No Blight...Yet

As many New Englanders already know, this has been a terrible year for tomatoes; endless rain, overcast days, cool nights, and a horrible strain of late blight that came early. So far, knock on wood, my tomatoes seem OK. I started some from seed (determinate/bush variety) and bought some seedlings (indeterminate/vining). Both kinds seem blight free.

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I'm a little more worried about the cucumbers, which do seem to have developed a mildew. I got several beautiful cukes early this year, but the newer flowers and fruits seem to be blackening.



Today was pretty sunny, so things seem better, but I'm still not convinced about this whole veggie thing. It's just too stressful! But the tomatoes are pretty much better than anything the grocery has to offer...and Basil is about the easiest thing to grow and tastes good in everything (now that I've figured out that they need to be harvested constantly for best growth), and I'm not a big cucumber eater, but they were really crispy.

So I'm thinking next year, I'm going to look for cucumber and tomato varieties that are resistant to the more common fungi. I suppose this means I'm going to keep "farming.'

-Steph

P.S. Garden Rant already did a piece on late blight, so here's their much more informed take on the topic.

List of Links
Cornell U, Agric Dept: Late Blight on tomato
Salem News: Late blight hits farm tomatoes
Garden Rant: Some thoughts on late blight

A New Garden is Not Cheap

I moved this Clematis this Spring, and it has put out its first and major bloom. It really grew a ton since last year, and makes me want more Clematis because they make me feel like I'm in Hawaii (I can always dream), but these plants are really expensive! I did start some from seed, Clematis 'Radar Love.' Three sprouted, and I gave one away, but it will probably be a couple years until I get blooms.


There's lots of new things going on in the garden this year.

I bought some new perennials:

Achillea 'Coronation Gold' (Yarrow)
Geranium 'Brookside' (Cranesbill)
Dianthus 'Tiny Rubies' (Cheddar Pinks)
Potentilla fruticosa 'Abbotswood'
Artemisia 'Silver Mound'
Rosa 'Sun Flare'
Rosa 'Belinda's Dream'
Iris sibirica (white) (Siberian Iris)
Lilium speciosum 'Rubrum'
Lilium 'Black Beauty'
Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's Ladder)

Though technically I bought the lily bulbs last year, but this is the first year of growth.

Annuals from Seed:

Pink Impatiens (common, but pretty)
Nasturiums
Sweet Pea
Thunbergia
Morning Glory
Cosmos
California Poppy
Nigella (Love in a Mist)

Starts of the Nasturium, Sweet Pea, Thunbergia, and Morning Glory have all been eaten by some dastardly creature. Curse you, wildlife!

Veggies and Herbs from seed/seedling:

Tomatoes
Peppers
Cukes
Green Onion
Mesclun Mix (already eaten)
Radishes (easy, but I don't like them)
Alpine Strawberries
Sage
Cilantro
Basil
Catmint (for Oscar, the best cat ever)

Honorable Mentions:
Grandma Dixon's Rose -- I dug it up and planted it in my yard. At first it was being eaten, but after a few sprayings with Horticultural Oil/Spray, it seems to have recovered and is budding!

-Steph

P.S. If I disappear after this post is published, my husband will be the prime suspect.

Worms!

In my quest to prove to my husband that I can save money by growing plants from seed, I split and potted up about 10 Pelargonium plants (zonal geranium) that I had started from seed last Winter. I found a home for them near a sunny window in the basement, and hoped for the best. (Here's information about keeping your Pelargonium's alive until Spring i.e. overwintering).

Some people don't really like Pelargoniums, but I think I'm a fan out of nostalgia; my grandparents always grew them in a pot on their patio, next to a statue of St. Francis. They are pretty drought tolerant and they were really easy to grow from seed, so I'm not giving up on them.

However, I may have to -- I went to check on them in the basement, to see if they were alive or needed water. To my dismay, they were clearly being eaten. There were little holes in the leaves, or sometimes entire leaves eaten to the stem. On closer scrutiny, I was thoroughly grossed out to discover little green worms were the culprits. Some were tiny, others were more than an inch long. I picked off as many as I could find, and went about researching if my plants were goners.

After some googling, my suspicion is that the worms are cabbage loopers. I did buy some Dipel Dust (an organic bacterial insecticide, which kills the worms), and I'm hoping it will do the trick. It's possible I have Tobacco Budworm, a common Pelargonium/Geranium pest, but the worms weren't reddish or brownish, and the Dipel might work on them too.

Wish me Luck!

-SG

P.S. Why is there so much confusion over Geranium's? If I refer to them as Pelargoniums, no one has any idea what I'm talking about, but Geranium is actually the scientific name for a Cranesbill. Which are much more rare (though awesome)...

Photo credit: Extension Entomology, Texas A&M University

There's a Fungus Among Us

My hostas look horrible right now. I think I have found the culprit; anthracnose!

Apparently it's becoming a problem for formerly indescrutable hostas, attributable to the humid, rainless weather. I probably won't do anything about the ugliness other than clip off the leaves and rake them up, but I'm thinking my hosta nursery in the backyard may need some major TLC. It's overcrowded, there's no edging. It's an eyesore even without the anthracnose. I better add it to my "To Do List."

-SG

Powdery Mildew - Aack!

Despite all the glowing reviews I find about Echinacea, they too can suffer from a multitude of diseases. My sis asked me to research why her glamorous orangey/red Echinacea had black leaves and some powdery gunk on the leaves. My peony is also suffering from a similiar malady.

So after a bit of research, I found out that the recent weather is the perfect condition for mildew. How can that be? You might ask...it hasn't rained in at least two weeks. It has been sunny and gorgeous. Ah, hah! There you have it! These are actually the perfect conditions. Powdery mildew likes hot and humid conditions, with little rain. Rain or wind would blow it off. Apparently the only cure is to dunk the plants in fungicides or just cut the whole plant down to the ground (be sure to dispose of the infected stems/leaves and wash off your cutters).

I opted to cut away the peony stalks. They won't bloom anyway and I hope will make it back next year. At least this is happening at the end of summer, rather than at the beginning!

-SG

Photo courtesy of University of Illinois Extension

Work, work, work

Here's an "after" shot of the yard with the Landscaper mostly done. I think he promised to come back and put in some grass seed, but I'm kinda holding my breath. Joe (DiPietro) did manage to find me some more rocks and created a new flower bed where the Yew once was. I'm totally psyched with how everything has turned out...

I added another page to my website, a "To Do List," page. I can't say this was an original idea. Another garden blogger (I can't remember which one, my bad) suggested gardeners keep such a list to keep track of projects that need to get done. Brilliant idea, because it helps me prioritize, which my ADHD brain really needs help doing.

Today, I did a bit of work in the backyard. I'm having some trouble eradicating this Japanese Knotweed stuff. It's so invasive that people actually eat it as a means of controlling its growth. I pulled out a few new shoots (a daily chore of mine), and cursed the gardener that introduced this stuff to North America.

I also moved a bunch of stuff around, including the Variegated Hydrangea in the picture above, and potted up some Hosta for my sister's hillside anti-erosion project. My Hosta's look terrible. I think the slugs are happy.

-SG

What is the plural form of 'Iris'?

Is it "Irises" or "Irisi" or is it just "Iris" (like fish)? The reason I ask is that my lovely big sis split her Bearded Iris (Iris germanica) and Siberian Iris (Iris sibirica) and gifted me with quite a few extra (yay)! I had to sneak out yesterday morning to get them into the ground (and find a place for them).

I am super excited because...I was complaining to my Mom that though my garden looks great now, it looked really terrible in early June after the tulips and crocus (crocusi?) had bloomed; really green, and scraggly...she mentioned that I needed Iris, and now I will have them. I hope.

In other news, I fought another battle against the Japanese Knotweed. The war began last year when I decided to tackle the mess growing along my fence in the backyard, and discovered that when I cut down the nasty stuff, it grew back in like...10 more places. Today I'm hoping the strategy of going over to my neighbor's side of the fence (with his permission, of course) and digging up some largish clumps will turn the tide.

-SG

P.S. my Sweet Pea is blooming!