Down in the Big Garden

Its been such a nice feeling this last week to have finally finished planting everything down in the big garden. Here is the view as you enter the garden. One row of "State Fair" zinnias and then 17 rows of dahlias. The end is capped with the trellis that has volunteer morning glories happily clamoring up it.

The view from the far end facing the blue entry gate. These rows of dahlias were planted first. As such, they are the largest in the whole garden. As you walk the other way the dahlias get shorter and shorter.

A closeup of the far end. I am so glad to have the garden weed free at this point. There hasn't been a major rainfall since our final tilling so there hasn't been any moisture to germinate all of those thousands of weed seed waiting just below the surface. That's another reason that I hand water these plants and choose not to use an over-head sprinkler.

Here are two plants of "Cornel". They are big enough I might have some blooms ready for the first dahlia show Labor Day weekend.

And two plants of "Harvey Koop". I topped these two plants tonight to stop the growth of the primary stem and to encourage the laterals to begin growing. This will make the plant a little shorter, which is a good thing and will encourage it to produce more blooms sooner.

Here is a closeup of a pair of lateral shoots growing from a leaf joint. This is what I want.

My first two volunteer morning glories opened up this weekend. I had guessed that they would be "Grandpa Ott" but I was wrong. Both plants had white blooms with soft purple stars. That makes them both "Milky Way" plants. My first "State Fair" zinnia has also bloomed. Many of the other plants have fat buds so I should soon have a vibrant row of color.