Last Rose of Summer

Each year, Dorothy's rose down in the big garden produces an abundance of hot pink blooms. Its first flush of blooms, always the biggest of the year, is in June. But then it has a few more, smaller flushes, as Summer marches along. It is always interested to see when the last bloom of the year will appear. Unless another bud  miraculously forms, this is the last bloom of 2014.

Watermelon Weigh-in #2

A week ago I wrote about my concern with my four "Early Moonbeam" watermelon plants. I decided at that time to weigh the set fruit each week, to verify that they were consistently gaining in size. A week ago I had three "larger" melon and one baby one that had just set. I weighted the three bigger melon; the largest was just 7.2 oz. Here's this week's results

• Melon #1   11.8 oz.
• Melon #2   9.5 oz
• Melon #3   10.8 oz
• Melon #4   3.1 oz

So, my melon are growing, just not as fast as I would hope ( or think that they should). One of them did grow 1/2 a pound last week, so that is a good sign. They just need to keep it up if they ever going to reach the projected size of 5-8 lbs. I will continue to water them daily and add a liquid fertilizer a few times a week to the water. The weather is suppose to be in the 80's next week after a brief cool spell the next few days. Come on melon!

First 100 Degree Day of the Year

Another HOT night watering the dahlia garden! We hit 100 degrees today. In the good news category, there was a layer of cloud that had rolled in by the time we started watering. In the bad news department, it made for a very muggy, sticky evening. Fortunately, there were lots of dahlias blooming. That helped to keep our mind off of the heat.

A "new-to-me" variety - "Kelsey Annie Joy". The pink petaloids are pretty striking against the yellow/orange petals.

Another new one for me - "Appopa Beauty". I really like this one.

"Valley Porcupine" a novelty form in a light blend of pink and white.

"Ryecroft Dave's Choice" a miniature sized white formal decorative.

"Porcelain", a white waterlily. Mine has a strong blush of lavender.

"Tahoma Alicia" a miniature ball in dark pink. It is the Flower of the Year this year down at the Roseburg show. It is an early bloomer so I am not too confident that I will still have blooms to show at the end of September.

"Kathy's Choice" a miniature sized cactus in yellow. I am so glad to be growing this variety again this year.

"Camano Cloud" a BB sized semi-cactus in Pink. 

My two plants are just covered in beautiful blooms right now.

I am astonished at how many dahlia are already blooming. I don't know if it is the warm weather we have had this Summer, or some other factor. But I can't remember the last time I have had this much color this early. And look - no weeds!

My "Pam Howden" waterlilies are also gorgeous right now.

"Lakeview Glow" is our Flower of the Year in Lane County. It is another early bloomer, so it will be interesting to see what the plants look like in another 5 weeks.

"Easter Bonnet", a lavender and white collarette.

After we finished watering for the evening, we sat out on the back patio. The Eastern sky turned dark. We saw multiple flashes of lightning and heard the distant sound of thunder. At the same time, the Western sky was awash in shades of yellow and orange as the sun set. As we went in for the night, a few light raindrops began to fall.

Morning Glory Madness

The two towers of morning glory that I have planted in the kitchen garden are at peak bloom right now. The first tower is planted with two purchased  "Heavenly Blue" morning glory plants. I think if I could only grow one variety, this would be the one I would choose.

Its blooms are the most amazing shade of blue.

My larger tower is covered with a mix of varieties. I think some of the purple might be "Feringa" and the pink was part of a three color "Mixed" that I bought years ago. All of the plants on this tower return each year from dropped seed, so I never know exactly what I will get.

This year there is a really nice balance of pink and purple blooms.

I am not a morning person, but my beautiful morning glory plants make getting up each work day a little less painful. It's a joy to step out onto the back patio and walk around the kitchen garden before I leave for work.

Another Melon

I was poking around in the kitchen garden today and discovered my second "Minnesota Midget" cantaloupe. So I have doubled my crop now! I also am a little more optimistic about seeing some more set fruit in the near future. I have quite a few female blooms that have just closed, like the one pictured below. Hopefully, the bees that I saw buzzing around the four plants today did their job and these tiny cantaloupe will quickly begin to swell.

The First Cantaloupe Sighting

This year I decided to try growing cantaloupe again. It has been a few years since my last failed effort and hope always springs eternal with this gardener. I picked the variety "Minnesota Midget". It is described as "a super sweet, softball sized muskmelon". It does well in northern climates, maturing in 60-70 days. The vines reach 3-4" in length and each plant can produce 6-8 melons. I started 12 seeds this Spring and they all came up. I ended up transplanting four plants in the kitchen garden and eight plants down in the big garden. All of the plants have been growing well. They have branched out, have green healthy leaves ,and are covered with yellow blooms. The problem has been almost all of the blooms have been male. I read that excessive heat will cause the muskmelons to produce only male blooms. I don't know if 90 degree days count as excessive or not. I do know that I have been searching and searching for my first melon for weeks  without any success. So I was really please tonight when I discovered, up in the kitchen garden, the first set melon. It was hiding underneath some leaves and is already almost as large as a hen's egg.. Hopefully this is the first of many to come.

Watermelon Worries

Each year I like to try and grow something new. This year I thought that I would give watermelon a try. I did some research and discovered that there are quite a  few varieties which claim to grow quite well in northern climates. I chose "Early Moonbeam", a yellow fleshed melon. It is described as "early, productive, very sweet and delicious". How could you go wrong with that?! Even better, it was hybridized by Dr. Alan Kapuler just 30 miles to the north of me. If it could grow well there, it ought to grow well for me.

I started four seeds in the green house and set out four healthy starts in some rich compost in May. They grew well. Our weather turned warm and the vines were off and running. But sometime in the month of July, the leaves started to curl. They no longer lay flat. I researched this on the internet and all I could  find was some nutrient deficiencies described. So I have been fertilizing the plants with a liquid solution regularly now for over a week and I can't tell any difference. I can tell that some of the vines have quit growing and the tips of them are turning brown. Hopefully this won't affect the vines that have melon already set on them.



I am excited to have some small melons. Right now there are three growing and another that just set. I decided to weight the three tonight and then weight them each once a week to see if they are still steadily gaining.

So here are the August, week #1 results

• Melon #1  7.2 oz.
• Melon #2  4.9 oz.
• Melon #3  1.5 oz.

They have a way to go to reach the catalog description of 5-8 lbs. We certainly are having the perfect weather for watermelon this year. I can't remember a Summer with any more day over 88+ degrees like we have had this year. Paired with warm nights, it ought to be just perfect for them.

First Blackberries of the Season

Yesterday afternoon I took a long walk up and down the driveway. My mission - to pick the first blackberries of the season. I had noticed the odd ripe berries here and there as I drove back and forth this past week. I also noticed that I had to keep stopping for deer, who were happily munching on the ripe berries! I can't really blame them. It has been so hot and dry this Summer. I imagine that they are getting desperate for anything fresh, with a good moisture content. So, I picked what I could find, which wasn't a lot. After all of my hunting and reaching, I only ended up with a bowl containing 1 lbs. 10.2 oz of fruit. But I had better be happy with this. Most of the green berries still left to ripen are small and hard. It's not going to be a great berry year. 

I also was able to pick 5 more ripe tomatoes this weekend. All five were from my "Bloody Butcher" plant. So far it has been the only plant to produce and ripened fruit. The five I picked today totaled 5.8 oz.

Green Apples

Down along the driveway, at the bottom of the hill, grows a lone "wild' apple tree. It isn't a pretty tree, having grown thin and tall over the years as it stretched through the firs toward the sunlight. One too many snowstorms has caused its top to bend back toward the ground. But it still blooms faithfully each Spring and produces a small crop of apple each year. Currently they are a perfect "apple green". But as September arrives, and the nights turn damp and cool, they will turn transform to a lovely red.