Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, August 2010

It's 100°F every day and there has been only a splash of rain in my neighborhood. The mosquitoes are horrid. The salvias are sulking. Barely a leaf can be found whole, due to outrageous numbers of caterpillars and other leaf-eating insects. My main goal is to run out, cut back, deadhead, mow, water enough to keep the garden alive and run back in until fall. August is a good month for genealogy inside.

But it's still better than August 2009, such a depressing month that I skipped GBBD altogether, and later regretted having that gap in my records. Carol of May Dreams Gardens, founder of GBBD, had a good idea, to keep track of what happens each month, no matter what the weather!

Some plants have died, some are doing fine and one new flower opened. A few stalwart plants keep chugging along through heat with no rain - others are in part shade and are watered regularly. Here is the list with botanical names and a few photos.

Abelia chinensis/Abelia, four white shrubs light bloom

Abelia chinensis two unnamed pink shrubs light bloom

Abelia chinensis 'Edward Goucher' smaller pink shrub in some shade - pretty good bloom

Abutilon hybridum 'Patrick's' - in a container in the Secret Garden. The flowers are small & hang down...they are not showy - but when the sun comes through it's easy to see why so many Austin gardeners are falling for Parlour Maples.

Allium tuberosum, Garlic chives has buds but not flowers

Amarcrinum ‘Fred Howard’ The bulb that flowered for July's bloom day is in a very sunny hot place with reflected sun... that plant looks terrible! The bulb that is blooming today, seen below, is in part shade in the pink garden. Even with some shade the flowers don't last long in this heat.

Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii, Flame acanthus from Pam/Digging doing really well

Asclepias curassavica, tropical milkweed, couple of plants with lots of flowers. They seeded themselves right next to the sidewalk, blocking traffic but looking colorful.

Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Gold' gold cultivar of tropical milkweed in light bloom

Buddleja lindleyana/ Weeping butterfly bush, some flowers remaining on branch tips

Calibrachoa hybrids, two surviving plants - just a couple of flowers

Canna americanallis 'Bengal Tiger' syn 'Praetoria' two flower stalks

Capsicum annuum – garden peppers - a few flowers and some hot peppers

Catharanthus roseus - annual vinca- one surviving plant.

Castilleja indivisa, Texas paintbrush, grown as annual - one flower hanging on

Clerodendrum ugandense – Blue butterfly flower. Original plant is finally thinking about making buds. The one in a patio container, bought in June from It's About Thyme is enormous & in constant bloom

Clitoria ternatea- the annual Blue Butterfly Pea, flowering on the obelisk

Conoclinium greggii, Gregg’s Mistflower - Just a few flowers, because I haven't watered it enough

Cosmos sulphureus flowers, many buds and seedheads attracting birds

Cuphea ignea, orange Cigar flower, a fair amount of small orange flowers

Cuphea llavea – small pink & lavender form -a few flowers

Cuphea llavea –red & purple ‘Batfaced’- two plants blooming just fine

Datura unkn sp - seeded in patio container - a bud and seedheads

Dicliptera suberecta Uraguayan firecracker plant - new small plant with some flowers

Echinacea purpurea ‘Purple Stars - one remaining flower - many seedheads. Leaves awful.

Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' two plants in flower.

Evolvulus glomeratus, Blue Daze, one survivor in a patio container

Gaura lindheimerii, unknown tall rose-pink variety (‘Pink Cloud’?), just a few flowers but there are none on the white gaura, usually quite tough

Hedychium coronarium/ Hawaiian White Ginger - there were a few flowers last week -that's when I took the photo below. Now there are no flowers but a few buds are swelling

Helianthus, three tall annual sunflowers, looking like some species of bizarre leafless tree since the Bordered Patch caterpillars devoured the leaves. At the ends of the bare branches flowers, buds and seed heads attract so many birds that when I look out the window the 10-foot plants appear to be dipping and waving as the birds land and depart. This photo was taken by my son


Hemerocallis fulva – Ditch daylily from Lori one bud left to open

Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Blue River II’, a few huge white flowers each day

Hibiscus syriacus/Rose of Sharon, a few flowers every day

Impatiens walleriana, bedding impatiens. couple of plants in container are blooming

Indigofera amblyantha? /pink false indigo - has a few wands of pink flowers

Ipomoea alba, Moon flower vine, just starting to make buds

Ipomoea quamoclit, Cypress vine, reseeding annual many flowers

Jasminium sambac, Sambac jasmine non-stop

Justicia spicigera/ Mexican Honeysuckle some flowers

Lagerstroemia indica, hot pink crepe myrtles (5 trees), still some flowers

Lagerstroemia x hybrida ‘Acoma’ white crepe myrtles (2 trees); still some flowers

Lagerstroemia indica 'Catawba', in container, reddish-purple flowers, still some flowers

Lantana, unknown varieties upright lavender and trailing white

Lavandula intermedia 'Provence', fragrant,in clay container - keeps blooming as long as watered and deadheaded

Liriope muscari/Lilyturf, in long lines all over the place, flowering lightly

Lonicera sempervirens, coral honeysuckle (just a few flowers)

Lycopersicon lycopersicum, tomatoes mostly the Sun gold, but a few on Solar fire

Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii/Turkscap or Red Wax Mallow (two plants), loaded with blooms.

Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii, white form of Turkscap/Wax Mallow (two plants in secret garden), sprawling and covered in flowers.

Melampodium leucanthum / Blackfoot daisy - many plants - floppy and flowering - sweet fragrance in heat

Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea' (dotted around and in containers), blooming some places- crispy in others

Pavonia lasiopetala, pink rock rose, opens flowers but they fry quickly

Pelargonium hybrid, 'Fantasia Salmon', zonal geranium in breakfast room window

Pentas lanceolata - Egyptian stars a few flower heads

Perovskia atriplicifolia, Russian Sage (two beds), floppy but holding onto flower heads

Phlox paniculata 'John Fanick' - new plant - very pretty flowers and some buds

Physostegia virginiana, Obedient plant - stressed but has a few flowers that caught my son's eye - he took this photo

Piper auritum/Hoja Santa or Rootbeer Plant - two plants in shade have odd wand-shaped white flowers

Platycodon 'Miss Tilly' (3 plants), a few fading flowers

Plumbago auriculata (two shrubs), going nuts and covered in pale blue flowers- have to keep cutting it back

Plumeria unknown species/Frangipani, creamy yellow one bud stalk not open yet

Poliomintha bustamanta, Mexican oregano (3 plants), all blooming but looking ratty & stressed

Portulaca - reseeded & purchased Moss Roses and Flowering Purslanes - all have flowers

Punica granatum 'Nana'/ dwarf pomegranate - couple of buds

Rosa 'Mutabilis' (two good-sized plants) just a few flowers on front plant

Russelia equisetiformis, Firecracker plant 2 plants in bloom

Salvia farinacea, Mealy Blue sage, wandlike flowers opening but do not last

Salvia greggii, one cherry color, one white, one purple have flowers - dozen others are either resting or dropping branches.

Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' only a few flowers on back plant... other one spindly and not blooming

Salvia vanhoutii SYN Salvia splendens var 'Van Houttei' does not make a lot of bloom, but a few at a time for hummingbirds

Scutellaria indica 'Dorota Blue' Blue evergreen hybrid skullcap, in container, part-shade & watered. Just started flowering

Scutellaria suffrutescens, pink skullcap, two plants in Pink Entrance Garden - light bloom

Scutellaria unlabeled blue-violet skullcap blooming in hellstrip

Scutellaria unlabled - flower pink but different from suffrutescens, blooming in hellstrip

Tetraneuris scaposa, four nerve daisy Hymenoxys - a couple of flowers

Verbena bonariensis – a few stragglers - most done

Vitex agnus-castus / Chaste tree this year is looking pretty good!

Zephyranthes 'Labuffarosea', Pink rainlily - in this bunch open today today the focus is on the seeds. I scattered them along the edges of a border.

Zinnia linearis/ syn Zinnia angustifolia, several plants, abundant white flowers.

Happy GBBD - thanks again, Carol!

Mystery Melon Melo-Drama

At a garden blogger get-together toward the end of March, Laura of Some Like It Hot brought a few melon seedlings to share, unnamed second generation starts of seeds saved from melons she grew in 2009. Lancashire Rose & I each took one .... did anyone else try to grow them? Thanks again for sharing, Laura!

Our vegetable patch is too small for a melon to sprawl so after repotting it into a recycled cardboard container I stuffed the box into a corner of the compost bin. That seedling grew fast, making enormous leaves and tendrils.
By mid-June it had produced a few melon-like objects, but instead of growing - they just did this I'm not sure if it failed because the melon flower hadn't been pollinated or if insects made holes that set off rot.
A few weeks later the chance of getting fruit looked pretty good

One melon was looking fabulous for quite awhile - although it didn't look like any melon I knew. But while it was still green and hard, something attacked the bottom, the stem was chewed, and the weight of the melon had pulled against the wire, damaging the stem even more. I took the melon inside and weighed it, wondering what kind it would have been. At six pounds it was much larger than the store-bought Tuscan melon - but the interior hadn't matured - looks like Melon #1 was a fail.

A couple of small melons were still on the plant.

After Katina tweeted that critters had chopped her crop I ran out to find Melon fail #2

We took the evidence over to the patio table and cut it to see if we could guess what kind it was - but there was no real color and no scent.
Maybe the remaining melon would grow if I netted it and supported the stem with an S hook

During July the netted plant kept growing and by the 26th some reticulation was showing - was it a cantaloupe like the one grown by RockRose?

Our Melon #3 almost delivered a sweet ending to our tale, but last weekend I found it on the ground, mesh & stem chewed through and skin chomped. The poor fruit bled orange, but not the burnt orange of a University of Texas fan - just the pale orange of a melon taken too soon.
It wasn't fully developed but it sure looked like it would have been a cantaloupe.

Apparently in my garden protective mesh can't be plastic - it would have to be steel! Back in Illinois in the 1990's famed gardener Trudi Temple told us that in order to get any fruits or vegetables for the table she had to build a wire-roofed-and-sided-enclosure with more mesh buried under the ground to prevent animals from digging from underneath.

Sometimes I daydream about having a small version of that enclosure here.

The Intent of the Gardener - GGW Picture This Photo

The theme for this month's Picture This Photo Contest is "The Intent of the Gardener", something I've pondered ever since we moved to this small plot of land in July 2004. Rich Pomerantz, the judge for the contest, advises us to look for the unifying principle of the design and also "Look to see if the designer took her cues from the land".
Are there many cues when you buy a 25-year old house on a boring, irregularly-shaped lot in a subdivision? Bulldozers shaped the land, men built the houses and privacy fences carved it into wedges, trapezoids and rectangles. There is, however, a slight rise toward the center back of the lot, which we tried to enhance.

I know exactly what the unifying principle is in this garden... it's the same principle that 'unified' every one of our gardens, although it may only be obvious to Philo and me. Underlying everything is our wish to Not Be Bored. This does lead to a rather messy looking garden - the back yard went from blank to busy in one day after our kids helped us bring all the portable landscape items from the previous Austin house - more than 100 containers full of trees, shrubs, vines, a metal arch, hypertufa troughs, the birdbath from Illinois, wooden benches and patio furniture. Our intent was to have somewhere to go, something to do, someplace to be - and with luck - something to eat. So far so good. I tried to get the yard from the same angle as in the Before photo above. Click this After photo and it should enlarge.
This smaller version is my entry for the contest. The rules say the photo should be under 500 pixels on the long side and when uploaded this was 495 x 359 pixels. What happens now is up to Blogger.
Edit 10 PM - website says size rule no longer in effect.

GardeningGoneWild has a photo gallery for the contest, where you can view the more elegant entries.

Farewell, Tomato - the Tomato Report

Farewell, Tomato -the Tomato Report, was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose Blog

My tomato report can't be as scientific as the yearly evaluations by MSS at Zanthan Gardens... she records facts and can give you quantitative data. I forget to write things down, collect impressions rather than data and make comedy & music videos for YouTube rather than face the realities of gardening here.

Philo & I have planted tomatoes each spring we've been in Austin (that's 5 tries at the other Austin house and 6 attempts at this one) and the entire harvest for those 11 late springs/early summers wouldn't add up to one good year in our old garden in the Western Burbs of Chicago.

There are supposedly two tomato seasons here - spring and fall - two really short seasons fitted around the midsummer heat that halts pollination. Squirrels and stinkbugs are a pain, the area we have for planting isn't large and constantly shifting shade with tree roots in clay soil isn't what tomatoes want. But we must have tomatoes!

An old adage says "Eat Dessert First" - so before the lists of varieties and laughable numbers please watch the music video -it's just over one minute and I hope it makes you smile!





PUTTING TOGETHER THE GARDEN
A few years ago Philo made a wooden framework that could be dismantled and stored. It was short enough for me to reach over without a ladder and when the plants are in place the whole thing covers an area about 6-ft by 8 1/2ft, a size that can be draped with a bird net. Every year we add organic matter- this spring some of it came from my lasagna/sheet compost experiment and some came in bags from the Natural Gardener. Before setting up the framework Philo borrowed the Mantis tiller belonging to the Divas of the Dirt to till it all in. Then we set up the frame and buried a soaker hose around it.

The ground was cooler than usual this spring and so was the air. We bought tomato plants in early March, repotted them into slightly larger containers, took the plants outside any day when the temps were above 60°F and brought them into the garage every night. With frost warnings issued through the third week of March, we delayed planting until March 28th... then kept covers ready for near-frost nights. We kept the peppers in transitional pots, bringing them in and out, finally planting them on May 6th.

THE VARIETIES WE GREW

We bought some tomato varieties that we'd grown before
Solar Fire (2 plants) we were quite pleased with it in 2008 but we couldn't find it 2009.
Early Girl usually dependable, producing tomatoes even in that horrible heat & drought of 2009
Juliet We've grown this grape tomato 6 or 7 times - the taste is not spectacular but it has a long season and it's a nice bite
Celebrity usually dependable, but didn't do well in 2009
Black Krim in 2008 we had a few delicious tomatoes from one plant and wanted more. But in 2009 one plant was hit by hail and the other faded fast.

We tried some new ones
Sun Gold a very small cherry type with good press from Austin gardenbloggers
Paul Robeson not only a highly praised black tomato but one named after a singer!
Green Zebra highly recommended by many people and it looks cool
JD's Special Texas another black-type, also recommended

We had one very large container at the back of the garden for two plum types
San Marzano a famous tomato - last year it was lost to the hail storm of 2009
Roma - a plum tomato we'd grown in IL but not in TX

Most of the tomatoes came from the Natural Gardener but we also hit Shoal Creek Nursery, Countryside Nursery and the Zilker Park Garden Festival. We really wanted two varieties called 'Carmelo' and 'Costoluto Genovese', which had done well in 2009, but we couldn't find them in 2010.

TRYING TO GET THEM OFF TO A GOOD START
The tomato plants were planted around the outside of the frame near the legs, so they could be tied as they grew. I also poked a couple of Tomatillo varieties, 'Demilpa' and 'Toma verde', into the hard-to-reach middle of the frame. One short side got a few pepper plants, including one hot 'Garden Salsa' and a couple of frying types.

A few weeks after the plants were in the ground we put more compost around them, covered the whole area with sheets of newspaper and covered the paper with Cotton Bur compost.

Every few weeks the plants were foliar-fed with Medina Hasta-grow and I put seaweed on them twice.

TWO PLANTS DOWN
Everything was growing like gangbusters when the 'Green Zebra' sort of collapsed. A few weeks later the 'Paul Robeson' did the same thing, but more slowly, so that the tiny tomatoes that had already developed were even more pathetic. We keep trying heirlooms but in previous years other heirlooms - 'Arkansas Traveler', 'Persimmon' & 'Brandywine' - didn't do well either.

The first tomatoes of 2010 were the little 'Sun Golds' - tiny but tasty.

Some 'Early Girls' had set fruit as did the 'Solar Fire'.

'Juliet' sat there - no flowers- no developing fruit

'Celebrity' wasn't doing anything either but 'Black Krim' had a couple of tomatoes in progress.

The' JD Special' also had a couple of tomatoes looking as if they'd make it to maturity.

Small 'San Marzanos' & 'Romas' were forming, but the two plants were so entwined on their tomato cage that I wasn't sure which was which.

Toward the middle of May even though we had the bird net on, something (a bird? a squirrel? an unmentionable rodent?) got under and wiped out a precious 'Black Krim' and a couple of 'Solar Fires' that were low on the plants. Then stink bugs invaded.... not the large leaf-footed stink bugs of former years, but some smaller ones that came in clusters. I hunted and smooshed. Then the big leaf-footed type stinkbugs read the veggie news and returned for a share but it was harder for them to get through the birdnet. It was easier to see and squish the bugs as they flew onto the net at the front edge of the patch but the container with the plum tomatoes had no net and they were attacked by everything.


HARVEST RESULTS and FOOD PHOTOS
With birds and squirrels circling I grabbed tomatoes the second a pink blush appeared and let them finish inside in safety. Even with the A/C running our house stays about 78 degrees F - warm enough for them to ripen.
The 'Early Girl' and 'Solar Fire' made quite a few tomatoes by our reduced Austin standards and the 'Celebrity' woke up and made some, too.

We cherished each and every tomato as they gradually ripened inside.


When you have a short tomato season and a small patch there is no need to can, or freeze, or make sauce... there were only one or two ready per day.

In the lower left corner of that tray you'll see the only 'Black Krim' that we got to eat. In the upper two corners are the only JD's specials - others on the plant were destroyed by critters.

Yes, we purchased and grew three black tomato plants and had a grand total of three black tomatoes from them. Were they worth it? You betcha.


We took photos of the tomatoes at the solstice, then ate them while I wore the shirt. We baked bread for them.


We celebrated the larger of the 'JD's Specials' (it was the biggest tomato of the year, and one of the best tasting)



We toasted the JD with beer, garden garlic in olive oil, fresh mozzarella and more bread. (the Little Kings Ale is mine - Philo likes RealAle from Blanco),

In Illinois once the tomatoes came in we could keep picking until frost killed the plants, and even then might have plenty of green tomatoes to fry, but here, even with real rain supplemented by hand watering, once it got hot the plants stopped setting fruit and looked terrible. We still had a few good tomatoes and an excuse to keep baking.


But many of the newer tomatoes were smaller, were marred or didn't ripen evenly - since they were not proper slicers we could use them to cook and bake!

The ripening tray was replaced by the ripening plate as the numbers declined
The 'Solar Fire' kept making fruit but the stinkbugs ruined it
Finally we were down to one last full-sized tomato

We're still getting 'Sun Golds' and last weekend I tried to squeeze a few more tomatoes from the 'Celebrity' and 'Solar Fire' by cleaning up the vines, cutting them back, lightly feeding them and making sure they don't dry out. Even if we get no tomatoes for the next couple of months, there's a chance that one or two plants can survive until fall and pop out a few more tomatoes.
The peppers are still blossoming, and a few peppers are forming. Just a few will be enough for pepper and eggs on the weekend and if there are a few hot ones for salsa that will be great.

The tomatillos grew into enormous 7-ft plants that tried to smother the peppers and lifted the bird netting off the ground. They've flowered like mad but made not one tomatillo. I chopped the stalks back to 4-ft but otherwise am treating them kindly.

A few days ago I noticed a couple of unblemished tomatoes the size of walnuts and remembered reading that a Texas Gardener on one of the GardenWeb forums used organza Bridal Shower goodie bags from the dollar store to protect her fruit from stinkbugs.

Think it will work?


Farewell, Tomato -the Tomato Report, was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose Blog