I'm back.

Well it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been busy coaching two girls softball teams. I was asked to coach an 8 and under recreational team. The local sports association was short a coach, and my friend Jim is on the board and recommended me for the job. This team practices once a week and plays twice a week.   I am also helping Jim coach his daughter's 8and under Challenge team. This team practices twice a week and then plays tournaments approximately every third Saturday. The tournaments take all day and if my rec team usually plays early on Saturday so when I finish that game I go right to the tournaments for those games. So as you can tell, it keeps me busy. 

 

Enough of that, though, here are some blooms from the gardens. This first picture is of the Torenia (clown's bells) . It is starting to go to seed and I've been collecting the seeds. The seeds are really tiny, so I just shake the dried plants over a piece of paper and then fold the paper and pour them in a baggie. Around late February I will sow them and then pick the individual seedlings out and pot them up to grow out under the lights until it gets past our first frost date.

 This second picture is of some thread leaf zinnias I tried this summer. They are called Chrystal zinnias. They repeat bloom all summer and stay nice and compact. I got them because their seeds were cheaper than Profusion Zinnias, and so I gave them a try. I really liked them, but I still think profusion zinnias are the best bedding zinnias (and perhaps the best bedding annual of all). I grew some pink profusions this summer and collected seeds from them as well. If you continue to collect seed from profusions year after year, eventually they will tend to start to get leggy and not stay nice and compact. I have gone as long as four seasons before starting over with hybrid seeds, so all in all not a bad deal.

These are the last of the zuccinnis for this year. I had tilled under the melon and cucumber bead back in July, but I missed picking some of the fruits and so I got some self seeded zucinni and cukes.  I noticed that the self seeded zuccinis were fatter than their parents even at a young age.

I am moving my strawberry bed this fall, so I am taking starts from the old bed. It is best to rotate your strawberry plantings, just as it is with most every crop. I find that I can grow good berries for two years in the same spot, and then the plants will start to die off and not produce. DW and I just love our fresh strawberries in the spring so this is a must do chore!

Here are a few pictures of the cosmos that has self seeded itself all around the grounds here. If you can put up with it's weedy appearance most of the summer, the blooms are beautiful in the late summer/fall. There were many a day when it was all I could do to not pull up the plants this summer because they do look like a common weed. I am so glad I didn't but I am apprehensive about having even more of them in my beds next summer. 

I have some ginger growing up through my antique rose. It is right at the corner of the deck where I hang out when grilling. They smell fabulously sweet. They spread by underground stolons, so be careful where you plant them. I have the unwanted task of trying to prevent them from overtaking the rose. So I'll be digging some of them up this winter. 

I finally got around to getting some soil sample test kits to send in to the state for testing. I took samples from all four veggie beds and mixed them in this bucket. I also took samples from around the yard for another kit. Once the soil is good and dry, I'll box them up and mail them off to Raleigh for testing. I expect to get the results back in 8 to 10 weeks  and we'll see what my soil needs.

I have some dahlias scattered around in different beds. This one is by the pool.

This is some plumbago that is by the fish pond.

And the clematis just keeps on blooming!

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.