First Cucumber

 Last year I planted two rows of cucumbers in the bed.  This was obviously too much.  They grew like crazy, produced more cucumbers than any two people could eat. 

2022 Cucumber Jungle

So I left myself a note not to do this again.

And I didn't.  I carefully planted one row of plants right down the center.

Half as many plants as last year.

And this is what I got.

Ummm....

Yeah........

That worked out well.

Good thing there aren't twice as many plants.  Anyway, I picked the first few cucumbers this morning.  And there are plenty more on the way.

Out With the Old

 Our 100 year old Lilac grove is no more. We had talked about taking it out for a couple of years now because it was an awful eyesore. The only reason we left it was that it was a big job and it had been there so long. It has been a long time since it was round and pretty.  The entire center had died out of it leaving half a dozen bare, dead branches hovering eight feet above the layer of sucker growth.

Right third of photo

Below is another picture of it in tidier days about 15 years ago. Left third of photo. It had grown all the way to that corner post but no longer put out more than a handful of blossoms.

I don’t have any pictures of its ugliness because I always positioned it as the green edge of the photo as I was looking at something more attractive.  Today, on a whim, we went in there with a lopper and saw and started trimming. I was suppose to be helping so I didn’t get too many good photos of the beginning of the process.

Not a job you would want to tackle without a backhoe.

There were a lot of roots.

For starters, I want to shrink that circle a few feet and it shouldn’t take long for the lawn to do that on its own. I have that young apple tree stuck in the flower bed as a cross pollinator that can be transplanted right into the center. I have to move that daylily back a few feet to the right, and I have a huge peony that needs to relocate and it can go right off that corner next to the boulder.

It feels so good to get that mess out of there. The edges were full of tall grass and buttercups and it was impossible to make it look nice.   For now, we will just mulch it and get used to the space available.

The only thing it did do well was block the view from the road, past the house into the backyard. But it just wasn’t worth it.

As with any big loss in a garden, it opens up an opportunity to do something better.

Sahara Rudbeckia the Second Generation

 Today I planted some free plants, perennials I started from saved seeds.  These are Sahara Rudbeckia.  "Gloriosa Daisy"  They are a short lived perennial with the original plant only surviving a few seasons.  People either grown them as annuals or try to get them to reseed themselves.   Last year I purchased five or six live plants from Bluestone Perennials in the spring.  They grew beautifully.

My five original plants last year.

My favorite straw colored plant last year

All but one survived the winter and this year they are doing quite nice.

The same straw colored plant this year is now a huge clump

Because they are short lived, I clipped every flower last fall and saved all of the seeds.  I sifted them out and winnowed them well and kept them separated by color so I could add the right seeds back into the parent clumps.  This spring, after we mulched, I took the corresponding seed packet and emptied about half of it down in and around the new growth of each clump.  In the future I think it would be fun to add different colors to each established clump.

This one also survived the winter very well and is in full bloom

I had a lot of seed filled chaff leftover from my careful sifting and winnowing.  A few pinches of this chaff I seeded into milk jugs in March and simply set them on the deck of the garden shed in the sun.  This is a method called "winter sowing" and it is a great way to get seedlings started without a grow light, supplemental heat or a lot of fussing.

Towards the end of May I transplanted the seedlings from the milk jugs into cell trays.

After a few weeks in the cells I potted them up into 4" pots using whatever leftover soil I had after my main container planting was finished.  They grew fast.

A few weeks ago

I ended up with 36 nice plants.  Some of them already have buds on them.  I planted them throughout two of our perennial beds in spots where I usually plant annuals.  After the daylilies are past their prime, the Rudbeckia should be flowering, and the flowers themselves, unlike the aptly named "day lily" last for many weeks.  All it took was a little effort and some leftover soil and I have dozens of "free" plants.

Black Eyed Susan Out of Control

In years past I had so darn many BES.  I got sick of them.  I pulled them out.  I relocated them.  I got tired of supporting and spraying and deadheading them.  Three years ago I ripped out the last big area of them.  For some reason, I must have had a really nice green clump and I stuck them into a fiber pot and put them along the compost pile with other refugees and forgot about it.  Last year, when I was looking for things to fill in bare spots in the dry creek, I stuck that little clump in.  It did really well, forming a neat little clump and flowering nicely.

Next spring I think I will have to divide it.

For perspective, I put a red X on the rock beside it.  Just to prove it is the same plant.

Its over three feet tall and just as round!

Next week, if I am successful in fending off the deer, it should begin to bloom.

I am documenting it now just in case they nibble on it.

My Morning View

Every morning I start my day by looking out the bedroom window at our landscape.  The height and form of this tall grass is starting to bother me.  I am not a huge fan of upright, pillar-like grasses.  The variety is called Overdam.  I have one really positive thing to say about it:  It's an early grass.  These have looked great starting in April when other varieties were still thinking about whether they would live or die this year.  They are much taller now than last year.  I'm going to give them some time to put out more lower leaves and soften their silhouette a little.  Maybe pairing them with a grouping of wispier, shorter grass like Niagara Falls or Hameln would soften the look.

The grasses everywhere else are looking amazing.  I am particularly enjoying this view with the orangey red daylilies repeating the color of the Heuchera in the whiskey barrel, the rusty fish cut outs and the burgundy Ninebark bush.

My new favorite color scheme is black, red and chartreuse foliage.  I am paying a lot more attention to foliar color and texture, adding some new interesting plants I've never tried before and starting a list of ideas for next spring.

My four in one pear tree did not manage to hold any fruit through that late frost.  Free from the drain of fruit, it is putting on some really nice new growth which makes me just as happy.

Yesterday the cucumbers began to flower so I turned them loose from their row cover.

The cantaloupes are taking off and beginning to flower as well.

I remove their cover each morning and cover them again at night to hold the heat.

Note that the plant closest to the open end has not put on as much growth
as the ones further back in the tunnel

The Vegetable Garden in the cool of the morning

Wildlife

 One of our nightly visitors.  Can you see in the center background the mini-giraffe munching on the Hickory tree leaves?  That's fine.  You eat the native plants.  Those are for you.

Vegetable Garden Progress

 The vegetable garden continues to thrive despite the extreme swings in the weather conditions.  Our rain total the other day was four inches but that's the beauty of raised beds.  They drain.  I am beginning to harvest peas and everything else is on schedule.

Gotta Have It Sweet Corn planted May 15th

Penelope Peas planted April 15th

Napoli and Hannah Cantaloupes

Bristol Cucumbers

Cole Crops

Broccoli

Bishop Cauliflower

I was unable to find any yellow cauliflower at the nurseries.  That is our favorite for taste.  I did find some Bishop which is one I have grown myself in the past.  The only downside to white cauliflower is that you have to "blanch" it to keep the head from discoloring and turning an unappetizing beige.  I do this by gathering leaves over it and clipping them.  You have to keep up with it because the head tends to outgrow the arrangement.

Green Cabbages

Red Cabbages

Pole Beans

Monte Gusto yellow pole beans

Carbon Tomato

Carbon Tomato

Barlow Jap Tomato

Pike County Yellow Tomato

Wherokowhai Dwarf Tomato

Mystery Cross Tomato

Havasu Peppers

Clarimore Summer Squash

I plan to try growing this squash in a tower so I've laid the tower rings around the base of the plant.  Last year this variety grew enormous so I am not sure it can be contained.

Parsley

Basil

Sunflowers
Mahon Yam Sweet Potato in container

I had originally planned to grow carrots in this container, but they didn't germinate during that hot, dry spell.  So I moved on to plan B.  Then they started to come up.  I am weeding out the late comers because they will be too small for cole slaw season at this point.  But I did leave a few of the earlier ones for now. I imagine the vine will crowd them out but we'll see.

Nantes Half Long Carrots
The earlier batch of carrots germinated in April and have been thinned twice.  I manly want these to go with the cabbages for cole slaw.

Zinnias and some Snapdragons

Thyme, Peas and Strawberries

Dahlias

Dahlias and Marigolds

Apples

I have bagged 130 apples on this tree without even bringing out a ladder.  Looks like it will be a good year for apples.

Thyme beneath the Apple Tree