Vacation to the Finger Lakes

We took a weekend to go visit our daughter up in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York this past weekend. We visited several state parks and three of the many lakes in the region. We also took a tasting tour of the many vineyards in the area and found a few really good wines which we are having shipped to us. If you get up in that area be sure to stop in to see the Watkins Glen park. Here are some pictures of the many waterfalls you can see at the parks.

Dog days of summer

The heat is here with a vengeance. We had several days over 100 degrees this weekend and it felt like an oven outside. If not for the swimming pool, I would not have ventured outside at all. But I do some gardening in my swim trunks and when I get too hot, I dive right in the pool. Most of my work was in the veggie garden, pulling some weeds, harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and peppers. I pulled up what was left of the beans. The deer had eaten the biggest part of them and I decided to pull the rest up and prepare the bed for some late season tomatoes.

 I made three batches of salsa this weekend, one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each batch makes 10 pint jars. I use the recipe from the Ball canning book for Fiesta Salsa but I add a tablespoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I had a quart of tomatoes left over and put them up as well. I'll use them to make chili at some future date.


Here is the hydrangea after having been dead headed. I filled an entire wheelbarrow with faded blooms from just one bush. I expect to have a small rebloom on this bush later this summer.

These two still have the fading blooms on them. 

This is my angel wing begonia. These plants are easy to grow and easier to propagate.

Out in the gardens, the coreopsis is blooming.

This Diane hibiscus is having it's best year ever for me. For some reason the JBs are leaving it alone this year (relatively speaking of course). It has pure white blooms and is nice because it is sterile and won't self seed itself everywhere like some hibiscus will.

Here you see the Becky Shasta daisies blooming. I have these planted all around the house. My DW loves to bring these in to the house as cut flowers. They last a long time.

The black eyed susans have started to bloom as well.

And despite having been deadheaded twice this spring the mums have started to bloom. I plan on shearing these back after the bloom and maybe I'll get a fall bloom as well.

The Oriental lillies are blooming out front.

And the Lucifer crocosmia is blooming as well. The hummingbirds love this flower!

Here you can see the liatris (purple blooms) and the obedient plant (white blooms) and if you look closely you'll spot the crinum blooming in the back. 

 These are close ups of the Crinum lillies. I have three different varieties but I've long since lost the name tags for them.

I still have this one daylilly blooming. The deer have gotten the rest.

This is Plox David.

I have lots of Dahlias blooming as well.

And here is White Swan echinacea.

More echinacea.

Blooms forming on hydrangea paniculata.

Torenia in bloom.

Pickles

It is pickling season here. I grow several types of cucumbers here. I grow Russian cucs for making dill spears( recipe here http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/blue-ribbon-dill-pickles-241139 ) and whole sweet pickles. They are very prolific producers. The one draw back I have found is that the Russian variety tends to be a prime target for Anthracnose, which kills the plants. I typically get plenty of pickles to make what I need before the plant succombs to the disease, but if you are looking for something to grow and produce all summer long, it's not the variety for you. I am going to try some Carolina cucumbers for this fall's crop, just to see how resistant they are to the disease and if I want to switch over to them next spring.

 I also crow Soyo Japanese cucumbers which are great for slicing, relish ( recipe here http://www.food.com/recipe/grandmas-old-fashioned-sweet-relish-100301 ) and for making bread and butter pickles. B&Bs ( recipe here http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-and-butter-pickles-71203 )are my favorite.
 And I grow a burpless variety for salads and the like.
The tomatoes are ripening up and I get a few each day for the table. The main crop looks to be a couple of weeks out yet. I seem to be having about 10% of my maters with blossom end rot. This surprises me because I not only limed the garden this spring, but I have egg shells in with the vermicompost I put in each planting hole. I think I'll take a soil sample this fall and send it off to the Ag center to see exactly what my soil's make up is and what it needs. While my dogs enjoy eating the tomatoes with blossom end rot, I prefer my tomatoes without it!
 I picked my first horned worm last night. This evening I'll spray down the plants liberally with BT.   Hornworms can do a good job of stripping  your plants in no time flat, and I'll be going to the beach for a few days, so I'd like to return to find healthy plants.
 Bambi has outwitted me on the beans. I tried putting hoops with deer netting stretched over them to protect the beans, but the deer seem to eat the plants right through the netting. I believe I'll be investing in an electric fence soon. The odd thing is, I have a patch of Cowpeas planted out in the open with no protection at all, and the deers haven't touched them. The beans inside the fencing, and under deer netting have been picked clean. I've had it up to here with Bambi!
 I added a super to each of the bee hives last week and the bees are doing a slow but steady build out of the comb. I hope to get a gallon from each hive this year and leave the rest of the honey for the bees to get through winter. Next year should be the first year of full production and I'll look for 5 gallons or so from each hive.

Today's blooms. 6/9/12

The neighbor's kids brought over some zucchini bread today. It was made from some zucchini that I had given them. My neighbor makes some killer zucchini bread! I haven't seen any new fruit set on the zucchini plants since I harvested the first batch of around 8 of them. I made one into sauteed zucchini seasoned with garlic, ginger and S&P. I gave the rest away to friends and neighbors or fed to the dogs. The dogs need to have some of the peel removed to get them started, then they will eat the flesh and leave the peel.

My Jackmanii clematis is still blooming up through the hydrangeas.

Dahlia in bloom

White balloon flowers 

Double White Balloon Flowers

Hostas in flower

Blueberries are ripening.

A lace cap purple hydrangea

Zinnias

Trumpet lillies

echinacea

Double Cheeto Daylilies with coreopsis.

Gold Flame Honeysuckle

The road garden.