The Sun Finally Returns

After a week of cold, rainy weather, the sun finally made an appearance today. Since it is way to wet to even think of working down in the Big Garden, I decided to concentrate on getting things off of my "to-do" list up at the house. I began by planting the 14 "Bright Lights" cosmos that I had dug up from the overflow kitchen garden a number of weeks ago. All of these plants are volunteers from last year's four plants. It will be fun to see how many of these have orange blooms and how many bloom yellow. Last year I only had on plant that had yellow blooms, so it seems that orange is a more dominate trait.

Here are all of the cosmos planted. I actually have 15 plants this year since another volunteer popped up and I didn't have the heart to pull it out.

Next I retrieved my "Pride of Wisconsin" muskmelon plants from the shop. They have spent most of the last week back under the grow lights, since the weather has been so miserable.

I laid out a section of black plastic and used earth staples to hold it in place. Then I cut out six small holes and set in my young muskmelon plants. I certainly hope the weather will change for good soon. These melon are going to need a lot of hot, sunny days if they have any hope of reaching maturity.

Here is an overview of the overflow Kitchen Garden area. At the far end are 4 "Ukrainian Purple" tomato plants. Then the middle section has my 6 "Pride of Wisconsin" muskmelon. Finally the 15 "Bright Lights"cosmos are planted closest to the patio. It all looks really good. I just wish this had been completed about two weeks ago.

I then turned my attention to planting the new perennials that we purchased last weekend at The Little Red Farm Nursery. I ended up setting in everything except for the two boxwood plants and the two digiplexis plants. I am really loving this yellow "Canary Feathers" corydalis. We have grown the blue version for a few years and really like it. This yellow is equally as stunning and I hope proves as hardy for us as the blue variety has.

Cosmos Xanthos

This week, down in the Big Garden, I have the first 3 blooms open on the Cosmos "Xanthos" that I started from seed. The blooms are described on the packet as "pastel lemon-yellow colored". While I agree with this, it also appears that the soft yellow blooms have a white eye and are tipped in white. I will have to wait and see if this color pattern holds true as the season progresses and more and more plants come into bloom.

Garden Project

This morning, with a lot of help from Dad, I completed a fencing project that desperately needed to be done. We removed the temporary fencing and cage that were protecting some of the plants in this "overflow" Kitchen Garden area. Then Dad drove in 6 fencing stakes and we surrounded the whole are with 5' fencing. So MUCH better!

The "Magnificenza" melon now have all the room that they need without any worries of the deer getting at them. The vines on these  plants are going crazy and are covered with both male and female blooms right now.

My cut flower area also has so much more room to spread and looks so much nicer. Those "County Fair Blend" zinnias better get growing - the melon are coming!

Unfortunately, the fencing project happen a week too late for the "Red Chieftain" potatoes. Finn, our resident pest of a deer, discovered the two grow bags last week and has been happily browsing on them ever since. Even spraying the plants heavily with deer repellent didn't stop her. I am not sure if she has done too much damage for the plants to recover from at this point.

First Bud

After a day filled with grey skies and rain showers, I decided to take a night off from Dahlia planting. It was a hard decision, as we only have one more night's worth of planting to finish up the whole project. But my back could use the rest after 7 continuous days down there and I didn't want to compact any damp soil, as well. As I was spending a chilly evening on the back patio with Parvati, I discovered that the first of my 4 volunteer "Bright Lights" cosmos has formed a bud. It won't bee too long before all 4 plants begin blooming for the Summer.

Dahlia Planting - Day #3

After a very busy Saturday, it was nice to have all of Sunday to work down in the Big Garden. And as an added bonus, the weather was perfect; sunny and 77 degrees. I started the day by planting 16 of the potted dahlias. Then I returned in the early afternoon to work some more on the annual flower rows. I began by setting in the 22 "Xanthos" cosmos plants I had started from seed.

They were the perfect size to settle in. The roots were just beginning to fill in the whole cell area. I got them planted and watered in well; they shouldn't miss a beat. Then I planted another row with the 23 "Rubenza" cosmos plants I had begun. Once that was finished I planted one row of "Mixed Colors" bachelor buttons. I got my seed from Seed Savers Exchange and it look me about 1 1/2 packets to seed the whole row. Then I seeded two close rows of "Persian Carpet" zinnias from Renee's Garden Seed. It took me a full 3 packets of that seed to sow both of those rows. I was really pleased to get all of the young cosmos set in and all of the other seeds planted. It is suppose to rain Tuesday and I wanted everything planted so that they could take advantage of Mother Nature's watering. Freshly planted seed, watered in by a good rainfall, always germinates the best I have found.

I also stopped in a Down to Earth today and ended up with this at check-out; Quinoa "Oro De Valle". While I could certainly grown this to harvest the seed to eat, I am really most interested in its flower heads. They are suppose to grow 4' tall and in late Summer bloom a lovely orange-sherbet color. I also learned from the tag in the 6-pack that you can harvest the leaves for use like spinach. They are packed with calcium and iron. So another fun, new plant to try this year.

 I finished my gardening day by returning after dinner to plant another 16 dahlias. We now have 62 planted, or 27.3%. Now it really feels like the dahlia garden is underway.

"Willo Borealis" a lavender Pom

Seedling Transplanting and Starting More Seeds

I spent my holiday morning down in the Big Garden setting out 5 more dahlia rows. After that my back - and my legs and my arms ! - said enough! So I switched my focus for the rest of the day onto another project; transplanting flower and vegetable starts to bigger cells and starting a few more seeds.

I began with the "Magnificenza" melon. I started two different sets of these melons, fearing germination might be difficult. I shouldn't have worried! 9/10 of my first seeding germinated and 7/8 of my second seeding germinated for a grand total of 16/18. I set out 6 of them this afternoon in the "overflow" Kitchen Garden area, where I grew the watermelon last year. I laid out black plastic first and then planted them in slits cut through the plastic. It will be a fun adventure to see how they do. Then I transplanted the remaining 10 seedlings into bigger pots. I think they are destined for friends and perhaps I will try to grow a few more of them down in the Big Garden.

Next I got out the bean seed that I recently ordered from Adaptive Seed. I am nervous to direct sow bean seed because in the past few years, either the voles have eaten the seed in the ground, or the robins have puled up the young plants right as they germinate. So instead, I decided to plant the seed in small cells and then transplant the beans after they germinate. So into the flat pictured above, I seeded 16 cells with "Poletschka" pole bean.

Then I got out the new 36 cell trays I bought and moved my cosmos starts. First I transplanted the "Rubenza" starts. I ended up with 23/24 plants germinated this year. Not too bad! Then I seeded 12 cells with "Titus" cannellini bean.

In another tray, I transplanted my "Xanthos" cosmos. I ended up with 22/24 plants germinated. Next to them I seeded another 12 cells with the "Titus" cannellini seed, for a total of 24 seeds planted.

I also transplanted my "Country Fair Blend" zinnia starts. I ended up with 22/25 plants germinated this year so I had lots to move into bigger digs.

Finally I moved my "Lemon" cucumber plants. This was my challenging seed this year. I only ended up with 5/18 plants germinated. But 5 is still better than nothing I guess. I set them in the tray with the winter squash. I ended up with 3/4 "Crown Pumpkin", 1/1 "Delicata", and 3/4 "Waltham Butternut" germinated so I was really pleased with that. I will have to buy another "Delicata" but that's my own fault for not starting enough seed to have 2 plants.

With this big job done the pressure is off to get all of these seedlings into their final homes. The weather is suppose to get quite warm by the end of the week and I don't want to set these young plants out in a heat wave. They all have fresh soil and lots of room to grow, so they will be fine now for a few more weeks.

Seedling Updates

It's been 8 days since I planted two of my flats of seeds. During that time we have enjoyed some warm, sunny weather and we have had some rainy, cold days. Thankfully my seed starting system has worked well in all the varied conditions and I am pleased to report really good germination for most of the seeds.

A tray of "Xanthos" Cosmos

The flat I seeded with strictly cosmos looks great. On one side 22/24 cells of "Xanthos" cosmos are up and on the other side 17/24 cells of "Rubenza" cosmos have germinated.

I also started seed of "Country Fair Blend" zinnia. Of the 25 cells I seeded, 18 are up. Next to the zinnia, I planted melon and cucumber seed. I have 9/10 "Magnificenza"  melon up and 2/10 "Lemon" cucumbers have germinated.

A "Crown Pumpkin" young plant

In my third tray I have a mix of winter squash, melons, and cucumbers that I planted in straight Nature's Best soil instead of a planting mix. At this point I am having a mixed result with this method. So far only 1/4 "Crown Pumpkin" squash have appeared and I want two of them

A "Magnificenza" melon seedling

The "Waltham Butternut" squash have fared a little better with 2/4 germinated. I only planted 1 "Delicata" squash and at this time there isn't any sign of it. I have 2/8 of the "Lemon" cucumbers up here, so I should have enough of these plants between my two sowings of them. And the big winner is the "Magnificenza" melon. I have another 7/8 germinated in this flat, so I have a grand total of 16/18 plants sprouted. I was worried that this might be a difficult seed to germinate. It looked quite small so I seeded a lot of it. As it turns out this is very viable seed and apparently not very hard to start! I definitely have all of the melon plants that I have room for so I will be looking for some good homes for my extra seedlings.

Below, a "Waltham Butternut" winter squash seedling

Working on the Kitchen Garden

We ended up with about a 2-3 hour window of dry weather between more serious rainfall today. While I certainly didn't get anywhere close to as much done as I had hoped, I still was able to make a little gardening progress on this wet, wet weekend. I focused today on the area I call my "overflow" kitchen garden. I began by giving it another quick, complete weeding. Then Dad helped me and we added 6 buckets of fresh Natures Best to extend and build up the bed.

Then I placed my two large size grow bags and planted the "Red Chieftan" potatoes that I had ordered from High Mowing Seed out of Vermont. The minimum order was 2.5 lbs and that was really more than I needed. But of coarse I had to plant all of the seed potatoes that they sent. So 6 went into the largest bag and 5 into the slightly smaller one. 

As you can see they were definitely ready to be planted! I also stuck a small volunteer potato plant of "Red Norland" into another pot placed between these two bags. It had sprouted up in the middle of this bed and I couldn't stand to toss it into the compost pile.

Next to the three potato bags I planted a row of 9 "Redwing" onions. I purchased these storage onion plants at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago and I am glad to get them in the ground.

After I got the whole row planted and water in, I covered the row with two hoops and remay fabric. This will provide some protection from both the deer and the birds.

When I was weeding the bed I was pleasantly surprised to discover 3 small plants of Cosmos "Bright Lights". I had some plants of this variety growing here last year and apparently they self seeded. So I moved the 3 starts to the front of the bed where they can happily grow in front of the Zinnias I am also growing for this area.

And speaking of those Zinnias, guess what starting germinating today? When I looked inside the greenhouse this afternoon I discovered that the first 8 "Country Fair Blend" Zinnias had come up!

When I checked the other flat I found the first 5 Cosmos "Xanthos" and the first 11 Cosmos "Rubenza" had also germinated. Since I had only planted this seed Wednesday night, and the last two days have been cool and rainy, I wasn't expecting the seed to germinate quite so soon. So even though I planted my seeds a little later than I had hoped,  I am off to a strong start with germination rates this year.

We Have Some More Germination!

As soon as I got home from work tonight, I went right over to my seed trays to see if anything had "happened" while I was gone. Happily, I had some surprises awaiting me.

I now have all 12 of the "Addis Pickle" cucumbers up and growing. I don't know if it is because I bought fresh seed this year, or if they just normally exhibit quick germination, but they certainly beat all of the other vegetable and flower seed that I planted that day.

I was especially happy to find that 3 of my 6 "Howden" pumpkins had appeared. There was no sign at all of them this morning when I pulled the trays out of the greenhouse.

I now have 3 "Dancing Petticoats" Cosmos up and growing.

And I was excited to finally find my first Zinnia had appeared. I now have one "Red Metemorph". Hopefully the warm weather that is in the forecast for the next 4 days will encourage a lot more of the seeds to germinate. It will be a fun surprise each day, to come home from work, and see what is new.

After dinner I worked for about an hour potting up dahlia tubers. I managed to get another 28 planted tonight, so I now have a total of 223 in pots. I should finish up with two more small potting sessions.

Late July in the Dahlia Garden

As July slowly comes to an end, the dahlia garden continues to explode with growth.

 In the last week, there has been two or three new dahlias blooming for the first time each time I have visited this garden site. There is also much work to be done. Just a week ago, I was almost caught-up with my "to-do" list for this garden. After visiting it today, I realize I need to spend multiple nights down here after work. I still have five rows that need to be tied-up, at least half of the plants need dis-budding again, and the whole garden could use a good weeding. Sigh.

Here is a "new-to-me" dahlia. "NTAC Shelley" was just released this year. It's a lovely dark pink & white Orchid  with perfect form. I am really excited to watch this one and see how it performs the rest of the season.

And yet another new one to me this year. "Eclipse" arrived in one of my tuber orders as a free gift. It's a striking white and dark pink Single.

"Sean C", a purple and white Collarette.

One of my all time favorites. "Pam Howden", a waterlily in shades of orange, yellow and dark pink.

"Raeann's Peach", a Single form in orange and red.

"Kelsie Kristi" is a dark red Single. The pollinators love all of the open centered dahlias.

"Weston Spanish Dancer", a miniature size cactus form in flame colors.

Elsewhere in the garden my cut flowers rows are starting to bloom too. My "Red Metemorph" hedge marigolds are starting to live up to their name. I don't think mine will reach 3 feet in height this year but they will definitely grow together and form a dense hedge.

They too are beginning to bloom.

The first white bloom opened today in the knee-high "Sonata Mix" cosmos.

And I also have the first open bloom in the "Mixed Seashell" cosmos. They certainly are different than the tradition cosmos bloom.

The "Minnesota Midget" cantaloupe have settled in nicely after being transplanted. The new growth is a healthy dark green and they are covered in pretty little yellow blooms. But I still haven't seen a single set cantaloupe yet!

All in all I am pleased with how everything is doing down here. The rabbit damage seem to have mostly stopped and there are more blooms to enjoy each day. It won't be too long before the garden is no longer a sea of green but is instead a riot of color.