Summer rolls on...

Today the calendar flipped from July to August. As we hit the height of Summer here, the meadows have transitioned along with the calendar. We started back in March, when the meadows were green, short and full of blooming daffodils. April & May turned the meadows purple with blooming wild pacific coast iris. By June, the grass was waist high and accented with hundreds of white daisies. Now they have faded and the meadow grasses have browned and dried. But this brown palate is punctuated with white florets of the Queen Anne's Lace. This member of the carrot family is going strong when everything else seems done for the year.

New Blooms - Day 2

After an overcast, cool morning, the sun broke through the clouds about 2 PM. When I finally made it down to the big garden later in the afternoon I was pleased to discover 3 more dahlia blooms had opened. Pictured above is "Kelsey Sunshine" a collarette form in yellow with white petaloids. This is its first year in release and I was thrilled when a friend and fellow dahlia grower offered me an extra tuber. I had tried to order it this year but it had already sold out.

Also opening up today is "Jacs Sashay" another collarette form. This one is a dark blend of purple & red with white petaloids. It is a bit more purple than the above photo shows. The third variety open today was single blooms on two plants of "Nicole C", a miniature cactus form in orange. It isn't a large plant, but it is already just covered in buds.

The first dahlia bloom of the year

When I walked down to the garden this morning some color at the far end caught my eye. The first open dahlia bloom of the year! Or to be more exact, the first two open blooms of the year. Both blooms were on plants of "Raeann's Peach" a single dark blend of orange & red. Hybridized by Wayne Lobaugh of Chehalis Washington, it was released in 2008. Until I saw it at a dahlia show, I wasn't a fan of the Single form of dahlias. But "Raeann's Peach" has changed my mind! In the sea of green that is the dahlia patch below, you can clearly make out the glowing blooms on the left.

An Empty Nest..Sort of!

Yesterday the last two Barn Swallow babies took flight. The first two babies left the nest last week, but have been returning in the evenings to sleep. The last two chicks seemed smaller in size and didn't appear very interested in leaving the comfort of the nest. But when I came out this morning, the nest was empty.

Then I heard a familiar chirp and found one of the babies sitting on top of the fireplace, not 5 feet from the nest! He even managed to get his parents to feed him there a couple of times.

Then the parents sat on top of the PVC poles of the vegetable garden, chipping back at the baby. I think they were telling him he could fly now and catch his own bugs.

Eventually he did fly away, although both babies kept coming back to the nest over the course of the day. And as evening set both were back in the nest for the night. This learning to fly stuff is exhausting!

The Yearly Cleaning

Today I got around to cleaning the garden gate. Once a year, after everything in the garden finally gets planted, I have the time to give the front gate a good scrubbing with a biodegradable soap and water. Over the coarse of a year it gets coated with dust, pollen, and dried grass from mowing. I never notice quit how dirty it gets until I clean it. Then its "mystical blue" paint from Home Depot just glows! And on the inside, my treasured glass dragonfly got a good cleaning too.

Tuesday Garden Update

Its hard to believe that this is the last Tuesday of the month. As we approach the end of July, the gardens are really starting to mature. I still haven't been able to harvest anything from them yet, but there is a lot of potential out there!

Here are some tiny fruits of "Black Plum". All of the tomatoes in the vegetable garden have set fruit now, with the except of "Momotaro". Since this is the first year that I have grown that variety, I don't know if it is always late to set or if it is just being ornery.

A row of "Mars" red onions. They bulbs are really starting to fill out now.

The first two set fruit on the Gypsy" pepper. There are a lot more blossoms on the top of the plant.

An underneath view of the "Yellow Patty Pan" summer squash.  It is amazing to see how many squash this one plant is going to produce. I think I am about one week away from harvesting the first ones.

And the Winter Squash are growing fast too. Here is an immature "Butternut" fruit on one of the vines.

Down in the big garden, the "Canoe Creek Colossal" Cantaloupe is starting to open its very first blooms.

The "Bingo" Pole Beans have just started latching onto the support tower in the last two days. This tower of beans seems to be much happier, and doing much better, then the exact same variety up in the vegetable bed.

I took this picture just this morning of morning glory "Milky Way".

Last, but not least, here a picture of a bud of dahlia "Nicole C". Of all my 199 plants, this will be my first bloom of the year. Let the show begin!

Wordless Monday

The Third Rose

There are three roses down by the big garden. The first two are located right by the garden gate, inside the deer fence. They are June bloomers and for the most part are done for the year. The third rose is located outside the garden gate, about twenty feet to the left. It is in an area that I think the former gardener Dorothy had some sort of flower garden many, many years ago. In the Spring Scilla bulbs pop up in the underbrush and bloom. And every July it is the rose's turn. It has been completely surrounded by blackberry vines over the years. I have only a general idea where its main crown might actually be planted. Each year it sends new canes arching out of the berry patch, searching for sunshine and elbowroom. This year all of the rose canes are buried within the blackberries and I had to go searching for my yearly blooms. At least the deer don't get them this way!

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Today Beth & I made it down to the Farmer's Market. We tried to get there a bit earlier because it is suppose to hit the mid-nineties today. We started with Breakfast. Beth opted for a breakfast burrito and I got a Pain au Chocolat. Once we were well fortified, we hit the stalls. We pulled together a wonderful, all-local dinner. Fresh albacore, new red potatoes and sweet corn.

It really felt like Summer today at the market. Both the hot weather and the arrival of all the warm weather crops. This was a beautiful  display of basil.

And lovely slicing tomatoes. This stand had two huge piles of them, that were being quickly snapped up.

I was most excited to see the sweet corn! That means Summer to me. This was a white corn and 3 ears went home for dinner. It didn't have a variety name. The two other farms that had corn were both selling "Bodacious", the commonly grown sweet corn in this area.

Berries continue to be abundant at all the stands.

Green Beans have arrived as the Peas fade out for the season.

These bundled "Chipollini" Onion were so pretty and a rare variety to see for sale.

These "Early Laxton" Plums were almost gone. This stand also was sold out of the first peaches and apricots.

These were the first peppers that I have seen for sale this year. Another sign of Summer.

Locally grown cantaloupe. No small feat there. Very impressive, especially this year!

Flowers at the market have transitioned to mid-summer varieties as well. There were lots and lots of beautiful lilies in bloom, both oriental and day-lilies.

And you can't talk about Summer and plants without having lavender in the discussion.