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Tuesday, August 13, 2019

August 13, 2019, weeds of summer


Hi Gardeners

Rudbeckia hirta, Black eyed Susan
It’s warm and humid here and getting dry.  We had a little rain last week but could use a little more.  Just 20 miles away they got rain and about 30 miles away they got a lot of rain.  I am watering though, and the flower gardens still look pretty good.  I won’t complain about not needing to mow.

The violet stemmed taro bloomed but I missed getting a good picture of it.  I see another bud so hopefully I will catch this one.  The bloom is like a calla lily. There are sporadic daylily blooms, the cannas, dahlias and rain lilies are blooming, the rudbeckia, buddleia, coneflowers, and all the annuals are blooming prolifically.  Many of the hosta are in bloom. Rose of Sharon has begun blooming.

I am impressed with the rose ‘Carefree Celebration’ which I moved from another garden area to the front beds.  It likes this spot very well I guess and has been filled with apricot orange blooms all summer. When I transplanted it a small root section with a single small stem broke off.  I put that piece farther down in the bed and it too has bloomed all summer, although the plant is still small.

I am not as happy with the vegetable garden this year.  We are getting enough tomatoes, but the vines are rapidly being defoliated by early blight. The one pepper plant I put in has had 1 nice pepper and several that have fallen off while still small. Cucumbers just didn’t grow.  Leaf lettuce didn’t grow well, and the spinach went to seed when it was only a few weeks old and still small.  The kale did well, it’s still going strong.  I will start digging potatoes next week, hopefully that crop will make up somewhat for the others.

Sweet corn ‘Simply Irresistible™’ review

We had our first sweet corn, the expensive ‘Simply Irresistible™’ from Gurneys, this week.  It cost $19.99 for a packet of about 200 seeds.  The corn was said to be very vigorous, early maturing with 2, 7 ½ to 8 inch long ears per stalk.  It was supposed to be a bicolor.  I’m not thrilled with it.

The corn did germinate well, despite wet cool spring weather.  We had some deer damage early, but the corn seemed to grow nice sturdy, deep green stalks.  We had some wind lodging just as the tassels started to form but the corn recovered.  It just wasn’t very productive, despite fertilization at planting and side dressing at tasseling.  The stalks looked healthy.

Most stalks did not grow two ears.  The ears that did grow may have been barely 7 inches long, but they were very slim, with only maybe 10 rows of kernels.  They filled to the tip for the most part, indicating pollination wasn’t a problem. Most of the ears were white, not bicolor.  It was tender and tasty, but you had to eat two ears to get the equivalent of most sweet corn ears. The flavor was similar to ‘Gotta Have it’ which is much less expensive.

We grew only this corn and while there is field corn 300 feet away, it was planted very late because of wet fields and is just now starting to tassel, so there was no cross pollination.  Some of the disappointment may have been due to weather and damage but I don’t think the corn was worth the price and I probably would not grow it again.  I might give it 2 stars out of 5.

Should you have a fall vegetable garden?

It’s August and it’s time to decide if you want a fall vegetable garden.  Yes- a vegetable garden that you plant in the fall, some people do that.  You need to decide soon because there aren’t that many days left in our growing season.  But do you really want and need a fall vegetable garden?

Let’s take some time to discuss the pros and cons of fall vegetable gardens so you can make informed decisions.

The cons of fall vegetable gardens.

For a lot of gardeners August is a miserable time to work in the garden.  It’s hot and full of mosquitoes and the beach is calling your name.  If you have a hard time keeping the garden weeded or even collecting your gardens harvest, you probably aren’t keen to start a new garden.   Many people are going nuts trying to preserve the harvest they are reaping from their spring garden.  And that’s all right; you don’t need to feel guilty.  As you finish harvesting parts of your garden weed them, pile compost and manure on them and let them rest. 

Some people plant a cover crop on unused garden beds but if you are going to that trouble you might as well grow something you can eat such as kale or beets.  And then you have basically decided to have a fall garden.  There might not be a harvest to worry about but cover crops will need to be mowed or killed before winter and that takes work too.

You’ll need space for your fall vegetable garden.  If you have empty beds you are all set.  But waiting for a crop to be finished so that you can use the space for a fall garden may take longer than you planned.  And tilling up new areas probably is more work than you want to do in August.

Fall vegetable gardens are always a gamble anyway.  An early hard frost hits and you have done a lot of work for nothing.  Cool and rainy fall weather won’t make some crops happy.  It’s often hard to find seeds this time of year to sow fall crops and starter plants are even scarcer. If it all seems like too much work to you then it probably is.  Go on, wrap it up for the season and rest with your garden soil.

The pros of fall vegetable gardens

Some people however may not have had time to plant a garden in the spring or for some reason their spring garden was ruined.  These people may feel that their gardening urges are unfulfilled and are ready and eager to plant a vegetable garden in the fall.  Or you may be worried that you don’t have enough fresh produce for the winter and want to add to your stores.  And you may just be bored and want to escape from household duties or your spouse for a few more weeks.  For you folks a fall vegetable garden makes sense.

Not every vegetable crop is suitable for a fall crop.  Some won’t produce fruit if the daylight is getting shorter as it does in the fall.  Some crops won’t have time to mature before a hard frost kills them.  A good tip to keep in mind is to use day neutral varieties, (which means the length of daylight doesn’t affect them) and use varieties that have the shortest days to maturity. 

In planting zones 5 and 6 you will probably have 8-10 weeks before a hard frost if you plant in early August.  Some crops don’t mind a light frost, and some can be protected with row covers before light frost.  Crops that can be planted with a reasonable expectation of success include leafy greens of many types, kale, cabbage ( early maturing varieties and started as plants), beets, turnips, radishes, carrots, green onions, peas, bush beans ( early maturing varieties and you may need row cover), broccoli and cauliflower- (early varieties). 
 
Lettuce is a good fall crop
Most stores have put away seeds for the season and few nurseries offer started vegetable plants in fall, although it’s more common than it used to be.  You’ll probably have to mail order seeds- and do it quickly.  Make sure you let the company know you want the seeds for planting this fall, so they won’t delay shipping. Next year order extra seeds in the spring and save them for fall planting.

Remember that seeds sown in hot August weather may need daily watering to get them to germinate. Before you plant you should add some vegetable garden fertilizer to the bed, especially if it was already used this spring.  Don’t plant a crop in a bed that the same crop grew in in the spring or you are asking for disease and insect problems.

An alternative to a fall vegetable garden in the ground might be a few containers of things like salad greens and scallions.  Then you can get the regular garden cleaned up and covered in compost and manure, while still munching fresh produce.  And containers are easier to cover when frost threatens, or you may be able to move them inside a garage or shed for the night.

So, the decision rests on you.  You can harvest your crops, add manure and compost and head off to the family cabin.  Or you can get out there and start a whole new garden.  Which will it be?

Dayflower

Dayflower
In the warmer part of summer many gardeners may find this weed or wildflower depending on your viewpoint, popping up in moist shady places.  The Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis) is an annual weed that resembles popular houseplants in the Tradescantia genus.  These are often called by the politically incorrect name Wandering Jew.  Dayflower isn’t related but the growth pattern is very similar. 

Dayflower is an annual plant, however so it’s use as a houseplant isn’t very practical.  As a weed it isn’t terribly harmful, it can grow quickly and cover a lot of ground, but it dies at the first frost.  It’s easily pulled or raked out or you can just leave it as a ground cover.  Identification books note that it “escaped cultivation” and it does have medicinal and edible uses.

Dayflower has oval blade shaped, pointed leaves of pale green that clasp the plant stem.  There is a swollen node where the leaves attach.  Leaves have parallel veins; the plant is a monocot. They can be lightly hairy and there are often hairs where the leaves attach to the stem.  Leaves and stems are fleshy and easily snapped. Stems have a reddish tinge. The plant creeps or trails along the ground or over smaller plants.

The flowers of dayflower consist of two, pretty true-blue petals on top and a small white petal on bottom, golden stamens, and a couple of green flower bracts that resemble leaves.  Flowers are tiny, about a ¼ inch, and produced in clusters or singly on a small stalk.  Each lasts only a day, as the common name suggests.  Flowers turn into tiny brown 2 celled seed capsules.  Each side of the capsule contains two brown, rough, pitted seeds.

Dayflower can root where a leaf node touches the ground. Broken stems readily root. The plant’s seeds overwinter, and seeds germinate once the soil is fairly warm in the spring.  They often germinate in flowerpots and are a common weed in nurseries.  They can stay in the soil for four years until conditions are right for germination.

Dayflower is considered to be an agricultural pest, especially of soybean fields.  Perhaps it could smother small soybean plants, but I have difficulty seeing how the plant can be a serious pest since it doesn’t grow very tall, it sprawls over the ground. Dayflowers are resistant to most herbicides, including “roundup” so the best control for gardeners is to simply dig it up, making sure to get the roots out.  Don’t leave broken pieces on the ground as they will root.  They don’t tolerate mowing, so they aren’t a lawn weed.



Uses of dayflower

Both leaves and flowers are edible.  They can be used in salads and are sometimes sautéed in butter.  It is sometimes fed to animals.  Pollinators like the pollen dayflower offers, although it has no nectar.  Birds eat the small seeds and deer love to eat the plants.

Dayflower is used medicinally for fever, sore throats, coughs, inflammation and as a diuretic.  Modern research has found it has antibacterial and antitussive properties.

In Japan dayflower is used to make a blue dye called aigami, there are specially selected strains of dayflower grown for this purpose.

Dayflower can be used for phytoremediation because it takes up heavy metals like lead and cadmium.  The plant is often used in laboratory studies of plant pollination, photoreception, and stomata function.

There are people who of course will get excited and upset over the fact that dayflower is an “invasive” plant.  It is occasionally found in damp, shaded disturbed places outside cultivated areas.  There is the call to remove it because it crowds out other plants, which is usually a very exaggerated claim.  If there are deer anywhere near the area, they will do a pretty good job of limiting it.  Pulling it is hard to do without leaving pieces and mowing, which would destroy it, is bad for native plants too.  Since it takes the strongest and most dangerous pesticides to kill it the “remedy” is worst for the ecology than the “invader.”

If you find dayflower in your garden you may want to just leave it, or better yet eat it. I just let it be for the most part.  It may be a weed but it’s a rather pretty and useful one.

Queen Anne’s Lace

Flowers sometimes get fanciful names, but this wild carrot does have a pretty flower that looks lacy.  It’s a common sight and the subject of many a child’s bouquets for mom.  Queen Anne’s Lace, (Daucus carota), is also known as wild carrot or sometimes birds nest flower.  It’s not native to America, it’s a native to Europe and northwestern Asia. 

Queen Anne’s Lace is a bi-annual plant.  The first year it sends up a mound of feathery fern-like leaves that smell like carrots when crushed.  In the second year tall, tough spikes- up to 5 feet high come out of the mounds of foliage.  These support flat, umbrella shaped clusters of white flowers.  In the very center of many flower clusters is a single dark red or purple flower. 

There can be many stems and flowers from each plant. Queen Anne’s Lace is in flower from June through the summer.  It is found in sunny, well drained soils of all kinds in fields and along the roads.  As the flowers die, they curl upward, forming a brownish cup or “birds nest”.  Seeds mature inside the cup and are eventually shaken to the ground by the wind.  Plants die after the second year.

Uses of Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s lace makes an excellent cut flower. If placed in dye it will take up the color like a carnation.  Recently domesticated forms of the plant have been developed that have pink or purple flower clusters.  They are being sold under the name ‘Dara’.  They are grown for the flowers only; the roots are pretty tasteless.

Queen Anne’s Lace is truly the ancestor of the common garden carrot and it has a yellowish-white thick taproot that can be eaten when young.  It gets too woody to eat as it ages, especially in the year it flowers.  Our common garden carrots were developed from a sub species and refined over many centuries. The flowers can also be dipped in batter and fried.

It’s not advisable to eat the roots or flowers of those plants found growing wild as it often hard to distinguish Queen Anne’s Lace from some very deadly forms of Hemlock.  Hemlock has similar leaves and flowers.  Queen Anne’s lace has solid green, hairy stems.  The roots and foliage smell like carrots.  But play it safe and don’t eat wild Queen Anne’s lace unless it’s a dire emergency.

In herbal medicine the foliage of Queen Anne’s Lace was used to cause abortion. Handling the foliage of Queen Anne’s lace can sometimes cause dermatitis in people and horses, especially after exposure to sunlight.

You may have guessed but in many places Queen Anne’s lace is considered an invasive, noxious weed to be eradicated, despite it being extremely common and present for 200 plus years here in the US.  

 Venice Mallow -Flower of an Hour- (Hibiscus triomum)

If you are up early in the morning you may get to see this pretty weed that is a cousin to our garden hibiscus.  The pretty flowers of Venice Mallow are open for only an hour or so each morning, hence the common name, Flower- of -an- Hour.  Other common names are shoofly and bladder mallow.  It’s a native of subtropical southern Europe-Northern Africa but is now naturalized across Europe and North America. 
The 1½ - 2 ½ inch flowers of Venus Mallow are white to pale yellow with purple markings at the base of each of the 5 petals surrounding the bright yellow stamens.  Each flower is open only for a few hours on a sunny morning.  The flowers become a small, green striped, balloon-like seed pod.
 
Venice Mallow

The leaves of Venice Mallow remind people of watermelon leaves.  There are 3 long, deeply scalloped, leaflets joined at the base.  The leaves, paired with the plump striped seed pod, often lead people to believe they are watermelon plants and they are left in the garden rather than pulled.

Venice Mallow blooms from late July until frost. The plant can grow upright or sprawl along the ground like a small vine.  It grows at the edges of gardens and field crops with moderately fertile soil in full sun. It is drought tolerant.  Venice Mallow is an annual and spreads by seeds.

The flowers of Venice Mallow are pretty, and the seeds used to be included in wildflower mixes, despite its non-native status.  The plant isn’t used often in herbal medicine, but the flowers are said to be a diuretic.  It’s also said to be edible but not very good tasting.

Velvet leaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

Velvetleaf seed pod and leaf
Velvet leaf is a common weed of crops and gardens in the United States.  Other names include pie marker, butter weed, Indian hemp and wild cotton.  How common names get given is a mystery since this plant doesn’t resemble cotton and I can’t imagine anyone using it to mark pie.

Velvet leaf is native to Asia and was once cultivated in China for fiber.  That may explain the name Indian hemp.  It was brought to the US early in our history to grow for its fiber content, it was hoped that ropes and paper could be made from it, but a viable industry never developed around it and it became a pest in corn fields.

Velvet leaf is an annual plant.  It grows in sunny places and prefers rich fertile soil.  The plant begins growing after frost danger has passed and the soil is warm and quickly gets from 2-5 feet in height. 

Velvet leaf has heart shaped leaves covered with soft hairs, hence the common name.  The leaves have a finely serrated edge and young leaves may have a reddish tint.

Velvet leaf flowers in late summer.  The flowers are small, yellow with 5 petals and stamens fused into a tube.  They appear in the axils of the upper leaves. The flowers turn into oddly shaped, ridged, circular seed capsule many people describe as crown–like.  Each of the 9-15 segments of the seed capsule has a point on the end.  Each segment contains 3-9 gray to brown seeds.  Under a magnifying glass one can see the seeds have star shaped hairs all over them.  The seeds fall to the ground where they can remain viable for up to 60 years.
 
Velvet leaf
Uses of velvet leaf

Velvetleaf seeds can be eaten raw before they are ripe but aren’t very tasty.  Ripe mature seeds can be dried and ground into a type of survival flour, many people leach the seeds first to draw out the bitterness then they are roasted before being ground.  Seeds can also be pressed to provide oil.

Occasionally one finds mention of velvet leaf as herbal medicine but its unclear if the plant is being mistaken for another plant with the same common name (Senna lindheimeriana). 

Velvet leaf stems are steamed, and the fibers separated out to make rope, thread and paper.  Hikers and survivalists know the leaves of velvet leaf make good toilet paper.


“It is easier to tell a person what life is not, rather than to tell them what it is. A child understands weeds that grow from lack of attention, in a garden. However, it is hard to explain the wildflowers that one gardener calls weeds, and another considers beautiful ground cover.”
― Shannon L. Alder


Kim Willis

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