Hi Gardeners
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| 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).
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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)
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| 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
― Shannon L. Alder
Kim Willis
And So On….
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I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
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