a nice dwarf pink that reseeded from a plum variety grown last year. It was from 'Peter Pan Plum' and looks just like it this year. Considering the parent was an f1 hybrid, I'll defianately be saving seeds to see if the dwarfness is retained in the f3 generation.

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  6. Your fence comes in really handy Ed. Fresh Green beans sounds so good. Yours are really vining away.

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    1. The pole beans are doing great this year. Can't wait till I can start to pick them.

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