I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus Take a packet of seeds Take yourself out to play I want to see river of orchids where we had a motorway -Andy Partridge "River of Orchids" on Apple Venus Volume 1 Sunshine, soil, sulfur, and silliness set the session. Thanks for all the good soil-report questions and bug observations. Please note that this week's report is over 40% frog-free. Garden Reports: Compost Central - Larry Himmelfarb Marlowe and I started two new piles. Since we were getting lots of greens today from garden, Marlowe transferred the finished compost from one of the County bins into bin 6, he then added greens and the leaves that were under the large pile into the empty County bin. Meanwhile I began to build a new pile into bin 2. Per Bill's discussion on soil tests today, I have used the U. of Delaware for soil testing around my blueberries and the results included detailed information on how to interpret the findings and what to do with improving the soil for this acid loving shrub. They also responded to several emails. Denny May has had similar success with Penn State and has called them for assistance. Soil test results can be a bit slow during the busy springtime season. Bales and Keyhole - Sandy Chernin Tomatos and tomatoes! That's describes most of what was harvested from the keyhole and bales garden this week. From the keyhole we had some of the beautiful speckled Roman variety. And there was one lonely Summer Sunrise tomato (a winner in our recent tomato tasting) that did not go to Manna; instead we ensured it's safe transfer to Dan who has volunteered to try saving these seeds for next year's garden. A few peppers and some basil rounded out the keyhole harvest. This has been an exciting season working in, what we thought, was our avant garde African keyhole garden! A fellow MG informed us, however, that Costco is now selling keyhole garden kits! Who knew we would go mainstream so quickly! The bales, despite hosting mice and possibly voles, produced a bounty of Violet Jasper, orange banana, and blue berrie tomatoes. Thanks to all who patiently picked them! Container Garden: Carol Olsen I was happy to see that the mint is recovering.... although it has a way to go. New leaves are appearing. A few tomatoes, lots of basil, and a little chard were harvested. Some plant stakes needed adjusting. An irrigation fitting was cut so Joe helped us with a workaround. Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai It was another great weather day in the Herb and Fragrance garden. Activity centered on typical late-summer tasks. We gave the weeds in the brick walkway a haircut, and cut back the lemon balm. The apple mint was thinned out (again) and the comfrey was cleaned up and thinned. All the dahlias were looked at and re-staked and deadheaded as needed. More weeding was done along the back fence and the various mints in the "mint vault," which had become quite leggy, were cut back to force new growth. Therapeutic Horticulture Beds: Bob Loesche I hate to sound like a broken record, but things are pretty much exactly the same as they were last week in the TH beds. I won't say again that the Zinnia are blooming out the wazoo, so this week I'll say that they are blooming "steadily and beautifully". As I deadheaded today I saw lots more buds, so I have every reason to think the show will continue for several more weeks. The Gomphrena are gorgeous, both red and purple. Sandy Chernin stopped by and clipped 30 or so blooms, and raved about how wonderful they are dried in arrangements. She said they keep their color for many, many months. I encourage THer's to stop buy and pick them now, when they are in full color. Please don't let them go to waste folks. There's also lots of Ageratum, Marigold, Thai Basil, Artemesia, Anise Hyssop, Fennel, Salvia, and Garlic Chives. The Celosia blossoms have thickened up and many of them, I think, are now ready for prime time in TH projects. Our beds are also attracting lots of pollinators and other visitors, including this beautiful Monarch. Tomato bed report - Dan Ward & Joslyn Read The tomato bed is starting to wind down in many ways but a few plants are still going gangbusters: Darlene's grafted tomato is flourishing as are the San Marzano, Yellow Pleated, Sungold, Gold and Blue Berry Cherries, and the Matt's Wild Cherry. We harvested quite a few beauties of many varieties for Manna this week (such a great feeling!). Dan has obtained one of the (last?) tasting favorite Summer Sunrise yellow tomatoes (from the African keyhole garden - thanks Sandy and Robin!) that he will process to save the seeds . Dan's fav tomato web site (tomatoville.com) says they are very delicious, but not very productive. Maybe we can try one in the ground next year to see the results from one being grown in the ground versus a container. Joslyn picked up a few of another DDG tasting favorite, Pink Bumblebee tomatoes, from the tomato bed and will use her "smear technique" for saving seeds, in preparation for our tomato seed exchange later in this season. Bill sighted a parasitized tomato hornworm that had started munching its way down one of the tomato plants. See photo. He pointed out to several of us that often we spot the skeletonized tomato stem before the hornworm since they are so well camouflaged. This tomato hornworm had been parasitized by braconid wasps, Cotesia congregatus. The wasp larvae form cocoons which are the white "rice" sticking to the hornworm. The larvae feed on the hornworm from the inside out until they are ready to hatch out of their cocoons, and handily kill the hornworm in the process. We removed this fellow from the tomato plant, but there is also good advice to leave it alive in the garden to allow the new wasps to emerge and find new hornworms to parasitize. Ended the morning with this beautiful bumblebee on a nearby passionflower. Loving all our pollinators! Edibles: Erica Smith A very busy day in the garden, and I only got about half done of what I wanted to, but there's always next week! We have many seedlings of fall plants, mostly of the brassica family, and today some were planted: cauliflower, collards, kale, and kohlrabi (can you see the common linguistic roots among those?). Much thanks to Edith for staying late to help me get the row covers over those (before doing the Manna run!). I also planted some radicchio (not a brassica). Next week we'll get in the broccoli and whatever else fits. Joslyn and I planted peas along the cucumber trellises - almost didn't get this task done either since I left the soaked peas in jars at home, but my son and his girlfriend very nicely ran them over for me. They play Pokemon Go, and informed us that a Pikachu was guarding the garden gate (until they nabbed him and stuffed him in one of those ball things). Most of today's harvesting was going on in the tomato beds and the special project areas, but I did manage to cut a lot of kale and collards from the leftover spring plants, most of which I removed to make room for fall plants, but the Lark's Tongue kale was doing so beautifully I decided to leave it in place. Sweet potatoes supplied surprises: some voles or mice settled in (too big to be a mouse?) and did some serious chewing on the sweet potatoes, unfortunately devastating our crop. Barbara managed to retrieve a few that were whole but many were chewed all to bits. :( Many harlequin bugs were drowned or solarized today as well! Solarizing = cutting down the plants infested with bugs (in this case a large cleome and a few of the Tronchuda kale that weren't removed before) and stuffing them into black plastic trash bags, getting as many of the bugs as possible to fall in, then tying up the bags and placing them near the compost area for a couple of weeks until everything inside is thoroughly dead (and probably very smelly, sorry compost crew). Next week we will catch up! And hopefully get some root vegetables planted! Manna - Edith Boehler It seemed like half of the 86 pounds dropped off at Manna was tomatoes. 100 Square Foot Garden - Linda Taveira-dasilva The back of the viscous heat wave has finally been broken. Just trying to survive the extreme weather has spent the girls (plants). The short stumpy tomatoes ( always the bridesmaids) finally came through with produce, unlike their still glam cousin the tomatillo who still "has it". The tired pole beans (assaulted last week by Mother Nature) had only a hand full of beans and their stingy bush cousins didn't give more. The lettuce looked dowdy and unappealing and the matronly cucumbers had short, fat fruit under their old leaves. The summer squash looked wanting and the zucchini plant STILL had only one male flower (old bachelor). Sadly the kale brothers who managed to hold out with the row cover for so long were done in by the harlequin bugs who managed to come in the back door. The " still happening" in the garden were the saucy pepper plant girls (the salsa babes), the never under estimate the herbs (basil, oregano and chives) and the beet boys. The collards (always those stalwart uncles) were still looking distinguished under the row cover. In an attempt to inject new youth into the garden we planted and covered with new shade cloth, freckles and mescaline lettuce and cilantro. We also put in and covered young broccoli plants and curly kale. Those ever ready to go radishes ( French breakfast and sparkle) were interspersed through out the garden. Just to get things going, everyone got their thirst quenched (was it just water?). Children's Garden - Susan Kirby Annie and I were very sorry to discover that our popcorn plant disappeared sometime last week. As the plant was quite large, it had to have been taken by a large {Ed: two-legged?} critter. There was no sign of root or stem. I speculate no farther. . . . We continue to trim the vines of the hyacinth beans and the cardinal vine, both of which seem determined to grow wherever they like. The small vegetable garden is clearly winding down for the season. Thanks to Erica, we will plant some brussel sprouts and radicchio starts next week. We may start some carrots, beets and spinach as well. In the meantime, we are beginning to plan for next year's garden. Desperately Seeking Sulfur(and Nitrogen) - Mary Anne Normile After Tuesday morning's "10 at 10 talk," the question was raised how to add nitrogen without adding phosphorus, which we already have in excess in DDG soil. Nitrogen can be added by using urea, which is produced from natural gas, and therefore not organic. It is difficult (but not impossible) to find organic sources of nitrogen that add little or no phosphorus. Organic sources of nitrogen include (but aren't limited to) composted manures, blood meal, cottonseed meal soybean meal, fish and feather meal, and fish emulsion. All are high in nitrogen with varying amounts of phosphorus and/or potassium. Each has pluses and minuses, and expense may also be a consideration. I have found that using fish emulsion in the garden may attract raccoons--I sprinkle the soil with cayenne after fertilizing with fish emulsion to discourage raccoons from disturbing the soil and plants in search of tasty fish. Cottonseed meal lowers soil pH. Blood meal has the added benefit of discouraging small mammals. I have also seen references to crab meal, although I've never seen it locally. These can be used as soil amendments or applied as top dressings for nitrogen supplementation. To be certain that your fertilizer is organic, look for the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) label on the package. Planting legumes--including beans, alfalfa, some clovers and peanuts--then tilling these in as "green manures" on a regular basis also helps build soil nitrogen content. Garden gypsum(calcium sulfate) is a source of sulfate that does not lower pH and is readily available at garden centers. For more information see HGIC publication "Soil Amendments and Fertilizers," http://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_images/programs/hgic/Publications/HG42_Soil_Amendments_and_Fertilizers.pdf Bug Report - Darlene Nicholson After a week away, I find that the usual pests are still in the garden. This image of Harlequin bugs shows several instars and some adults that will NOT be deterred by net covers if the plant is touching the top! Image shows them piercing plant foliage and sucking the plants fluids, causing, stippling, white blotches and wilting of the plant. We're gonna need some taller row covers! There seem to be a fair amount of BMSB's lurking about and going after veggies. Most of the ones I saw are about middle instars and quickly approaching adulthood. Here are two instars, the first one a little younger than the second: The last posting for Tuesday was this Paper wasp. I worked a Bee survey for a year, had my nose practically on the bees taking pictures and NEVER got stung. This year, not really even aware I was near them, I have gotten stung twice so far by wasps. They are good predators but a little tricky to have in close proximity to where you are gardening. Be careful. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Sanford and Julie Mangin Today was a beautiful day in the garden...summer weather that we enjoyed. It made the task of severe trimming back of overgrowth tolerable. We saw a Monarch caterpillar, a Monarch,and a Spicebush Swallowtail, Sulphurs, Skippers and Black Swallowtails. We are also making plans to replace our very unsafe bench. Closing Comments: Lily and Bill Many MGs realize this is a good time of year to take a vacation. We miss you and will gladly welcome you back as we head full steam into harvest season while putting the garden to rest. Don't forget to see review the soil reports that Lily sent earlier in August. And consider a soil test of your own garden for next year. Drowning here in summer's cauldron
Under mats of flower lava Please don't pull me out this is how I would want to go from Summer's Cauldron on Skylarking by XTC
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