DAHLIAS IN BLOOM

Dahlias delight the eye in our backyard, please the bees and sate the vase. What's not to like about them?

Dinnerplate. The plant itself would tower over me if it were not flopping over--I'm clocking 61 1/2" myself. Can you say "super-size me"?

Susan B. Kommen Dahlia

Cantaloupe Update

I bought a 6 pack of cantaloupe seedlings in mid May on my trip to Dobson in Surry County. Paid .99 at a country market--the original "Fresh Market"--the kind of place that sells flower and vegetable plants, fresh vegetables and fruits, hoop cheese, pork rinds, RC Colas, etc. all under overt closed circuit television surveillance. Kind of a "smile you're on camera" situation at the checkout counter with a photographic quality not unlike your driver's license.

You can see they're well underway (as is Jubal) on 6/12/08.


One month later, the vines truly hum with bees.


...and if you look closely, you will see fruit with the potential to become a divine melon with tan netlike ridged rind and a sweet fragrant orange flesh--in maybe another month. Stay tuned.

My Mother's Green Thumb

My mother is a master "rooter" of cuttings: gardenia, forsythia, rose, confederate rose, rosemary, wisteria, hydrangea, peach and fig--to name a few. This is a peach tree in her yard that she grew from a pit. Some of its blossoms are pink and some are white.

I think if we tested the dna on her thumb, the results would reveal something like rhizocaline, a powerful hormone that stimulates the growth and development of plants. Or, maybe it would reveal consistent attention to the details of gardening on a daily basis.


Below is a sample of some plants I have in my yard that she started.

gardenia

rosemary

confederate rose
(mallow)

fig

wisteria

forsythia

Mama is also a really good biscuit maker--more on that topic, later.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURIE!

Celebrating the life of a special gardener

...it's not 52 degrees out...it's not the 52d day of July...it's not just a random number...

Fruits of Late June

What we're eating now.

peaches
blueberries
cucumber
sweet banana pepper
Parker's Whopper

Brussel sprouts

squash
plums

The Family That Gardens Together...

This past weekend, June 21-22, I visited Brother David's garden. If you wonder how I look, I'd say pretty much like the guy in the white t-shirt, except I'm 10 inches shorter, same gray hair but slightly longer and noticeably thicker, my glasses are like Harry Potter's, about the same weight, and very similar good looks. We share a passion for gardening and reading. This garden looks and feels paradisaical: verdant greens, zinnias, banana trees, snail vines, Easter egg eggplants, single serving-size spaghetti squash, a dozen different peppers and tomatoes, cucumbers and a water garden. We're touring just before a raucous thunder storm so there's an extreme rain forest feel to the garden.


David's garden also has amenities.

If it were winter, Brother Marion would be warmed by the fire of the Irish Waterford cast iron stove. Instead, it being June 22, 2008, he holds a smoking firestick in his hand that emits a cherry aroma.











Now, this is an organically grown tomato plant. 8'+ and growing. An embarrassment of riches.

















Finally, we have Mama standing by the peach tree that she started from a pit a few years ago. In the spring, I'll show you a photo of the amazing flowers on this tree--some are white and some are pink.












Thanks for taking the time to look at my pictures.

You Say Potato...

This is my potato harvest spread on the cookiesheet. Last February, in the pantry, I discovered a bin filled with sprouting potatoes. Instead of dumping them straight into the compost, I scratched the earth below a blanket of leaf mulch in an unused part of my vegetable garden and laid them to rest. Potatoes at rest apparently offended Sissy, the calico, because she promptly dug them up. They grew anyway. They were determined in the pantry and not to be deterred in the good earth. When I saw green leafy matter poking up through the leaf mulch, I piled the mulch on even higher. My number one gardening adviser, Mama, said they'd be ready when they bloomed. Last weekend I noticed the first two plants in the row were brown. In certain defeat I pulled them up. Voila! Even the still green plants were fully potatoed. When next I spoke with Mama she was surprised by my news and checked her own plants. Same story in Wilmington as in Raleigh. Who knew?




After the daddy rabbit and his brood feasted on my okra plants the week of June 1, I covered them with this floating row cover on June 8. It lets in moisture and sun and keeps out those who have the munchies. Jubal says he knew about the rabbits, but did not know the okra were important to me. Between Jubal's alert vigilance and the row cover, the okra crop has recovered its growth.






This is Sissy putting the cat in catnip. That's oregano in the immediate foreground.










We had about an inch of rain yesterday evening that fell slowly and soaked nicely into the ground. So that's mud I was digging in with my all time favorite gardening tool--Wolf Garten hand held rake. The pile of rocks came out of the hole and the scrawny Jubilee tomato went in. This is a part of the garden not previously tilled. Believe me, the rest of the space was just like this when I tilled it the first through seventh times. I love the Jubilee because it's reliably large with balanced acidity and it's yellow. I note that Jubal, whom I love, shares similar traits.





Brandywine--heirloom with large potato-leaved foliage; bears large pink beefsteak-shaped fruit. The fruit weighs over a pound. Last year I had one 2 pounder.
To the right is my full row of tomatoes--Beefsteak, Brandywine and Jubilee. Started the seeds under the grow light in late February.






This is my overflow row of tomatoes consisting of the cherries, and the extra seedlings of the Jubilee, Brandywine and Beefsteak. At the end near the Adirondack chairs is the cheater tomato that I bought for $2.59 in Dobson (county seat of Surry County) when I was there in May. The cheater, aka Park's Whopper Improved CR, was in full bloom with several small fruit when I bought it. Some people I know brag about eating their tomatoes by the 4th of July. That doesn't happen for me and the plants I start from seed--more likely the end of July. Yes, I gave in to peer pressure.