We've had heavy rain off and on for the last couple of weeks, and unbelievable heat and humidity, but we soldier on in the garden as best we can.
There's Mrs. Paco over yonder, picking strawberries.
A neighbor gave us some wild-looking canna plants, featuring a combination of red flowers and yellow flowers with red freckles.
Here's another variety that's not exactly staid.
We have a variety of hardy hibiscus plants, perennials that will die back in the winter but grow back from the roots in the spring. This is one of my favorites.
We have a tiny vegetable garden, which is in protective custody because of the deer and rabbit population (i.e., situated within the confines of a couple of layers of fencing). We can't rotate our crops because there isn't room, so several plants - bell peppers, butternut squash and sweet potatoes - are growing in pots. And at long last, we have succeeded in getting some green bean plants to grow in the ground (I was diligent in going after insects this year).
Another good year for pink lemonade blueberries! They're ripe when they turn a deep rose color, and are much sweeter than regular blueberries. Unfortunately, in spite of draping the two bushes with netting, the mockingbirds occasionally manage to get in; however, we succeeded in harvesting the bulk of them.
These things have been coming back for years, and we didn't know what they were, but our fairly new iPhone plant identification app tells us that they're narrow-leaf primroses.
I suppose, when we eventually begin our descent into decrepitude, I'll need to start planting trees to replace the flowers and vegetables - but not just yet.
Your garden is lovely, and you’ve given me an idea for my next container gardening when I’m ensconced with my daughter: sweet potatoes in a big pot. My daughter and son-in-law have a big garden every year, but they’re short on flowers and there are certain things they don’t want to grow. Theirs is a big place so I’ll have room for my pots, provided I’m still around. Time is growing short and I’m slowing down considerably.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sweet potatoes, Rebecca. I'll keep you posted on how ours do.
DeleteI admire your ability to make green things grow. The best I can manage is four leaf clover, and that shows up uninvited anyway at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteGrowing vegetables and flowers here turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I had ever anticipated. In the first place, the soil quality is poor: very sandy with inadequate amounts of organic material to sustain plant growth without soil amendment and fertilizers. Then, the occasional heavy rains and high heat and humidity crates a field day for the kind of fungi that feed on vegetables (people in the neighborhood have had very mixed results trying to grow tomatoes because of the prevalence of fungal diseases). And then there are the critters: cut worms, mealy bugs, Japanese beetles, caterpillars, deer and rabbits. I don't know how actual farmers, back in the day, ever pulled it off. We've learned an awful lot, though, since we've been here, and Mrs. Paco and I have become a valuable resource (as well as a source of free plants) for the neighbors. One neighbor refers to Mrs. Paco as "the plant whisperer", because of her ability to revive flowers and other plants that were just about dead.
DeleteYes I wondered how you achieved this in sandy soil. 'Plant Whisperer' - that's beautiful.
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