Un Neglecting Old Irises

I thought that maybe, since I am buying new Irises... I should un-neglect some of the old Irises I still have.  One variety was in a spot that I could not dig (wedged between a wagon wheel and a rock) but two other varieties were accessible.

I dug them out with a fork.

...took them to the potting bench... and trimmed them up.  Then I planted them among the newer Irises.

Random flower of the day,   Beets Me Dahlia

And my largest pumpkin.

That massive stem makes it look small in the picture, but it is ample, two arms to hold it Jack o' Lantern size.  Our neighbor has decided that we need a pumpkin carving party in their barn with chili and cider.  That's fine.   We'll wait until Halloween is imminent.  You make the chili, I'll bring the pumpkins.

ETA:  Rebloomer Daylilies

Mid Summer Reset

Very few combination pots make it through the whole season.  Often you can trim them back hard and the plants will put on a lot of new growth.  Some of them you may just be tired of.  I took the two green containers that I had begonias and a dahlia in, got rid of the tired plants and did a reset using the Celosia that I pulled out of the stones.  One container also had the Peachy Keen Superbena in it.  I divided those between the two.  

I usually wait to transplant something until I can see roots coming out of the drain holes, but these were starting to bloom so it was time.  They have really good root systems for Celosia that was ripped up.

I transplanted right before a rainy day and when the rain stopped and the sun came out they were ready to grow.  The Superbena didn't even mind being yanked out and moved mid-season.  I thought this color scheme might look better come fall in place of the red, white and blue planters by the deck.  Those can go somewhere else, and when I move the peppers and pumpkins and corn stalks over there, the red, orange and yellow Celosia may look good too.  If not, there are plenty of spots for them.

Here is a plant that is getting in the spirit of a mid season rejuvenation.  I trimmed a few faded leaves away from this Changeling Heuchera to let the new growth shine through.

The deer have finally decided to taste the pumpkin vines.

She ate 10 leaves but stopped when she got to the prickly stems.

I don't mind much.  I resprayed with repellent and I am glad that I took the time to protect these plants when they were small and more appetizing. 

Pumpkin Patch Update

 This is a zoomed in view out one of my bedroom window's each morning.  The pumpkin flowers are awake and ready for business.

Pumpkin and squash flowers only open up for a few hours first thing in the morning and if pollination does not occur, the flower is done.  No day two for these.

And we have a lot of flowers.  They are a hive of activity.  Honey Bees galore.

Despite having planted these a week or two later than I would have liked, we already have some good sized pumpkins cooking in there.

We have short round ones and tall thin ones.

Once I have located a pumpkin I usually try to stand it up on it's blossom end so it will develop evenly and not with a flat back.

They are still pollinating and this week's babies will have time to develop.

A couple of plants were obviously cross pollinated with the zucchini plants last year and are Alien Squash Beasts.  All the seeds I planted were either older seeds from the store bought pumpkin, or second generation seeds from the ones I grew last year.

No matter.  We will have plenty of "normal" Jack o' Lantern style pumpkins.  And now that this growing experiment is a success, I know how any plants this system can support and I know that I can protect the plants from deer destruction and other critters, until they are large enough to fend for themselves, I will actually spend a few bucks on "good" pumpkin seeds next year.

The fabric can be left out over winter and the seeds planted earlier and we should be in the pumpkin business in a big way.

Pumpkins Stage 2

 I have had the Pumpkins protected with wire cloches but they are out growing them.  Pumpkin vines are quite prickly, so I don't expect that the deer would eat them all to the ground, but I want to err on the safe side.  Today I removed the cloches, side dressed with fertilizer and watered that in.

Then I covered them with a floating row cover to keep the deer (and squash vine borers because I saw one of those today too) out for a few more weeks.

The plants are nowhere near as robust as they were last year but I don't know if that can be attributed to the later planting date or the cooler night time temperatures.  We will see.

Pumpkins July 2nd 2025

Today I also planted out my summer squash.  I really did not intend to plant any for myself this year but I seeded them for other people and when I seed something, I always have a backup.  So - now I have summer squash.  I didn't really have a spot planned for them unless it would have been the beds vacated by the peas in a few weeks.  But these are root bound and we are going into a heat wave, so they got stuck in corners.

They were getting a little wilty each day and now starting to bloom.

I picked my first two red raspberries.  Yum!

Today was lawn mowing day.  The lawn that has the three London Plane Trees was proving too challenging to mow with the large, 60" wide, diesel powered zero turn mower.  It is very wet in the spring and fall and with all of the turning and tight spots the large mower would either leave ruts or tear up the corners with the tight turns.  I was considering one of those robotic lawn mowers, but in the end we decided on a DeWalt battery powered, self propelled push mower and I have been mowing it with that while my husband cuts the rest of the acreage.  

This lawn has changed to much in the last 15 years.  Here is a before and after.

It is the prettiest lawn we have.

I'm proud of this lawn.  The lawn clippings get bagged and go straight into my compost pile.  This view is from the neighbor's driveway.  They get to enjoy it more than we do, and it isn't really visible from the road.  But it is the best lawn we have.

It's the Great Pumpkin [Patch] Charlie Brown

 Last year I planted six pumpkin seeds in a far corner of the raised beds, got six pumpkin vines they produced six nice sized pumpkins.  This year, my husband said, since we have all of this room, why not just plant them in the field?  So we asked our friend to bring his tiller up and till a space for them.  We will reimburse him in pumpkins.

This reminded me why we converted to raised beds.

When the soggy clay mixes with the chopped vegetation, you get sticky cob with which to build a house.  We tried raking it, but there was no raking.  We ended up waiting for a dryish day and stomping it flat with our feet to the point where we felt we could get the small tractor with the turf tires on it.  After we stomped it, drove over it, then rolled it, it was manageable again.  I just wanted it flat enough to put landscape cloth over without creating puddles.  If we had left the vegetation untilled, it would have grown under the mat and lifted it.  Ask me how I know.

We have a large roll of road stabilization mat that goes under a gravel base when you want to create a driveway on soft ground.  We can reuse this later.  We rolled out two fifty foot lengths, leaving a 10" gap down the center and tacked it down with large spikes and washers.  Then I planted my pumpkin seeds that I have saved from last year's pumpkins.  Those pumpkins were grown from seeds I saved from a store bought pumpkin the year before.  I think I planted about 78 seeds.  Today when I watered I counted 76 sprouted plants.

I wanted to protect the seeds from squirrels and chipmunks and racoon.  Now that I have sprouts I need to protect those from the crows and ravens.  After that, I will want to protect the small plants from deer.

Once they get about a foot high, they are on their own.  Deer shouldn't be too interested in fuzzy, prickly pumpkin vines.  I plan to train the vines across the twelve foot expanse in either direction.  They should like the warmth of the soil under the black mat, and I won't have to worry about weeds making a mess and competing for water.

Since we will be able to reuse the mat and the seeds were saved, the project is virtually zero cost.   Now I just need them to grow.

Autumn Garden Decor

Today we cut the cornstalks out of the raised beds and I made some corn shocks so I could continue to enjoy them.

It is Autumn weather here now.  One of those days where it is bright and sunny one minute and then dramatically stormy looking the next.  The key to keeping a shock of corn standing on a blustery day like today is to drive a T-post or place a shepherd's hook in the middle and tie the stalks around it with garden twine.

I have begun cutting the pumpkin vines and bringing out the pumpkins that have cured.

I still have three similar pumpkins in the garden in the process of turning orange on the vine.

I have also brought out some of my ornamental pepper plants that I grew from seed specifically to bring out in the autumn.

This Black Pearl pepper plant is very dramatic with its deep purple leaves contrasting with the bright green new growth.

It has very shiny black peppers on it that will ripen to bright red.

Black Pearl

I have kept the pepper plants in the garden or on the potting bench where I can enjoy them each day.

I grew three varieties in total.

Hot Pops

Acapulco

The Dahlia beds are looking nice.

And So It Begins

 We have several large London Plane trees that we planted in 2012, and they are now 30 feet tall.  They have a quirk that around the second week of August, half of their leaves from the inside out, yellow and drop almost over night.  Then they are done for awhile until cold temperatures begin turning all of the leaves.  They did not do this the past two years, but this year the middle one did.  It was very quick.  We noticed the color change one day, and then about two days later, overnight, all of the yellowed leaves dropped all at once.

That's eight leaf sucker bags full of leaves.  In the fall we will blow leaves into the woods, but there is still too much tall grass blocking that route, so sucking them up was the only way to go.  We put a ring of wire fencing in the corner of the compost deck to keep them.  They make great compost.

It will still be a few weeks before other trees begin to drop their leaves in any serious volume and smaller quantities can still be mulched into the lawn with the lawn mower.  Our weather is now changing to unseasonably cool so maybe we will have another bright, colorful fall full of blue skies, yellow leaves and afternoon camp fires.  

Another thing I am looking forward to this fall is decorating with my pumpkins.  I have two more good sized ones for a total of five and another working on it.