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| Morning glories planting on the back porch, are starting to cover the windows. |
What’s up with the crab grass this year?
Sometimes I think it just get’s bigger and bigger each year. While I was in Denver, the weeds have taken over the garden, I am seriously thinking of staring a reality show, just about weeds. I think that might be one they haven’t done yet.
When one spends even a week away from a home garden during the summer, it fells like a new garden when one returns. It seems as if every plant has doubled in size – morning glory vines suddenly have exploded into their late summer growth spurt, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage are now so plentiful, that I need to either think about making pickles or sharing some with my neighbors ( I chose pickles).
In August, the container plants need fertilizing most every week to help maintain their strong growth, after all, it will be only a few more weeks before they are moved back into the greenhouse near the end of September.
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| Morning glory vines that I planted in a window box, are being trained to grow around the windows. |
Our drought has been broken into a rain-soaked, humid weather pattern, complete with what seems like never-ending thunderstorms. It seems like everything smells moldly, both inside the house, and outside. Late blight ( Phytophora infestans) has struck the tomatoes – too late to spray them with copper fungicide, I will just have to deal with it head on – there is no stopping it now. The only plants that seem to be surviving the Late Blight are the grafted tomatoes that Home Depot sent me to try. I will post about those later.
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| Iochroma cyanum, a relative of the Brugmansia, blooming in a pot in our container garden |
Many container plants are blooming now, as a full summer’s worth of growth ourdoors is being rewarded with blossoms. Late blooming summer tropicals and greenhouse plants that are spending the summer outdoors as well as late blooming annuals and bulbs are taking over the show. Dahlia’s and Gladiolus rule the border, but more unusual annuals and pot plants are also blooming.
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| Scabiosa are in peak bloom, but a little heavy in the rain, and a poor staking job by me. |
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| Pansy and Viola seed has been sown for spring bloom. I’m a little late, but I should still have small plants to set out by mid-October. Late summer sown pansy’s always perform much better than spring planted transplants. |
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| Lydia had some fun in one of the newly sown raised beds. Look like there will be no Chinese Cabbage this fall. |
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| It’s become an annual show – our Japanese orchids, Neofinetia falcata. They smell like vanilla, and they won’t bloom unless they get a little frost in the winter. I brought these back from Japan ten years ago, and the divisions are still blooming every summer. |
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| Late summer bulbs, like these rare fall blooming Nerine masoniorum, are enjoying the late summer rain. |
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I've been hit with late blight also. And since we don't have time to make pickles and the neighbors either are not fond of cukes or grow their own, many of the cukes end up on the compost pile.
How do you have time to do your garden, travel, the GREENHOUSE, and work? Oh yeah…and blog too! Sure you're not triplets?
Beautiful photos.
I took a week-long vacation this year too, and came back to a mess – mostly groundhogs having eaten everything.