Catching Up

 The humidity finally broke and we had a perfect summer day.  Hot, breezy and low humidity.  Not a cloud in the sky.  There is always some chore to be done outside, but I finally got to the bottom of my To Do List and took care of a chore I have been kicking to the bottom for weeks.  I had to divide a ornamental grass in the riverbed.

This is a Little Bunny Dwarf Fountain Grass (Pennisetum) and it is the weakest variety I have planted in the landscape.  I have lost a couple entirely and others are dying out in the middle.  That is a sure sign that it needs to be divided.  Below is what it should look like this time of year.

We got a half inch of rain the other day and this is a soft grass anyway so I was able to easily cut it with a transplant spade just like a pie.  Then I loosened it with a fork and pulled each section out by hand.  Now I had six copies of a grass that doesn't work well in this spot... I transplanted them in the new landscape area where they will be happier in all of the wide open space.

I replaced it with a division of my favorite Foxtrot Pennisetum.  

Back in March I divided the one Foxtrot I had (below) in half, and cut the half I removed into ten sections.  I planted eight of them and set aside two extra in gallon pots.  I still have one left and you can barely tell that I reduced its size at all.

Below is what the Foxtrot looked like last fall.

It was good to finally get that crossed off the list.  The vegetable garden is beginning to produce.  This week I have picked cabbage for cole slaw, broccoli and peas.  I thinned the carrots some more and ended up with some baby carrots so I will be getting some sour cream and making fresh dill dip for carrots and the cauliflower which will be ready soon.  The lettuce is finally getting bitter in the heat.

Random Thoughts

 Yesterday I was chopping down the spent flowers of the six foot high Valerian before it seriously went to seed... The Sunflowers are (so far) keeping pace with the Dill.  Their faces follow the sun each day.  Next year I am going to combine the two herb beds into one.  This much Dill is an incredible waste of space.  The Valerian is a monster and had a lot of aphids on it.  It would be excellent on the back side of a natural border.  The Feverfew is nice, but not a huge attractor of pollinators.  I am removing the Valerian and Feverfew and replacing with Dill and Mustard greens next year.  That way all of my shaggy herbs will be in one bed.

The Mustard I planted solely to occupy the flea beetles.  They actually prefer the Potatoes.  I will have to sow an early row of Mustard along the Potatoes next year.  I will still plant a square of Mustard because they seem to like that better than Eggplants which is a win.

Mustard at the end of the Dill

The Pole Beans are finally starting to fill in.  I will sow the last of the Seychelles, probably today, in the space under the wire cage.  The direct sown Marigolds along the edge are spotty despite being sown twice.  Heavy rain drove some of them in too deeply I think.

The potted Bell Peppers are catching up.

A view from the shade of the Maple tree up the River Bed garden.

The Viburnum thicket between the neighbors and my garden is always flanked by Golden Rod, Ferns and Asters.  I am trying to get the Milkweed to take over instead.  I was thinking I should weed whack the Golden Rod down by at least half to keep it from laying over in the driveway later in the season, but I see now that the Milkweed is spreading and coming up in half a dozen places, making it more difficult to avoid.... I may give it a try anyway before it becomes too sneezy of a job. 

I need to find a spot for these Hosta.  Last summer, the neighbor dug them out because she tired of defending them from the deer.  They were a bedraggled, munched on mess, but I threw them into some random containers of compost and stuck them here out of the way of the deer and ignored them.  They came back beautifully this spring.  I did find a spot for two of the thickest ones back when we were mulching and cleaning beds, and this is what is left.  I have a good spot for the white centered one. 

I awoke early this morning to gentle rain.  We got about a quarter of an inch which is perfect for the grass seed we sowed yesterday over the new soil on the septic field.  Now the sun is trying to break through and it should get into the low eighties today.  A perfect June day for tying up loose ends in the garden.

The Honey Bees are Swarming

 Today, while I was sitting in the shade under the apple tree, I heard that vague, but primordial sound that still sort of raises the hairs on the back of my neck... the sound of bees swarming.  I was taking a break in the shade of the apple tree when I heard the unmistakable sound of a honey bee swarm.  I think this is the fourth time I have encountered a bee swarm.  Not something everyone gets to experience.

This was not as organized as some swarms I have seen, and we no longer have a bee tree to host them.  They came up the side of the garden, over the horseshoe pit, and I retreated to the side of the garden shed to have a better look.  As all swarms, they had their minds on something else, so without knowing how well it would translate on camera, I took a little video,

Past blog entries about bee swarms:

We have bees!

Migrant Workers

When You're Hot You're Hot

 Is it ever too hot to do yard work?  Apparently not.  Remember back in April when we opened up our septic to pump the tank?  Well, this spring was so wet, and the ground was so saturated, that we began to be concerned about the slow percolation in our septic field.  The one we had was a closed system designed for a two bedroom house.  There was no water outlet.  If the ground was saturated, as it certainly was, water just wasn't going to go anywhere very fast.  When we had this system put in back in 2011, the septic field was surrounded by woods., and there really wasn't any other option than a closed system that size.  Then in 2021 we removed most of the woods.  And now, we had easy access and elevation to drain a sand filter down to the road ditch.

So we dug up the yard.  Because, if you have ever had a septic system back up into your house, you will know that there is just about no amount of money that is worth taking that chance.

Now we have a big, beautiful sand filter that is permitted for three bedrooms, but actually big enough for four.  If anything catastrophic ever happened to this house, we would not rebuild it this small.  It is also a good selling point if the next owners ever wanted to add on.  

The filter drains down through where those trees were to the road ditch so it should never back up just because of saturation. We can do as much laundry as we want.  And boy, do we do laundry!  On days like this it is best just to undress straight into the washing machine.

After the excavator left, my husband spent several days with first a box scraper, then a york rake, getting the whole area graded and smoothed down.  Yesterday, we happened to find a nearby source of good topsoil that we needed to reseed the lawn over the sand filter.  The best time to use topsoil is when it is freshly dumped.  You don't want it to be rained on if you want to be able to spread it smoothly.  So, around noon, we began to repair the lawn.

Luckily, when we started, we were working towards shade.  And we had shade and a nice breeze to sit and cool down in.  Because the official temperature was 94F but both of my outdoor thermometers said 100F.  It took us about four hours.  We had to use the smaller tractor because one end of the filter is still a little like walking on a water bed, and the big tractor would have left deeper ruts.  Now we need to spread seed and hay so we can take advantage of upcoming rain and get some grass growing.

Below is a shot of our second family of Eastern Bluebirds at breakfast time.

ME FIRST!

Not Too Bad

 I actually worked outdoors all day, just taking it easy with beaks to sit under the patio umbrella and sip water.  I got the last of the annuals planted figuring that they would be happier in the ground than the cold frame which is currently 107F even wide open.  I still have a few spare dahlias in there and the ornamental peppers.  I need to get it cleaned out and pitch anything I'm not going to use or find it a cooler spot.

This is under the north eaves of the garden shed in full shade all day long
4:30 pm

The north side of the raised bed gate post.

99F is my official temperature.  At least we have a nice breeze and the humidity does not feel as bad as it did yesterday.  It's actually a pretty nice summer day.  We are warmer than the official numbers at the airport which is typical.

The only things I watered this morning were the beds of sweet corn because of their bare soil, the new bean sprouts, and of course the sweet potato and carrot containers that get water every day.  The sweet potatoes are loving this!

Prepping for Heat

 I got up and out early this morning to make sure the garden was well watered to deal with this heat wave we're getting.  Three days in a row it is supposed to be flirting with 90F.  By 9:30 am it hit 86F and it stayed there most of the day but now the official temp in our town is 89F.  So in two days we have gone up 20 degrees.  It feels like the Carolinas out there.  Very thick and tropical. 65% humidity.  And it is not supposed to cool down as much at night.  Its going to be sticky.

9:30 am in full shade

Tomatoes don't really like heat like that.  Anything over 85F can sterilize the pollen and then you don't get fruit set.  Most of my plants are right at the point of flowering.

So I used the shade cloth that I have on hand.  The Indeterminate tomatoes with their tall T-post supports had to settle for shade from the late afternoon sun.

It won't be long now and we will see some progress.

The peas are huge because of all of the cool, rainy weather.  They are about five feet tall.  I watered them well and this shade cloth set up should at least give them a bit of a break from the mid-day sun.

The sweet corn got sorted out and tidied up.  This heat will make it grow so much faster.

The Cabbage Patch looks amazing.  There aren't even any slugs in there though I should probably apply some slug bait in there anyway now that I've thought of it.

The cabbages are forming heads and soon I will start picking small heads for cole slaw.

And three out of four broccoli plants are showing heads.

I puttered along doggedly, working slowly, to get at least a little something accomplished.  I was so tired of looking at this shaggy mess with the flopped over daffodils.

I put in three of the Heuchera that I removed from the Whiskey barrels.  I still have a tray of annuals to plant along the front but I was ready to be done.

Heuchera do really well in the soil of this bed.  Below is a gorgeous one that I planted a couple of years ago just around the corner.

And with the last energy I had left, I hauled the hammock frame out and set that up.  We have had quite a stiff breeze all day and the shade of the Maple tree was cool and comfortable.  It is easy to see why people in tropical areas use these.  The breeze comes up under you and cools you from every direction.

And tomorrow we are going to get the same weather.

Well That Answers That

 I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I have put T-posts in the corner of this corn bed because I don't know how the variety will react to wind and rain and I might want to support it.  I did not think it was tall enough yet to be a problem.  I had one year where a nearly full grown bed of corn blew into a ramshackled mess, so now I like to have the option to support it.  I mean if it going to continue to rain every darn day all summer...

Solstice Sweet Corn

I've never had the Gotta Have It blow down even to this degree so I will put T-posts on the bed too.  I have them, so I may as well use them.  I drove the first ones into the corners, but since I only planted two rows of corn, I think I will put the T-posts at the ends of the rows and run a single string down each row instead of trying to criss-cross the string and surround the stalks.

Gotta Have It Sweet Corn

I have been brainstorming solutions to excessive rain elsewhere in the garden.  Below is the bed that had the Dahlia tuber that rotted.  I think it was two years ago that when I dug up the Dahla tubers in this bed, none of them were solid enough to save.  They had managed to bloom and stay fresh and healthy looking, but the tubers were a mess because the soil in this bed was just too damp.

I put this tarp up yesterday and it has weathered the wind and rain just fine.  Over night I had it positioned so the water was running off towards the gravel, but today's gusty wind has moved it around some.  Either way, having the water land on the edges where it can escape out to the walkway instead of soaking right into the center may be an improvement.