Reign of the Sunflowers

My husband loves sunflowers, and last year we found a very practical application for them. Our vegetable garden abuts the side of the house, which is great when you're in the kitchen and just want to run out and pick a couple tomatoes for a salad, but our house is brick, and with the southern exposure, it really radiates heat. The veggies do like warmth, but I don't think they want to be in an oven. So by planting sunflowers along the brick wall, we accomplish several goals: my husband gets his sunflower "fix"; the large plants block some of the sun from hitting the wall, thereby keeping it cooler; and the bright yellow flowers attract pollinators, which also make stops at the veggie blossoms.

Last year, we planted only a single row of Park Seed's 'Large Flowered Mix', and although I don't think we got nearly the variety that appeared on the front of the package, we did get some nice specimens.

Not only did last year's sunflowers self-seed prolifically (no doubt with the help of the finches that love to cling to them and pick at them), but this year we planted a second row, including Helianthus 'Russian Giant', and things got a little out of control. They towered over the cucumbers and peppers, and I suspect that this may have contributed to the fact that the back row of pepper plants produced only one pepper each—too little light, too much competition for water, or just too much intimidation. I felt like I needed a machete to get back there to harvest. And some of the sunflowers got blown over by the wind and were leaning precariously on the side fence. I did get a nice picture of the cascade of flowers before I had to cut them back.

While the 'Large Flowered Mix' produced plants about six or seven feet tall, the 'Russian Giant' really lived up to its name, getting at least nine feet tall. And the flowers were giant, too—about a foot in diameter.

We regularly feed the birds during the winter, and this year I decided to try gathering some of the heads and saving the seed. I'd read that you're supposed to hang them up in some kind of netting so that the seeds don't make a mess as they fall out, but I just stuck them in a wheelbarrow in the garage, and that seems to be working fine.

The birds obviously did a little snacking beforehand, but I'm hoping they'll enjoy this reminder of the summer when the snow falls.

Itsy Bitsy Spiders

I'm no fan of spiders. I have been known to shriek loudly and jump through the ceiling when I find one crawling on me or greeting me from the bottom of a kitchen drawer. Nevertheless, as a gardener, I appreciate their benefit—they catch and eat the nasty bugs that eat my plants. So when I saw a mama spider and her bazillion baby spiders creeping out of an egg sack on the back porch, I got my camera rather than my rolled up newspaper. After all, how often do you get to see spider eggs hatch?

One Tomato, Two Tomatoes...

I mentioned in a previous post that I was growing four varieties of tomatoes this year, which was true at the time, but that has to be amended at this point: I ended up with five that I know of, although I suspect I actually have six.

The four varieties that I started from seed included 'Saucey' (a paste tomato), 'New Yorker' (a mid-sized round tomato), 'Ponderosa Pink' (a rose-colored heirloom tomato), and 'Small Fry Hybrid' (a cherry tomato). I planted four of each kind. One of the 'Small Fry Hybrid' plants snapped in half when I transplanted it and did not grow from the remaining stub; two others were taken down by strong rains and hail. So I replaced those three plants with some 'Juliet' tomatoes that I bought from Lowe's. They were described as a grape Roma tomato, and that was an accurate description. They're the size of grape tomatoes, and the consistency of paste tomatoes. I had really hoped to replace my lost plants with some more cherry tomatoes, but didn't find any at the three places I checked, so I went with the 'Juliet'.

The 'Juliet' were actually the first to ripen; I started picking those on August 1. (All my tomatoes were late because I had to wait for the cauliflower to finish up before I could plant the tomatoes in their bed.) The 'Saucey' and 'New Yorker' were ready for harvest the following week, the 'Small Fry Hybrid' the week after that, and just this weekend I started picking the 'Ponderosa Pink'.

In this photo, here are (from left to right) 'Small Fry Hybrid', 'Juliet', 'Saucey', 'New Yorker', and 'Ponderosa Pink'.

As for suspecting that I actually have six rather than five varieties—three of the 'New Yorker' plants that I started from seed are producing mid-sized round tomatoes, just as I expected. But one of the plants is producing much smaller tomatoes that are shaped more like heirlooms—squat and wide with shoulders shrugging up against the stem. I would have suspected that I accidentally planted an extra 'Ponderosa Pink', except that these tomatoes are much smaller and redder than all the other 'Ponderosa Pink' tomatoes. So what I actually believe is that another variety somehow made its way into one of my seed packets.

Anyway—we're enjoying the fruits of my labor. The 'Small Fry Hybrid' tomatoes are larger than I generally prefer in a cherry tomato, but my husband says he loves the flavor. I never bother counting how many of these I pick; I just fill bowls for snacking, and they all disappear!

I have been very pleased with the 'Saucey' tomatoes, which produce nice clusters that tend to ripen simultaneously. And I have had no blossom end rot on any of them! Last year I lost dozens of tomatoes to that condition, and I'm not sure to what to attribute this year's success—the variety, the grass mulch, the milder, rainier summer, or the extra calcium boost. (In addition to using an organic fertilizer that includes calcium, which I've always done, I soaked several crushed eggshells in a pitcher of water for 24 hours, and then watered the plants with that liquid when the tomatoes were forming.)

From my 'Saucey' and 'Juliet' plants, I've harvested 10 lbs. 4 oz. of tomatoes so far, which I've turned into seven pints of sauce. The dozen 'New Yorker' and 'Ponderosa Pink' tomatoes that I've picked so far have become three pints of salsa (plus a couple grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches).

The 'Saucey' tomatoes are about done, but I'll be picking 'New Yorker' and 'Ponderosa Pink' for several more weeks, which suits me fine, as I've got several more recipes to try!

Caryopteris Carrying On

Another indicator that summer is winding down is that the caryopteris (bluebeard) are starting to bloom. We grow two varieties of this plant, and if I didn't know they were related, I would never have guessed it.

We included Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy' in our garden mostly for its lovely variegated foliage. (Every once in a while it'll send up a plain green branch, which I promptly lop off.)

It dies back to the ground in the winter, so each spring it starts out like this...

...and over the season grows into an upright, medium-sized shrub like this:

The mottled orchid-like blue flowers, which start opening in August, are extremely small—you really don't see them until you're within a couple feet of the plant, but on close examination, they're quite pretty.

In contrast, Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' forms rounded shrubs of bright yellow-green foliage, and whereas 'Snow Fairy' dies all the way back to the ground, only the outer three or four inches of 'Sunshine Blue' die back. (I usually cut it back in the fall, but I don't know if I'll bother this year, since you really can't tell until the spring growth starts how far back it really needs to be cut. Either that, or I'll just cut it back more severely than I usually do. It just seems silly to cut it back twice—once in the fall and again in the spring.) This year a few whole branches have died, and I'm not sure what to make of that. But I just prune them out, and the adjacent branches seem to fill in the gap.

The flowers of 'Sunshine Blue' remind me more of ageratum than orchids, especially from a distance, and they are bee magnets! When our shrubs are in full bloom, you can almost hear the buzz from across the yard!

The Cardinalis Rule

I grew one of the delicate, ground cover varieties of lobelia ('Fountain Blue') last year, but in my mind it doesn't hold a candle to the giant red Lobelia cardinalis or even Lobelia siphilitica 'Blue Selection', both of which are going great guns right now. One of the spikes of Lobelia cardinalis is six feet high!

I had grown both of these varieties when we lived in New York, thinking that all lobelia tolerate partial shade, but the Lobelia cardinalis was not happy about it. It grew, but not nearly as vigorously as it's doing here in Ohio in the sunny border. In contrast, the Lobelia siphilitica did much better in New York, even though it does get some shade where I've planted it here in Ohio.

The Lobelia cardinalis is so bright that you can't miss it, like a cardinal in a pine tree. Siphilitica is more subtle, and it doesn't help that I have it tucked in a spot that's not readily visible. (Incidentally, it gets its name from its ostensible use as a remedy for a certain disease that shall go unnamed, as this is a G-rated blog.) But both are nice plants, adding some color and interest to a garden that's starting to wind down for the summer.

Night and Daylilies

It's August, and some of my daylilies are still blooming! Amazing!

The stalwarts are two specimens from White Flower Farm's Woodside Daylily Mix, a collection of "orphans" that breeders chose not to name...

...and 'Siloam Little Girl', which was a gift from a friend.

Since my last post on daylilies back in February, we've welcomed seven more additions to the family, and I've gotten pictures of specimens that I neglected to photograph last year.

Although there are still several daylilies from the Woodside Mix that I haven't seen yet (darn those deer!), here are a couple that managed to bloom in spite of Bambi and her buddies:

Some of the daylilies from Oakes that didn't flower last year (I blame mole activity for that one) did send up scapes this year, including 'Miss Amelia'...

...and I believe this is 'Miss Tinkerbell' (although it might be 'Pink Playmate'...I didn't mark them very well, and need to compare them with the catalog one of these days).

'Midnight Magic', another gift from a friend, bloomed last year, but I never had a camera handy when it was flowering. This year, it didn't escape!

The friends who gave us 'Siloam Little Girl' and 'Midnight Magic' were also the source for our newest additions, including 'Ocean Rain'...

...'Siloam Gumdrop'...

...and 'Smokey Mountain Autumn'.

I still don't have decent pictures of 'King's Cloak', 'Siloam Prissy', or 'Chorus Line', but that just gives me fodder for next year's blog entries!

Cool Cukes

Over the years, I've grown both pole beans and bush beans, and they definitely have different habits: pole beans develop long, climbing vines, and bush beans form short little plants that couldn't climb their way out of a paper bag. So when I grew bush cucumbers for the first time last year, I thought the experience would be similar, but it's really not. Bush cucumbers also form vines, although perhaps shorter ones than their non-bush cousins.

Last year, I grew 'Park's Bush Whopper II' from Park Seed. I started the seeds indoors in mid-April, transplanted them to the garden in late May, and let the vines ramble around the bed and beyond. From mid-July to mid-September, I picked 88 cukes!

This year, I tried 'Bush Champion' from Burpee. I direct-seeded in early June, and rather than letting the vines ramble, I decided to leave the pea fence in place and see what the cukes did with it. Well, they seemed to like that just fine. When I took this picture, they had already gotten to the top of the pea fence, and I subsequently had to jerry-rig a second fence on top so that they would have someplace to go!

I just started picking cukes a couple days ago. The first ones were on the ground, since the plants started flowering from the bottom of the vine, but I'm keen to see if growing them up the fence makes any difference in terms of the form of the fruit or ease of harvest. There sure were a ton of yellow flowers, so I just hope the whole structure doesn't come tumbling down under the weight of the mature cukes!