A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

If I had brassicas sitting out like in your photo they'd be gone in minutes! No pigeons in your area?

No pigeons really, though they do try to eat from the bird feeders in winter and bully the chickadees! Then they're gone for the year. I'm quite curious, what do pigeons do to brassicas?

It's the strangest thing that one collard, I inspected today and I don't see any worms anywhere but it seems to be growing funny. The leaves are a bit misshapen, while the other is more normal?

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

 

[Decoy1]

No pigeons really, though they do try to eat from the bird feeders in winter and bully the chickadees! Then they're gone for the year. I'm quite curious, what do pigeons do to brassicas?

They eat them voraciously, from the edges inwards, often just leaving the veins.

More and more of my vegetables here are netted. Certainly all brassicas all year, to protect from pigeons and from egg-laying butterflies. More recently all alliums, in my case to protect from allium leaf miner. Peas are extremely attractive to pigeons. I have to net peas early on at ground level and then when they achieve any height, as they sit on them and munch away. The idea of an ornamental vegetable garden wouldn’t work here at all well, unless you really like the appearance of netting and mesh! Lettuces can be very pretty and so far can be grown without protection. And chard fares quite well, although occasionally nibbled a little. Tomatoes are OK until they catch blight. Beans, squash and corn are fine. But not much else!

 

[ducks4you]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

If my roses can survive being strangled by blackberry canes, Yours should hang in there until you move them, just keep them watered.

 

[flowerbug]

Well, the plan for my new rose bushes has utterly failed. They hate being under the arbour; I would have thought they'd like it under there, but they are communicating a hard 'no'. They'll have to eke out the rest of the summer there though because I have no where else to put them right now; maybe they'll make it, maybe not. The shrub rose at least should be good until next year. Oh well, I tried. It was a good idea... in theory.

A new clematis is blooming for the first time, and its yet another purple. However, this is a dramatic deep burgundy purple. Intriguing. So far, I like it. I dug up the red poppies today and bagged them up for a friend. That's done. I don't want to make any compromises with this front yard garden project in terms of keeping anything that I'm not 100% in love with.

One thing I'm noticing with my new veggie & flower set up though is the tremendous amount of petals being dropped by the peonies as well as the mock orange into the beds. It's a thick carpet of drying petals at their feet. This is somewhat charming when the petals are freshly fallen, much less so as they turn brown and dry up. Not easy to rake up either as they slip between the tines. Looks more and more untidy as time goes on. I used my soil sifter and a shovel, to try and get rid of them that way, but I only achieved moderate success. A puzzler indeed.

the most delicate roses i ever had (as a kid i tried to grow them and often had to replant - but the neighborhood ladies were always happy to have whatever extra blooms i could harvest) did the best in an eastern bed in front of the house so it was protected from the hottest part of the day, but some of them didn't last long. some will be full sun or mostly full sun loving plants (the climbers probably are indicating that they like at least half a day of full sun).

 

[heirloomgal]

the most delicate roses i ever had (as a kid i tried to grow them and often had to replant - but the neighborhood ladies were always happy to have whatever extra blooms i could harvest) did the best in an eastern bed in front of the house so it was protected from the hottest part of the day, but some of them didn't last long. some will be full sun or mostly full sun loving plants (the climbers probably are indicating that they like at least half a day of full sun).

In years past, I always found this to be true - that roses preferred a bit of protection from the hottest part of the day. That's why I moved them under the arbour, which is still bare. The runner beans are only up 3 feet on it. But bugs have skeletonized the leaves, always a sign the plants has been weakened and in this case I can only assume it's the location because last year in full sun the foliage was perfect. One rose is so defoliated that it might not make it. The shrub rose I can see maybe being resentful, they are quite hardy and do well in full sun. One of the roses seems to be coming around, I noticed today that there is a whole bunch of flower buds on there despite the damage to the plants older foliage. I guess I'll see what happens, should be interesting. Maybe I gave them too much food, that would draw insects I'm sure.

 

[heirloomgal]

Observing things as the season moves along. Some things are working, some things are not and some things are puzzling. And always the desire to draw conclusions so that next year there can be improvement!

The leaf miners continue to show up, but not aggressively so. Unlike a lot of bugs, they go for the older leaves not the young ones. I noticed to today an older stem that had gotten very colonized by the beasts and I've been missing catching that. Disposed of it, and now I'll see if that was a source of problems. Ripping off the bits of leaves where I see a bad spot starting seems to be working, mostly. Not dealing at all with this would be better though. I've had some years with none of these. So long as the plants are gaining in size overall, I consider it a win.

Given that these sunflowers are supposed to get to 6 feet, and they're at probably 2 or 3 right now I wonder what is goin on in their centers? Can't be buds already?

My new mystery clematis. I actually planted this nearly 15 years ago, but it was quickly overtaken by neighboring perennials that were larger and more vigorous. It was never watered either, since all the other perennials in the bed did fine with just rainfall. So it withered and disappeared... or so I thought. Somehow it survived the digging up of all the neighbouring perennials and now that it has no real competition in a single year the rootstock has grown a plant that's 5 feet tall, and now flowering. I call it a 'new' clematis, but it's really an old & new clematis, lol. Kind of neat because this color doesn't seem to be offered anywhere now.

I am just LOVING the mock orange I put in last year. It really bloomed this year and the smell is divine. It has lasted well in the high heat and rain we've gotten too. But it drops loads of messy petals on everything! But where would they go? Small price to pay for that smell I guess!

It has been very interesting growing Hamburg parsley from seed. It was soooo tiny for so long, I really didn't think it would ever amount to anything. Even at planting time they seemed way too undersized to survive, I only gave them a tiny bit of space thinking they'd probably perish. As lame as it sounds, I'm still shocked and thrilled at that transformation from tiny sprouted seed to 'big plant' (they're just below the pink astrantia). It's funny that I still sometimes have no confidence in the seeds & plants, like the Hamburg. And now they're bigger than I imagined they'd ever get even with a miracle, and it's only early July! I wonder if this is a fast growing species, like amaranth, when it gets into the ground? This was another learning curve, I should plant more Hamburg parsely and celeriac in the future. I love them both in an edible yardscape.

This was a surprise. My carrots seem VERY slow growing, though thinning them did help to boost them a little. However, what really puzzles me is why the last seeded row (closest in the picture) has the most advanced foliage, whereas the furthest row was the 1st to be planted (and to sprout) and has the least advanced foliage? These rows are on a spectrum of sunniness - most full sun at the far end and the nearest row actually having a fair bit of shade in the day. I can only guess that carrots actually like some shade? The hottest spot has the tiniest carrot greenery? I've been watering very diligently too, so even if it's hotter it's not more dry?

 

[flowerbug]

we've had one of those dark clematis before, i'm not sure we still have it as i've not walked that side of things recently... i tend to get very task oriented and don't wander around looking for problems often because no matter what garden i'm in i can find things that need more attention than what i can give them.

 

[flowerbug]

...This was a surprise. My carrots seem VERY slow growing, though thinning them did help to boost them a little. However, what really puzzles me is why the last seeded row (closest in the picture) has the most advanced foliage, whereas the furthest row was the 1st to be planted (and to sprout) and has the least advanced foliage? These rows are on a spectrum of sunniness - most full sun at the far end and the nearest row actually having a fair bit of shade in the day. I can only guess that carrots actually like some shade? The hottest spot has the tiniest carrot greenery? I've been watering very diligently too, so even if it's hotter it's not more dry?

are they all the same variety of carrots?

 

[heirloomgal]

are they all the same variety of carrots?

No, each row is a different variety. So, I don't think it's one especially vigorous variety because the shady spot has 2 different types carrot rows and they are both really bushy. I'm thinking shade is the factor, though I'm not 100% sure of course. It may well be shade though, because despite such a late start to summer it has been HOT quite consistently. Perhaps the shade is appreciated in this kind of weather?