July Pictorial Potager Update – 07.01.07

The potager garden is humming along, requiring little in the way of daily care except watering and some weed pulling here and there.

Happily, I also need to wander through with my gathering basket to pick ready vegetables. I can usually count on cucumbers, zucchini, squash, bush beans, chard and, of course, herbs. I also still have lettuce, although it is ready to bolt.

I tried to purchase some summer lettuce seed mix from the Cook’s Garden. I received an email about this amazing mix that is supposed to grow even in the heat of the summer. Not five minutes after receiving the email I tried to order some, only to later learn that they were out of stock.

Is that right? I mean, if I tried to order it FIVE MINUTES after they sent the email, what is that about? Surely there weren’t MILLIONS of lettuce lovers just waiting for their emails about these seeds, who then hopped online with their credit cards to purchase in bulk. Surely there could be one or two seed packets left for someone who waited FIVE MINUTES to order.

Oh, yes, I understand that the creative for these HTML emails must be done ahead of time. But if you’re running low on these amazing seeds, why feature it in an email, just to get the hopes of your customers dashed?

(Deep breath.)

Day lily bed

I’m very curious about this day lily bed. I put these flowers in about three years ago. The first year after they were planted, they bloomed gloriously and all were a bright orange. This year, for the first time, I notice that most of the flowers are coming up in other colors–fuschia, deep purple, even yellow. I’m curious about why this is the case. Ideas anyone?

Slicemaster cucumbers bloom with Morning Glories

I have grown Slicemaster cucumbers in the past. But I never before noticed purple blooms on the plants. All the other cucumbers I have grown have yellow blooms. At first glance I thought these were cucumber blossoms. But no. They are invasive morning glories twining among the cucumbers.

Garden gate

Here’s a developing problem–my garden gate. I have a soft heart and haven’t been able to bring myself to make a tough decision. One one side I have wisteria growing. On the other side is clematis. They are starting to touch and it will be a plant war. What to do?

Black eyed susan vines creeping through the fence

Another dilemma: How do I get my delicate black eyed susan vines to climb the fence? They are vigorous climbers when in a pot with a trellis. But the fence slats seem to be too much for the vines to grab onto to climb up. Perhaps some twisties? Some twine?

Bee balm

More problems…

The bee balm is truly beautiful. I love the way it towers over the other plants and attracts the useful bees to the garden. But it is truly invasive. Next year I”m sure I’ll be facing a battle of epic proportions because I have let this go on…

Herb bed

At least there are no problems in the herb bed. Everything seems to be just fine and happy to be crowded together. The lettuce is about to bolt. Those are hollyhocks towering over the other plants.

Bluebird babies

In more happy news, the bluebird babies are doing just fine. They are five days old now. I spent some time sitting on the garden bench this afternoon watching mom and dad flying to and fro to feed their kids. Observing the garden and bluebirds continually reminds me that I’m part of something bigger out there.

Finally, this is all the rain we had in the month of June. It arrived around midnight, the last day of the month.

Okay, to be fair, we MAY have had some rain very early in the month. But sadly, it was so very long ago, I don’t remember when that was.

The evidence of the drought was clear today as I was mowing the lawn. I had to push mow because I managed to crash my lawn tractor last week in a futile attempt at mowing some weeds near the hay field. So as I was walking on the lawn, I could actually FEEL the grass crunching beneath my feet. Even though I haven’t mowed the lawn for a week, I think it’s amazing that anything has grown enough to need mowing.

I’ll be out doing another rain dance tomorrow, although clearly, my dancing isn’t doing the trick.

Ciao!