Harvest Monday- September 10, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. It's a great way to see what other bloggers are harvesting from their gardens.

The garden is still producing, now that it has cooled down I noticed lots of new little peppers and beans.  Here s what I harvested this weekend.

'Red Marconi', 'Quadratti D'asti Giallo' peppers and 'Diva' cucumbers.

'Coastal Pride Orange' tomatoes from seed courtesy of Granny.

'Lazy Wife Greasy', 'Potomoc' and 'Blue Coco' pole beans.

'Tennessee Spice' pepper.

'Primero' cabbage and a handful of shallots in the back corner.  I missed these when the rest were harvested.

The mother of the next generation of Praying Mantis in the yard.

  All weekend long I have been hearing the booms of cannons.  Yes, I did say cannons.  This weekend was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam.  I did not watch the re-enactments, no point,  I could hear everything!


 

On a Rainy Day...

What do you do when your a gardener trapped inside on a rainy day?

Start to think about next years garden.

I am less than satisfied with the results from the potager this year.  True, it did not turn into the jungle it usually does.  I can actually walk through it this year.

The challenges this year were the weather and bugs.  From the hoards of of earwigs, to the ever present gnats, to the tomato pin worms it has been a tough year.

I don't know why, buy when I start to plan my gardens there is always a theme involved.  Right now I'm thinking of taking my mothers advice and going "back to my roots", no pun intended, and planting an Italian garden.

I'm already picturing the fence draped with Romano and annelino beans, cucuzzi and white cucumbers.  The beds would be filled with escarole, endive, dandelion chicory, arugula and lettuce.  Frying peppers in red, purple and gold, basil, flat leaf parsley, broccoli raab and long red onions would round it out.  There is also an area nearby with purple artichokes and cardoons.

Of course there would be flowers too.  Pastel zinnias for cutting, Dolcissimo petunias in mouthwatering shades and ruffled pansies as exotic as orchids would over flow the edges.

I can make this a reality if the weather would let me finish the expansion, the damned tree of my neighbors that shades the back portion would vanish and one of the local farmers would let me keep a cow or two in this area for the fall.

You may notice that tomatoes are absent from this vision.  The fusarium, wilt and hoards of tomato pin worms are to blame.  I'm going to keep them out of this area for a year or two.

 I won't mention another vision where the area is filled with baby vegetables...

Harvest Monday- September 3, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. It's a great way to see what other bloggers are harvesting from their gardens.

The weather this week was great.  I really am enjoying the cooler evenings.

'Qhadratti D'asti Giallo' peppers, 'Coastal Pride Orange' and 'New Big Dwarf' tomatoes.

Assorted tomatoes and pole beans.

'Diva' cucumbers and pole beans.

A misshapen pepper and assorted tomatoes.

'Snowberry' cherry tomatoes, 'Coastal Pride Orange' and assorted cherry tomatoes.

'Red Marconi' peppers. 'Coastal Pride Orange' tomato and 'Diva' cucumbers.

The cucumbers are starting to succumb to wilt.  I may be able to harvest a few more before the plants totally succumb.  The cherry tomatoes are succumbing to wilt as well.  The exception is my self seeding 'Snowberry'.  This has hundreds of tomatoes on it and is completely healthy. 

Marigold 'Bolero'

'Bolero' marigold was introduced in 1970 and won an All-America Selections bronze medal the same year.  It had a trendsetting color at the time, their was nothing else like it.  It was the first marigold that had a gold splashed red coloration.  Today most of today's popular French marigold series have a 'Bolero' variety.  In fact 'Bonanza Bolero' was an All-America Selections winner in 1999.  The plants are large for a french marigold.  Mine resemble small shrubs 16" high by 18" wide.  It has gotten hard to find the original.  Mine came from Ferry Morse Seed who still have a good strain with only a very small percentage of red off-types.  I have had a very hard time getting a good photo of it.  The following are the best of my hundreds of attempts.

The bottom picture shows them as the star of pool bed #2.  This is the view from my kitchen window.

Next spring when your perusing the Ferry Morse Seed rack, pick up a packet and give them a try.

Harvest Monday- August 27, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great way to see what other bloggers are harvesting from their gardens.

The weather was some what improved this week.  I was able to get outside after work a few nights this week.

Bush beans, 'New Big Dwarf' tomatoes and 'Diva' cucumbers.

'Italian Dwarf Cherry', 'Black Cherry', 'Reisenstraube', 'Amy's Apricot' and 'Victor' tomatoes.

'Diva' cucumber and the first of the 'Lazy Wife Greasy' pole beans.

More tomatoes.

'Quadrati D'asti Giallo' pepper from seed supplied by Granny.

It's back!!!  'Cardinale', 'Redina' and 'Thai Oakleaf' lettuce.

The summer lettuce has had much less problems with bugs.  There was absolutely no bug damage!  The fact that it is all pot grown may help in this respect too.

My 'Bolero' marigolds in pool bed #2 are gorgeous.  The only problem is that my camera is horrible at capturing the color.  I've tried in sun, shade etc. and the blooms always look like blobs.  This picture is the best of the bunch.

Someday I'll take a great photo of them!

What a Surprise!

This spring I planted a few 'Cornell' morning glory seeds with among my pole beans.  I had forgotten about them till today.  This morning I was looking out the kitchen window and notices a gorgeous blue peering out from the foliage.  Apparently 'Cornell' crossed with another morning glory as this is the result.

I have not seen a blue this rich in a morning glory before!



I think that the reddish throat makes the bloom that much more interesting.

Zinnia 'Bon Bon'

I've always been a sucker for any flower that is striped.  When I read the description of this zinnia on Baker Creek Seeds website I was intrigued as the description was brief and there was no photo.

From the website:  "New! Dahlia-flowered variety in a range of zinnia colors.  The petals are exquisitely colored, often having two colors running the length of each petal. Height is about 30 inches. Great for cutting or for a veritable splash of color right in the garden."

I decided to to try them and was expecting a two tone blend.  Was I wrong!  There was not a range of colors, but these are the best striped zinnia's I've grown in years.  The plant habit is good, that tallest at about 36 inches.  They are well branched and floriferous for a large flowered zinnia.  They are extremely photogenic and make great cut flowers.

I will definitely be growing these zinnia's again, and highly recommend them if you are looking for something unusual for your garden.