October 15, 2015

Ahhh....

That's the sound of contentment. What a summer! What a fall! This was truly one of the loveliest summers I remember. Yes, we had some stinkin' hot days, but only a few. Rain fell in sufficient  amounts at appropriate intervals - we never turned on our soaker hoses nor watered the lawn. Our first frost/freeze was late - and that's been the only one. We ate so many meals outside this year, including this week with a fire going. Amazingly, with a couple of exceptions, we only used the umbrella during lunch. Who'd have thought our Japanese lilac would already be big enough to shade the table? We put it in just the right place this summer for that to happen. It didn't quite shade the whole table, but enough for the two of us.

So what did that mean for the garden?

About what you'd expect!

Lots and lots of lush growth for my perennials, and a greater than normal number of bugs. Part of the latter is that I'm not using really anything in the way of insecticides any more. It's really sad that nearly all the truly effective ones also appear to be deadly to bees. I can't say that's surprising - they're insects, too! - but it does mean some of my plants got really chewed. I think the daisies took the hardest hit. I'll chop them down to the ground this fall to try to discourage the pests next year. I believe they overwinter in the foliage, so the less left, the less habitat for them. I always cut the daisy back, but will go further this year. My roses out front feel the lack of chemicals as well. This year they have both black spot and terribly chewed leaves. They also aren't blooming as much, probably because of increased shade from the trees. If I want something easy care that looks good, they may all come out and get replaced with coral bells and hostas.  Same with the barberries there. Several have had good sized chunks die the last couple of winters, so now they're misshapen. And they're so full of barbs! They do have an appropriate name.

Surprisingly, many of my annuals in the ground didn't do very well. I can't figure out why, given the nearly ideal conditions. My pots grew like crazy. Maybe the top layers of soil are kind of played out? I don't chemically fertilize the big garden, as the decomposing wood chip mulch seems to provide the necessary nutrients. I may have to rethink that, as this isn't the first year the annuals haven't thrived. I used to keep reusing soil in pots over and over again, but now change out at least half each year and that sure makes a difference. I do use something like Miracle Gro on them once or twice a season, as they need the boost. I might also put in some more perennials in a couple of spots. I don't have any coneflowers in back, nor any phlox. I like them both, especially all the new coneflower cultivars. I worry about phlox and mildew, though...

I wish I knew more about rhubarb diseases. My two big ones sure have something. The last two summers the leaves wilted and the stalks got soft and just yucky looking. I wasn't going to eat them. I pulled off the bad stuff and new grew in, but then the cycle repeated. It seems to start with the really huge leaves. Maybe I have to pick the outside stalks before they get so big even if I won't use them? It may be the plant gets so crowded at its base that moisture gets trapped and something nasty can grow.

As always for us, our veggies were a mixed bag. Overall, I can't say the bales were hugely successful, but some of that was inexperience. If we do this again, we'll have much better anchors on the ends to hold wires (instead of string - too stretchy) for row covers and to train things on. That will give us something to anchor a tomato plant to, too. When the plant started to tip this year, first I tied it to the stake holding the row covers, and then I tied the stake to the fence! Instructions did say to only plant determinate tomatoes in the bales (the kind that produce for a few weeks and quit) rather than indeterminate (that produce until they freeze) and I planted an indeterminate as the Sweet 100 cherry is our favorite. So the plant got huge, and we had great early production, and then it quit. Still lots of tomatoes, but they just refused to ripen. I confess bafflement. They they started to ripen again in early October. I didn't get a huge number more, but was happy to get any. I also made the mistake of planting peppers next to the tomato. They got too much shade from it, and, after a very promising start, really petered out. No more squash for us! The butternut took over not only the bales, but  most of the veggie garden - all for three squash. Not worth it. We have better use for the space. I'm confused as to why we only got three. I know not every blossom results in one, but at least a dozen got 6" or so long and then disappeared! We had lovely peas, and some good broccoli and herbs. Only one potato sprouted, and the bugs chewed it so badly we didn't keep it. Our strawberries disappeared under the squash after a good start. And apparently we still can't grow carrots! We did get some this year, so a better performance than in the ground, but they sure don't look like normal carrots. Many seemed to grow sideways instead of into the bale!

We won't get two years out of these particular bales. I'm not sure why, as they were certainly firmly packed. Perhaps hay doesn't hold up as well as straw? Perhaps the plastic I had under them (as opposed to something breathable) trapped water and hastened rot? Another thing I don't get is why our flame grass fell over so early. It just flopped all over the veggies, which sure didn't help them any. Again, if we do this next year, we'll put up wire instead of string and that should hold the stuff back. It doesn't usually flop over until hit by heavy snow!

This sounds like a lot of complaining, but, really, most things did very well indeed. Even the poor daisies bloomed like crazy! The leaves looked awful, but they flowered very well indeed. I pruned the biggest one back, hoping to remove the worst of the damage. I don't know if it helped or not, but it did delay the blooming a couple of weeks, thus giving us daisies for an extended time. Until last week, I had a few stragglers hanging on. The Russian sage took a while to get started and I worried about it, but needn't have. It didn't get quite as big this year, probably because I cut it back farther in the spring. I'm good with it being a bit smaller as it didn't overshadow other stuff as much. We had beautiful lilies, and the new allium did bloom - in July! I thought this kind all bloomed in the spring, but I guess not. OK - next year I'll know. The new clematis by the back door filled in quite nicely. Between it and the new pot I put on the steps, that formerly bare spot looked pretty nice.

I took a look back at earlier years of this blog today, and I'd forgotten how tiny the boulevard plants used to be! Many of them did very well this year. The new cardinal flowers pretty much disappeared (no idea why...) but the other red one (can't recall its name just now) bloomed beautifully. It's barely had anything up to now - does any plant take 5 years to establish itself? I cut the asters back this spring - and a few times over the summer - to make room around them for coneflowers. So far the latter are just kind of lying there not doing much. That's ok the first year, but the other ones I put in last year didn't do a dang thing this year, either. They should be really easy to grow! I don't get it. Some of my new shade plants look to be reasonably well established for a first year; I think others died. Guess the proof will come in spring, eh? The wild monarda (bee balm) is coming along nicely, much better than the non-native species. It's funny how some of the native seeds have drifted along the sidewalk - I presume during storms - and established themselves in places I never put them. For now, I'm letting them do it. It's not like a prairie has flowers in organized groups! But the fireweed is spreading so far so quickly I may have to go after its seedlings, or it might take over. And while I really like it, I don't want a garden with nothing else.

This fall has been so mild I'm not done with the work even yet. I still have annuals that haven't died. I pulled them out of all the pots and from the bed by the sidewalk along the house (makes shoveling easier if they're gone), but left them in the other spots. They won't hurt anything. We broke the hay bales apart and spread them over the veggie garden. We'll turn them into the ground in the spring. Maybe I should move some of it (there's a lot!) onto my annual spots and see if the composting action  helps there, too.  We can't even begin to mulch yet - we've only hit 32 once. That's really, really unheard of, given our average high is now only in the upper 30s. I'll have to do it in the next couple of weeks even if it doesn't get cold. I also need to cut the daisy back, but I try not to do that until the foliage dies. I may need to make an exception this year. If nothing else, the county compost site closes at the end of the month and I don't want the waste sitting in the garage all winter. For one thing, we don't really have the room, and for another, what a mess it'd be come spring!