After a break for the July 4 holiday (with the exception of a few dedicated gardeners who appeared last week), about 30 hardy souls gathered in the heat and humidity today to carry out gardening chores. Persistent cloud cover gave us a break from the extreme heat that had been predicted, and a surprising amount of work was done despite the less-than-ideal conditions. The garden continues to thrive, and pollinators and butterflies were abundant. BUG REPORT: Darlene Nicholson I am away this week, attending the International Master Gardeners Conference in Portland Oregon. I was going to do a report on Tobacco/Tomato Hornworms, as they are appearing on our tomatoes at Derwood. Barbara even found one on a potato plant. As luck would have it, the July 7 IPM report had an excellent article byJerry Brust, IPM vegetable specialist, called "Trouble with hornworms and aphids on tomatoes". There are many interesting articles that can be of interest to most home gardeners in this issue. So please, check them out. 100 SQUARE FOOT GARDEN REPORT: Linda Taveira-dasilva Hot! Hot! Hot! Despite a 2-week neglect the garden had fared well. Perhaps we should leave it alone a little more. We had a bountiful supply of big red beets (fear us Giant and Safeway) and bags of lettuce and collards. The leaning tower of pole beans was thick with flowering vines elbowing each other for a climbing string. Down below in the circle there was strong competition for space among the red lettuce, newly planted beans and the old lady yellow pansies who refuse to leave. The tall Latin tomatillo plant was pregnant again (more tomatillos) and the pepper and tomato plants were budding new flowers to produce more growing siblings. Already "with tomatoes" the plant moms had to be given more support. Lazy Mr. Cucumber Plant was found all over Miss Summer Squash (shame!) and had to be put in his place back up on the supports.. We have 3 inch cukes, so we are not sure how long the shenanigans have been going on. We harvested a bucket full of herbs, pulled the only 3 carrots that would grow for us, and planted Japanese mustard in a few squares that some of the beets had vacated. Hope's fennel plants looked great. One was taken home to try as we are thinking of planting more next year. Heidi gave the growing weeds a rude awakening, and Susan was the water angel this week. Obviously Bill didn't pay the water bill , no swimming, so we went home to cool off! SPECIAL PROJECTS REPORT: Carol Olsen What a beautiful day to be in the garden! There was lots to harvest and tend to. The plantings in the bales and pallets were quite dry, whereas the plantings in the keyhole gardens, while ready for watering, seemed less affected. Straw Bales The Adirondack Blue Potato plants caused concern as some of the leaves were yellowing and wilting. Potatoes have formed, but the plants were loose in their planting holes. A meeting of great minds (Carol O, Bill, and Edith) determined that the plants should be pushed down deeper and more soil added around them. Clusters of small tomatoes have developed on the Ketchup and Fries, Ramapo F1, and Sungold tomato plants. The Rainbow tomato plant is flowering and one tomato is evident so far. The Cajun Belle Pepper is happily growing with lots of peppers on the way. As the eggplant is flowering, its row cover was removed so pollination can occur. Pallets The top (nasturtiums, parsley, and basil), lower front planting space (basils), and the backside of the pallets (nasturtiums and parsley) seem to be doing the best. By far, the nasturtiums are thriving the most with their colorful blooms and variegated leaves. Salad greens, some red lettuce, and cilantro had bolted or dried out beyond rescue, and so were pulled. Five to six planting rows are now ready for new additions. Perhaps some heat loving herbs will do best. We certainly would welcome suggestions! Keyholes The four dwarf/bush tomato plants are beginning to flower and are looking strong and healthy. The kale and last of the tat soi were harvested and a hill of Patio Star F Summer Squash seeds was planted in their space. Beets and carrots were thinned and a denser row covering was placed over the eggplant after its leaves were wiped with soapy water. Gutter Garden Well! This garden was looking quite perky with its Blackeyed Susans, and turnip greens. Today’s harvest from all our garden areas included: basil, kale, tat soi, Swiss chard, parlsey, beets and their greens, lettuces and salad greens. Thanks to Edith, Nikki, Eva, and Ellina for their help today. CHILDREN'S GARDEN REPORT: Sandy Chernin Despite having been somewhat neglected this past week, the Children’s Garden was found to be surprisingly lush. The main objectives for today were weeding, watering and more weeding! The harvest from Mrs. Macgregor’s garden included two bags of Cipollini onions, a few peppers, and some basil (‘Purple Ruffles” and “Minette”). Harvesting most of the onions will hopefully provide needed space for the peanuts to grow. The multiple purple hyacinth vines continues to spread over the tunnel. The cardinal vines are also starting to climb the tower, with the appearance of just a few red flowers. The lion’s mane plants are just about to bloom. Bee balm bloom is past its peak and was deadheaded and pruned, with areas of powdery mildew removed. The turtlehead was thinned at the edges in order to provide some more sun for the cardinal vines. And, happily, the fairy garden remains intact! Variations and Surprises : Julie Mangin Every once in a while, nature will surprise you. The demo garden held two such surprises today. Just when you think you know everything about your garden, up pops a variation on the norm. Makes gardening interesting! Most Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are yellow and black striped, hence the name. But some of the females of the species take on a dark form, and are often confused with other dark swallowtails such as the Black Swallowtail or the Spicebush Swallowtail. In the deep South, as many as 50% of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails females are in the dark form. Here's a photo of one that showed up in the demo garden today. Also in the garden today, I was looking at what I thought was an unusually large cabbage white. But after photographing it and comparing it to the photos in my butterfly book, I realized that I had found the white form of the Clouded/Orange Sulphur butterfly, which is usually yellow or orange. Here's a photo of it nectaring on some buddleia blossoms. Another surprising variation was found in the conservation garden, a purple coneflower showing fasciation. (Editor's note: see photo at beginning of weekly post.) Other blooms on the same plant appeared normal. Fasciation is abnormal plant growth that can be caused by many factors: genetic mutation, hormonal imbalance, or bacterial or viral infections. BUTTERFLY GARDEN REPORT: Peggy Sanford and Julie Mangin Arriving back in the Butterfly Garden after two weeks it was obvious that the garden needed much attention. Weeding, trimming and watering were necessary to get back on track. We experienced a very hot morning with a variety of butterflies: sachem, Peck's skipper, silver-spotted skipper, variegated fritillary, painted lady, Eastern tiger swallowtail, clouded sulphur. Interestingly, we were able to relocate four black swallow tail caterpillars from other areas of the garden to the fennel in the Butterfly Garden. Thanks to the garden workers who allowed us to rescue them. We can't wait to see these little (and not so little) critters grow up! VEGETABLE BEDS REPORT: Robin Ritterhoff Harvesting: loads of beets, Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, zucchini, peppers. Planting: too hot to plant anything but a couple of cucumber seedlings! Will sow more summer lettuce next week in salad table where lettuce planted last spring was harvested. Tending: - Removed bolted lettuce from Bed A. - Weeding--Tina, Corinne and others spot weeded several places, there is still a lot of weeding to do, but things are already looking tidier. - Checked softneck garlic and decided to let it go another week. Almost everyone else's garlic has been harvested, so maybe the variety [which I failed to note and is not listed in our documentation] is just slow to form cloves? Tops are about 50% brown. - Several spots are opening up with spring crops being removed. Plans are already underway to replant with brassicas (being started from seed now) and direct-seeded to several late-summer and fall crops. - Freed up space and light around the mouse melons by cutting back some pollinator attracting plants, notably lovely purple verbena bonariensis, which is growing elsewhere nearby. - in the Annex, admired the Three Sisters beds, which are coming along nicely. Jesse led Ellina and Muhammed in launching construction of a large trellis for the tromboncino seedlings planted the previous week, should they survive. If not, we’ll plant more tromboncinos, hoping for a late harvest, or figure out some other climber to take advantage of this new vertical space. - Also in the Annex, Caroline bravely took on a particularly vexing weed patch. Bugs: July is when we start seeing more of the bugs that we love, like the pupal stage lady bugs we saw in the salad table, and some that we don’t love: Japanese beetles in the okra, cucumber beetles in the cucurbits, and the beautiful but hated squash vine borer moth Melitta cucurbitae who moved too fast to be photographed, but doubtless laid some destructive borer eggs in some squash plant. Though we put out a bucket of soapy water early, we did not manage to knock as many bad bugs to their soapy doom as we would have liked. Watering: Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to water. The garden looked great this morning with many plants really showing lots of growth. This week will be one of the summer's hottest, with very little rainfall forecast. If you can spare an hour to help keep things growing by augmenting the irrigation system, please sign up at https://www.volunteersignup.org/D4QDR. Volunteers should give priority to those beds not (yet) under irrigation, plus the annex garden. If you have any questions, please contact Mary Anne ([email protected]). MANNA REPORT: Robin Ritterhoff Today we delivered 62 pound of freshly harvested crops, including Beets and their greens, onions, squash, lettuce, kale, other greens, the last of the peas, and lots of herbs, including basil, chives, garlic chives, and mint. We're up to 552 pound total for 2017. Thanks to everyone for labeling the bags so our Manna recipients can figure out how best to enjoy these beautiful vegetables! THERAPEUTIC HORTICULTURE REPORT: Bob Loesche and Virginia White-Mahaffey Things are generally looking good in the TH beds, and much is available for use. Bed 1: The cut-and-come-again zinnia are doing great and are ready for cutting. The African blue basil is a little peaked, but could be used. I strongly urge TH'ers to consider the Artemisia. Although it has drooped a bit in the middle, around the edges it is absolutely gorgeous. I had to cut away a lot to give breathing space for the basil, and the stalks I took home made a beautiful bouquet all by themselves. It could easily be combined with flowers. The delphinium is officially done, and we cut back all the stalks, after first shaking the seed heads on the ground. Very little celosia appears to have been growing from seed underneath, but, scavengers that we are, we found some volunteer Celosia elsewhere on the grounds (especially by the compost bin), and we planted it. With any luck we'll have some flowers here in a month or so. Bed 2: The Echinacea is blooming nicely. We deadheaded it today, so there should be good material to use for some time in the future. The Achillea continues to flower vigorously, although the colors have largely faded to white and off white. But it remains quite attractive and there is plenty to work with. The lavender in flower is starting to fade, but what appears to be the older lavender (sorry, don't know the variety) is growing beautifully, but not flowering. Go figure. Bed 3: The Gomphrena, Verbena and Agastache are blooming their little hearts out and are ready for use. The Tanacetum has pretty much peaked, but I deadheaded it (after sprinkling the seeds on the ground) and it should come back in a short while. The fennel continues to grow like crazy--please come use it. The Nigella has not done well at all, but it is still alive so we'll keep our fingers crossed that it will produce some usable material before the summer ends. The Rudbeckia are providing an excellent lesson on location, location, location. Those to the north of the fennel are blooming weakly, but those to the south--nearest the fence--are thriving and are ready for use. The pinwheel zinnias next to them are blooming, but not super robustly--certainly less than their cut-and-come-again cousins in Bed 1. Give them another week. Bed 4: The surprise star of the show is the Molucella (see photo). Dozens of plants are in striking and unusual flower. They would look great with the Artemisia and other flowers from the beds--come and use them! The Gaillardia and Achillea (just white) continue to bloom vigorously, and the Celosia has sprouted a few more blossoms. The Monarda is an unusual pink shade; not a lot of flowers so we did some deadheading to promote more. The Rudbeckia is on the cusp of a lot of flowers, but they appear to be all yellow, rather than yellow with black centers commonly found. Nonetheless in a week or so they should be good. Finally, the Gomphrena at the end of the tomato plants (what I call bed 4 1/2) are just starting to bloom. TOMATO BED REPORT: Dan Ward and Joslyn Read This week was spent removing suckers, tying up heavy branches and general weeding. Compounding this work was brutal humidity. The shower just about threw me out because it was really horrible. We have lots of tomatoes growing but none ripening. It will be quite some time before we start harvesting. The extra tying is needed because of the weight of the tomatoes on the plants. We also put the 30% shade cloth over 4 plants to test its effectiveness (see if there is any difference in fruit setting in the hot sun of July and August between the plants under the cloth and those in the open). We may end up rearranging the shade cloth to better cover just 3 plants.We harvested quite a few beautiful red beets from the main tomato area, as well as a few residual purple peas. Alleys are now mostly clear to walk through in main tomato area. Bush bean seeds were planted in back row where peas had been. Potatoes in grow bags: The Fingerling potato bag was emptied since all above ground plants had died back. Small crop resulted (maybe 1.5 lbs) but all healthy with no wireworm incursions. Nearly all were found on bottom 6" of grow bag, possibly confirming research that Erica had read that hilling potatoes may not result in significantly increased potatoes harvested. HERB AND FRAGRANCE GARDEN REPORT: Kathy Tsai This week in the herb and fragrance garden, it was all about watering and weeding. Everything got a good soaking. This time of year, it's mostly maintenance. The weeds are probably the only things that thrive in our hot and humid summer. Nothing stops them. Some of the flowering plants (bee balm and African blue basil in particular) were deadheaded in hopes of getting another round of blooms from them. We enjoyed the antics of several chipmunks running around. They were not too bothered by our presence. They may be pests in a garden but they are so cute to watch. Thanks again to everyone who came to work this week. We look forward to seeing the members of our International Master Gardener Conference delegation next week. We will resume 10 @ 10 next Tuesday with a report from the Small Fruits team, Ram and Gail. In the meantime, keep cool.
Lily, Susan and Bill
1 Comment
Darlene n
7/13/2017 09:40:19 pm
Squash vine borer lays eggs in the soil,
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