Mid Summer Pleasures

A new hybrid Daylilly

Spending a hot, humid, Sunday weeding the back vegetable garden reminds me of my childhood. Here in my garden, in this same soil, my father, and my grandfather tended precious plants for over 110 years. Each year, the same weeds greet me which had greeted them, I imagine that the same scent of the rich soil when the weeds are pulled out, and the sound of the cackling chickens as they get to toss and peck through the bushel baskets of weeds that get thrown into thier pen is all the same as it was in 1900.

Weeding tomotoes, The dusty sweaty, muddy chore that always seems to happen on the hottest days of the year, and one which will need repeating every two weeks is not all that bad I suppose. I remember as a child, spending much of the summer, so it seemed, hoeing and pulling weeds, but I know that we still spent time at the lake.

At least the hot sun keeps the mosquitos away, and I wouldn’t trade a cold shower under the garden hose for anything. Even then, when the mud and dust have you all choked up and you just don’t care anymore, you may come across a pristine blossom, somehow so clean and crip amongst all of this soi; and mud…here, from a new cross of Daylilly seedlings planted out two years ago, one is quietly reminded of natures magic.

English Sweet Peas in Bloom
In March, I posted how i plant the English Sweet Peas, and they always begin to bloom for us, around the Fourth of July. This year, they have started on the 7th. The fragrance, in the evening, is strong and like nothing else, certainly another pleasure which has no equal. If the weather remains cooperative, and the spent blossoms kept cut off, the Sweet Peas will continue to bloom until the first few weeks of August, then they will exahust themselves in the high summer heat here in New England.

Topiary and hard sheering in the summer
The collection of plants which I’ve trained as topiary standards is growing. Now, since they are moved out of the greenhouse for the summer, they still need tending to. Every Sunday, they get a drink of 10-10-10 fertilizer, and every three weeks, they get sheered back hard so that they can grow more dense and full. The summer is the best time to keep most topiary sheered hard, exposing them to stong light, and never, ever, letting them dry out. Daily watering is essential. Here, I am giving some of the Rosemary’s, Westringia rosmarifolius and some Myrtles a good hard cutting .