The last two weeks have been interesting – more rain, more heat – sometimes it feels like a steam bath outside. I might not be thrilled with this weather, but my greenery is having a fine time! While I have nothing new flowering except the thornless blackberry bush above, all my green shrubs look like they have taken to mainlining-miracle-grow! I went out to weed this past weekend, and noticed not as many weeds as I expected with all this rain (a lot of mushrooms though), but my greenery looks so overgrown!
We had landscapers come in in May to tidy everything up, and they also cut the green bushes shaping them. I have never seen these bushes in need of another shaping during the growing season, let alone less than two month later! So, while I may not be thrilled with this wacky summer weather, I can say that my green plants are happy as can be!
That gives me hope that the produce won’t be as big a washout in this area as I had first surmised.
So, except for blackberry fruit, I really don’t have much new to report… I have flowers ready to bloom – maybe I’ll have more to report during the next How Does Your Garden Grow? installment in 2 weeks.
So, how does your garden grow? Are you planting one this year? Sticking with a CSA? A flower or herb garden perhaps? What’s happening in your green-world?
KimH says
Everything is growing like weeds here too.. mostly the weeds. 😉 Everything in my community garden is doing great.. they finally took off and are doing their thing. I still never got everything planted.. hoping to be able to do that this week one day..
Here at my house, My cherry tomatoes that self-seed are growing like weeds too.. I need to find a way to keep them from sprawling all over the bed they’re in.. I best hurry if Im going to try.
I pulled my garlic yesterday.. Im sad to say it wasnt a very good crop this year.. Not sure why, but I think probably many of them rotted due to the extreme wet conditions they’ve suffered the last 2 months.
My chard here at the house is going like gangbusters and Im thinking of harvesting the entire crop and putting in a few other tomato plants I still have in milk jugs from my Winter Sowing Experiment.
My blackberry bushes are covered too.. and I need to go tame the new canes somehow.. Not looking forward to that..
The wild grapevines are going insane as always.. I want to pick some of the younger leaves and ferment them to make dolmas.. Sounds like fun to me.. My cousin says I like doing everything the hard way.. lol.. I just like trying new things.. not doing things the hard way. 😉
My Shasta Daisy’s are in full bloom.. They always make me happy since they’re so darn cheerful!
My fig tree has put on load of new baby figs in the apex of the branches.. Hope they ripen before frost hits or Im gonna have to make a green house of some sort for it.. Strawberries are putting on loads of runners.. Hopefully I’ll have lots of strawberries next year!
Ann says
Kim are your blackberry bushes thorned or thornless? I had to cut a few of the canes, and since we only have the thornless now it was a breeze.
I envy you your fig tree. I may take a chance next year based on your advice. We shall see.
Ann
KimH says
Oh my blackberries are definitely full of thorns.. they’re a wild variety as far as I know though they could have been planted by the people who built this house about 100 or so years ago. Im not sure but they keep coming back no matter how many times they get cut.. I decided to just let them. 😉
They’re over by the fence next to my asparagus and dont bother me early on.. the new canes though arent in a convenient place.. gonna have to wear welders sleeves to wrestle them I think.
Marie says
Shasta daisies are done down here. But the purple cone flowers are spectacular! They are doing so much better now that I moved them to the other side of the house. There’s nothing to harvest right now. The onions don’t look as healthy as they did in spring, but like KimH said, it may be the rain. I haven’t pulled any to see if they’ve rotted. The cabbage I planted last fall (I let them stay in the garden over the winter and they survived) that didn’t bolt as much as the others I allowed to remain in the garden now has a tennis ball size head on it. Tomatoes are still green. This morning I saw what looked like a baby bunny hopping from the garden and into the mass of four o’clocks nearby. Glad I capped my sprouting lettuce plants with cut off tops of clear soda bottles.
Ann says
I thought onions loved rain, Marie?
LOL We have chipmunks here and Max loves to chase them! Since we got rid of the woodpiles, they have no where to hide in our backyard, but the little guys keep coming back. I think they have a death wish. We also have a super stupid bunny that is always out there. When Max runs, it does the freeze before it starts running away… and half the time it runs AT Max! There have been some really close calls. I dread the day when I am presented with a “gift” from the dog.
Ann
Marie says
Never did onions before so I’m not sure what’s going on. I’ve got them in 2 places in the garden and some in pots on the front porch and none look as good as they did a month ago.
My neighborhood is loaded with rabbits. Last year there was one that laid in the back yard for hours and hours every morning and afternoon in the same spot for a week. Had a nice indent in the grass. Even after mowing, there it would be the next day.
Debb F says
I love reading this, so I can see I am not the only one who has not been able to get everything IN that I wanted. My flowers are kicking butt! My flowers are so big, my butterfly bush is HUGE even after cutting it back. My azaleas did not recover from the pruning 5 years ago as I would have liked, but my shrubs and all my different flowers came back this year and so gorgeous. Even my roses look great this year! My tomato plants are very big but all the tomatoes are still green. I have a few peppers coming in and the plants are large but only a few fruits. I put in marigolds to deter the rabbits and we too have rabbits this year.I also have a lot of woodchucks or groundhogs or whatever they are called that live in the field behind our home and they had better stay out or else! My dog is deaf now, and it is a real challenge, but his nose works even better than ever and he knows when they have been in the yard. But the issue this year is the WEEDS. Man I am on top of it and I mulch in with grass clippings when I am done once a week and I am using PREEN like Ann suggested but they are still giving me a hard time! I was weeding last week and I weeded down to a discarded snake skin and yep, I was done. Just a garden snake but last year they were mating in my orchids and that was one scary sight all of them swirling in a ball. And I just do not like snakes.