Mid-Summer Milestones

July is all summer-time here. Bees, blueberries and lilies. Not to mention sweet peas.

As 2020 moves forward (thank goodness), amid all of the turmoil, angst, politics, protests, droughts, infestations and oh yeah – Covid 19,  the garden reassures us that things can move along (even without rain).

There is good news to report across my garden – the tomatoes have never been better, both those in containers and even though that I planted in the ground out back. Little if any sign of Late Blight (Phytophora infestans) and even though the plants demand daily watering, we are currently experiencing a deluge of tomatoes. I’m OK with that.

I like to take cutting from our many coleus, they root in just a week and a half and I can spread them throughout the garden and in containers.

Covid has allowed us to take a breather as far as garden chores are concerned. I chatted with New York Times writer Margaret Roach yesterday for about an hour and we both concurred that not hosting any garden tours this year as allowed us to focus on some larger projects like tree removal and garden reconstruction. We both admitted to having large mulch piles still sitting in our driveways and having large equipment beeping in the background.

This summer off from tidyness has allowed us to focus on some really big projects, such as a new garden out back (still unnamed, but let’s call it the old putting green garden) a water garden extravaganza with containers of lotus – a new obsession. Joe ordered about a dozen lotus after last years success, and again, they are a hit. Now after trialing them for two years I am planning on how to integrate them into the garden design (ha! Design! As if we have a design!

Then there is our a rather big driveway project which involved big equipment rentals, 30 yards of gravel and 16 trees being removed for a fence, hedge and new garden. Don’t get too excited, it all looks as if a tornado just hit us right now with branches everywhere. Our hornbeam hedges are only half-cut, much like my own hair.

Our new garden where the golf green used to be is just about complete now. Gravel paths extend back toward to gourd tunnel about 200 feet and perennials and annuals fill the gaps. Still lots to experiment with here, and plenty of weeds due to new manure that I spread in spring. That’s OK as now I know that it was good soil. I also planted about 80 boxwoods (tiny ones that I bought on sale last fall from Lowes for a steal.

It probably wasn’t a good thing to decide to strip and pickle our hardwood floors either. What we we thinking? Did I mention that this has been the hottest summer in recorded history in our town in Massachusetts?The heat means daily watering with sprinklers or hand watering as we dont have an irrigation system. Containers like these help as I can move them around.

Sweet Pea season is so short, only a month if not a few weeks, but we are thrilled with this years’ results.

Sweet peas are often calling it a day here around late July, but here is it nearing August 15 and they are still going strong. This confounds me as I’ve never had sweet peas this late, and this summer began with hot weather that hasn’t let up.

I’ve talked to other sweet pea growers and they are experiencing the same thing. Shorter vines, yes, but an extended bloom season. I’m chalking it up to the drought, as what often does sweet peas in is powdery mildew. Maybe their deep roots are allowing them to get enough moisture to continue as well? Again, I am not complaining.

My seed raised Rhodochiton atrosanguineum is looking fine. I was able to winter it over as a seedling in the greenhouse, but now that it is warm outside, it’s beginning to show its color.

Mid August is when we typically get our first hint of fall weather as well. The morning chorus has ended weeks ago as the migrating songbirds have completed raising their young, and some birds are beginning to gather in flocks as the do in the fall. Blue jays are harrassing the hawks with their noisy cawing that I enjoy so much as it reminds me of autumn, and the goldfinches – still in their summer yellow coats, have returned to the thistle feeders.

Three pairs of cardinals have raised at least two clutches, the last one just a few weeks ago. We watched them come close to the house looking for insect larvae to feed their young – something I have never seen before. Mrs. cardinal visited each tomato plant probably hoping to find a nice, juicy Tomato Hornworm, and both pairs examined every leaf on the geraniums and Torenia in the windowboxes, often repeatedly. It caused me to run out and buy a bag of dried meal worms, which they all devoured in a few days.

The last of the cut flower sweet peas are filling the vases of the house.

Nighttime insects are beginning to call louder and louder. Crickets, katydids and whatever calls in the night all come together in a symphony that begins at dusk and buzzes through the steamy night. I can see the signs that summer is maturing, high-summer my dad used to call it – when the tomatoes overtake us all, and the winter squashes begin to mature.

In the greenhouse, I’m afraid to look, but any day, not some dormant winter growing bulbs may be stirring, if not beginning to bloom. The cyclamen species start the show, sometimes as early as late August even if their pots are not watered in the sand bed where they are plunged. In some years, if I hold off on watering them in fall, they wait until late September and the flowers emerge before the foliage, particularly with the C. graecum selections.

The C.  hederifolium selections seem to form flower buds and foliage around the same time, but if they are hot and dry, they too often produce flowers first then foliage. It’s a game we play every autumn. I am curious what will happen this year as I never applied shade cloth to the greenhouse so temperatures soared into the 100s, and since we have yet to experience a chilly night, the bloom events may be delayed. Still, they surprise me every year by doing something off schedule.

I’m growing around 30 varieties of chili peppers this year, and many are in pots which they perform perfectly well in if I use fresh professional potting mix (never last years’).

For two guys who really like mild to moderately hot peppers, I am raising numerous pots and plants of some of the hottest chili peppers this year.  Inspired by Dr. Amy Goldman’s collections that we marveled at late last summer while visiting her amazing farm in upstate New York we decided that we needed to amp up our chili knowledge. The plants are beautiful as it is, and we know that pepper appreciation takes some time (and some burned lips) to improve our Scoville Unit tolerance.

Last year we started expanding the borders into what was once my parents putting green. I think that it is safe to say that now we have no more grass to cut, which is great given than we have about an acre and a half of garden (and no gardener).
The new garden is of a simple design, just an ‘x’ walk with an intersection, and while at first I wanted an object as a focal point in the center, the urn felt too obvious, and I could not afford a nice sculptural piece. I did find a photo of a central object that was just a round planting which I found curiously interesting, so I decided to experiment with something very simple – just a round pond with lilies. So far I like it, but typically I change things every year, so who knows. I am experimenting with adding containers like this to break up the symmetry.

At night, its fragrant with lilies and Zaluziaskya (night phlox) and noisy with insects like crickets. I thing the central axis design is simple but still useful, and appropriate given that our home was built in the 1910’s and it reflects many of the formal back yard designs the Fletcher Steele proposed. I need to plant more fall blooming plants as it is still heavy with spring and early summer flowers, but revising and planning new gardens is what we all live for, right?

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Comments

  1. Mystery orange flower resembles Dimorphotheca Sinuata Orange Glory, but I can't see the rest of the plant. Bud form I think rules out a Coreopsis.

  2. "True plant people understand, and overlook the extra flats of tomatoes that never made it into the garden, or the old crumbled bags of promix on the deck shoved under a lawn chair – not to mention the towers of black plastic pots everywhere." THIS! I had my garden on tour this summer and wrote about it a couple of posts ago. I'll never do another plant specific tour again. I want plant people in my garden who care about the entire thing. Congratulations on your book deal! I'll be first in line to read it. You know what a fan I am. Your garden is lovely this year. Keep having fun Matt. I loved this post. I remember when I "retired" from being a legal assistant to raise my children, and I had that same feeling. It was like being let out of school for summer. A lifetime of summer vacation even though we still work. ~~Dee

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