The 2019 Garden, Landscape, and Other Stuff Thread...

They do have a kick but it's tolerable , the banana peppers were hot .

 

Thanks for the commiseration. I think mine still takes the prize. It was sprouting a new bloom one minute and DOA the next-- no heartbeat, no brain waves, nada. Never seen anything like it; not even worth trying CPR. Usually there are warning signs-- something not quite right, but this one went straight to dead. (If it were a person you would suspect a heart attack or poisoning.)

Maybe I need to bring in a plant psychologist or play better music?

 

These pictures need to come with a warning: viewing this photo will make you hungry!

 

Hungry! I've gained a pound and burnt my tongue on the banana peppers just looking at the pics ...

 

Hurrah!

 

@taldesta
Cute face.

As our neighbor used to say about my mom’s homemade applesauce (from her homegrown apples): tastes almost as good as the store bought.

(I think he meant it as a compliment, and hers was so much better, just like those tomatoes probably are!)

 

The little girls are chatty ... most often together. Zooming, diving, perching, foraging - just outside Busby's winter window.



Still the bee balm hangs in for the hummingbirds. Hollyhocks are cut but putting up new growth. The gaillardia and all the glads/cosmos in the new dig are fair game. They do snack on every flower in the garden. The complete nectar for Busby had a lot of pollen in the ingredient list so it's not surprising that I observe them foraging on the blooms that don't look like they offer nectar in any quantity - like zinnias and gaillardia. They love the nasturtiums but these planters are further away from the windows and it's hard to get a close shot.

 

Daisy and Desta laze on the porch - they pretend to be either ignoring or guarding the tomato plants so I keep an eye on them. In the planter lower right Amaranth 'Love Lies Bleeding' is in bloom and will grow long, trailing elephant trunks of red 'grain' producing flowers when mature.



"OK Dez, get one for me too ... and make it snappy!"



BUSTED Note that Crockett is now a petunia Chia Pet, totally overgrown.

 

The new dig is one wild and crazy tangle of foliage and blooms. The glads make stunning cut flowers for inside too ... but I just take those that would snap with the heavy rain anyway. I've run soaker hoses with quick releases the entire length of every garden by the house - the liatris/gaillardia garden, the new dig, the bee balm and the boulder garden. Inexpensive hoses. This summer has been so dry, I'm relieved the shallow dug well has kept its level.

Yup, definitely my grandmother's garden



Zinnias from seed. I had thought I was planting the compact variety with multiple blooms, but this surprise, at 18" tall, is not unwelcome. Rather like them.

 

It has been dry here, but not extremely dry although we had about a month where we got less than a half-inch of rain total, but have gotten over an inch in the last week. Hopefully with September, that will change somewhat. This latest FL hurricane (Dorian) does not appear to going to impact with rain where I live. Florida is going to get hammered if the forecasts are even close to correct. If I lived there, I would seriously consider heading north for a "vacation".

Tomatoes continue to produce here. Celery is growing.

Glad you well has maintained its' water level @taldesta. That is really important. It gets really inconvenient if the well goes dry. Your flowers look great. With September, the hummers will be preparing to head south. Here, most of the hummingbirds split about September 29-30.

 

Where do I buy my tickets? This looks like quite an attraction!

 

@annr
Admission ? ... just throw a shovel over your shoulder and jump right in!

Honestly, every morning I cannot believe the colours, the patterns, how the dew drops sparkle on the petals ... and all the birds and insects that come to my postage stamp here. Thank goodness for digital images. Even more, I am thankful for the time I now enjoy to observe it all.

before ...



now ... and still a work in progress



Not posting pics of my bumper crop of wild weeds, not even the yellow fields of goldenrod

 

Wow! Yes, I googled it, and and don't see it as a featured attraction. (I suspect you wouldn't want the road traffic and nuisance, but this is worthy of at least a mention in the AAA guide!)

[Guided tour with free sample of cherry tomato and a warm welcome from your doggies. A few stories about the hummers...sounds like a good sideline...or not...]

 

Last of the shallots .

 

The shallots look great! I see the peas are in bloom. Things are looking good. I am expecting to see onion sets shortly at the local garden center (Ace hardware) to plant in the second of your containers (City Pickers). I keep thinking about ordering another one since I used one for celery. There are quite a few garden centers in my area including the usual Lowe's and Home Depots (HD). Not to put them down as ho hum as I really enjoy Lowes and HD and probably visit at least bi-weekly.

The Ace is right down the road from the house and more convenient. They have a pretty large garden center portion of the store and get interesting stuff from time to time considering it's a hardware store. They are open to suggestions from customers as to acquiring new stock. The bigger home centers are about 8 miles away.

Celery has about doubled in size in a week. My older tomato plants are still producing an occasional ripe tomato but they are certainly on the decline now. I'll probably yank the two old tomato plants in big containers in a couple weeks. The new plants are growing but will have to see if they have time to produce. Had a tomato-ham-swiss cheese on rye sandwich (toast) this evening.

Cats broke one of my 10 oz Pyrex custard bowls this evening. Believe that is the second one (or third?) to bite the dust in a 4-5 years of use. They are amazingly resistant to breakage. I ordered 12 more this evening. (I feel sure my wife will have a choice comment about keeping so many extra ones.) Like knives, I like spares of the things that I really like and use. I got some what turned out to be smaller ones earlier this week (by mistake).... will use them for backups when all the other bowls are dirty. I was sort of in a bowl ordering mood.

 

Pulled my basil today have a lot , all of a sudden everything else is getting top heavy. Staked and tied them .