Getting Ready for the Show

 Tonight I rushed down to the garden after I got home to pick for tomorrow's Dahlia Show. I truly wasn't sure if I would have any blooms to take. My dahlias just haven't been very good this year. They really hated the cool Spring & Summer weather and in turn grew slowly. Some of my bushes are stunted while others are now just starting to branch out. But, it is always much more fun to judge at a show when you have blooms entered too. I managed to find 10 decent looking ones and hauled them up to the house.

For there I staged them in their show cans filled with floral foam. An entry tag with correct information was attached to each one and I was ready to go. I had quite a few Poms to bring and was able to stage a triple of "Willo Borealis".

For my bigger ones, I have 3 incurved cactus and 2 waterlily forms. You can tell what I like to grow! This year I have to move up to the top exhibiting group, advanced amateur. It is going to be really tough now to get a bloom to the Head Table. I think my best chance for this weekend's show is my bloom of "Dagmar", a B sized orange incurved cactus. We shall see what tomorrow brings!

The Vegetable Garden in September

I took a short 4-day vacation last week and it was amazing to see the changes in my garden after I returned. The weather continued its 2-week hot spell through Sunday. Really, the hot weather was just what my vegetable garden needed. It has allowed everything to catch up and really start to mature.

I have 3 "Marinia di chioggia" squash that have set on the vine and are almost ready to cut. They are such a cool squash. BIG! The catalogue description says 10 pounds but I think at least two of them are already larger than that. They have turned a lovely shade of blue/grey and are getting quite warty. I am already beginning to wonder how I will cut them open and cook them......hmmm.

I also have one "Marinia di chioggia" vine that has grown the whole length of the garden and is now climbing up the deer fence inside. It has set 3 young squash but I am afraid there is just not enough warm weather ahead to allow them to reach maturity.

The "Delicata" winter squash are also doing really well. You have to lift up the leaves to even find them at this point. I am lucky that they are such fast maturing squash since the 2 plants that I have were planted pretty late. I think that I should have a fairly good harvest after all.

The "Prince" onions are ready to harvest any time. Most of the tops have fallen over.

The "Red Bull" onions are also ready to be pulled and put into storage. I just need to find the time!

The big change in the last week has been the ripening of the various tomatoes. Finally! Here is a "Black Krim" just about ready to be picked.

The "Azoychka" are turning a lovely shade of yellow. I have have harvested more of this Russian variety so far than any other variety in my garden. It definitely wins the award for earliest tomato of the year.

These lovely red globes are "Peron Sprayless OG".

Here are two low hanging "Black Prince" ready to pick.

And how cute is this truss of "Black Plum"?!

I am finally getting some color on my first "Santa Clara Canner".

And the "Super Sweet 100" are all starting to turn red. It will be a cherry tomato glut!

The "Heavenly Blue" morning glory continues to wow me everyday. I will never tire of its electric blue color. The last few days have been overcast until very late in the afternoon. This seems to confuse the morning glory plants a bit. Instead of closing up by 2 PM or so they are still wide open and fresh when I get home from work.

Monday Harvest Report

Yesterday, as I was giving my Aunt and Uncle a garden tour, I noticed some color deep inside a few tomato plants. Ripe tomatoes! I picked what I had and sent them home as a gift. I just want a taste report back. So Sunday I picked:

(2) "Azoychka"  4.1 oz & 5.3 oz

(2) "Peron Sprayless OG" 5.0 oz. & 3.3 oz

(1) "Black Prince"  1.8 oz

Tomato total 1 lb 3.5 oz.

Today I picked blackberries again. I started the job yesterday, picking for some cobblers Beth made for our guests. Then today I hit all of the other bushes on the property. My two day total:

Blackberries 7 lb. 3 oz.

Finally a Finish

Another amazing weather day today. It reached 92 degrees and yesterday it was 93 degrees. I don't think that I can ever remember such a warm Labor Day Weekend before. But we deserve it after the Spring and early Summer we had. It is giving me hope that some of my vegetable crops may mature after all- fingers crossed! I spent part of my day finishing my big weeding project down in the dahlia garden. It feels so nice to have that finished and off my "to-do" list. Tomorrow morning we are going to mow that grass around the garden and then things should be looking pretty ship-shape.

The "Persian Carpet" Zinnias that I direct planted from seed in the garden in July are just starting to bloom now. I probably have ten plants blooming but all of them are close. They produce such a beautiful mix of colors and will bloom profusely until frost.

One of the first to open this year.

New dahlia varieties continue to bloom as well. This is "Haley's Dream" a miniature cactus bi-colored in dark pink & white. Ever since an entry of mine was beaten by this variety in a show a few years ago, I have wanted to grow it myself. Like most miniatures it seems to produce a lot of blooms. I like it.

Another new variety for me: "Camano Susan". This is a BB sized semi-cactus in orange. As the bloom ages the center begins to open in yellow. A beautiful combination.

And yet another new variety for me - "Belred Sunset".  It is listed as a BB cactus red but in my garden it appears to be growing as an incurved cactus.



A Holiday Weekend

Today kicked-off a wonderful 3-day weekend and the best news of all - the weather is suppose to be fabulous! This morning the whole family headed down to the Farmer's Market. After stopping to enjoy some breakfast treats we took a leisurely tour of the market. There were piles and piles of beautiful tomatoes everywhere.

The pears have started to ripen. This basket held regular Bartlett and also Red Bartlett.

This farm stand did a nice educational display. They cut open a sample of each tomato they were selling.

This was the first time that I have ever seen Sea Berries sold at the market. Sea Berries, also called Sea Buck-thorn, is one of the most commonly grown berries in the world, yet most Americans have never heard of them. They are native over a wide area of Europe & Asia. The berries are acidic but when mixed with sweetener make a healthy drink full of important nutrients. In Finland it is used as a nutritional ingredient in baby food and in Germany it is found in a popular juice drink.

The melons continue to shine. There is something about watermelon that just screams "summertime" to me.

I hope wherever you are this holiday weekend, you make the time to find a patch of shade and maybe slip in a nap or two. Happy Labor Day Weekend!

The First of September!

And suddenly, today is the first day of September! How did that happen! All I have to do is look around - there are signs of Fall's impending arrival everywhere. The oak trees seem to have a good supply of young, green acorns which is very good news. Last Fall there wasn't an acorn to be found anywhere. Our Evening Grosbeaks have left for parts South as have the Violet-Green Swallows and the Band-tailed Pigeons. The sun is much lower in the sky these days. The sunlight is now shining down at an angle and has a yellow, filtered quality to it. It is setting behind our Douglas Fir tree line at 7:00 PM with dusk arriving around 8:00 PM. Welcome September!

Vegetable Garden Update

As August draws to a close, the vegetable garden is bursting with foliage, flowers, and produce. My two varieties of morning glories are really peaking now. The tower of "Mixed Colors" morning glory is completely covered. I am finally seeing a nice mix, every day, of all three colors after having had only white blooms for some time.

The "Heavenly Blue" morning glory is just starting its show. I am now getting 10+ blooms a day of this amazing, electric blue color.

The onions have had a super year. The tops are beginning to fall over on their own; although a few have been pulled over by the squash! I really should knock over all of the tops and let them start to cure while the weather is still warm and dry.

I think the "Prince" yellow storage onions are even larger this year then they were last year.

And the "Red Bull" have done just as well.

It's difficult to tell what kind of success I am having - or not having - with the two sweet potato plants. The "Georgia Jet" plant, pictured below, has completely filled its black grow bag. The foliage seems healthy and remarkable lush for the mostly cool Summer that we have had. I just don't know what I will find beneath the soil!

I have one nice "Gypsy" sweet pepper on my plant. It didn't enjoy this cold Summer and I am sure it also didn't care to be smothered by the Winter Squash and Morning Glory vines either!

The tomatoes continue to grow but I still am not seeing any color hinting that ripening is on the horizon. My "Black Krim" are attaining a nice size.

And the "Black Prince" look good too. They have an interesting blocky shape.

The winter squash are trying to take over the whole garden! It amazes me every year how much growth they put out. This year it's all the more incredible since I only have 4 plants total, instead of the usual 8.

My new rooster had been trapped in a sea of squash leaves - he doesn't look happy.

Right now I have three "Marina di Chioggia" squash growing on the vines. They are attaining a pretty good size too. I would guess they might be in the 10 pound range. This is a new variety for me and it has been fun watching how the squash matures. As you can see below, in its "mid-stage" it is a very pretty medium green and the outer skin is still fairly smooth.

As it ages it is getting more and more "warty" and the skin is getting darker and darker. Stay tuned!

You have to pull up the leaves on the two "Delicata" plants to even see the young squash. I think that I now have a half-dozen set and growing. If September favors us with sunny and dry weather I hope to be able to harvest a dozen or more.

The vegetable garden. A lush sea of green!