Walking Around. 7.26.15

Front Border.  7.16.15

Agapanthus.  7.26.15

Joe Pye Weed at about 4 months.  7.26.15

 Random updates.

Front borders are getting close to where I want them.   There are plenty of Spring blooming bulbs, foliage now dead and waiting for another turn of the year.  They are the first wave.

For the second wave, there are lots of Daylilies and annuals.  I know better what annuals will do well.  The nasturtiums that have a big early display, then die, I will not save seeds from those.  I will save seeds from the ones that bloom for another month or more.  The marigolds, heritage French type, have been excellent and continue to bloom like crazy.

Daylilies take the heat and just continue to bloom.  The new daylily plants continue to grow, slowly.  Now that there are plenty of seed pods, I am dead-heading some of the just-bloomed flowers to keep them looking neater.

When I took the overwintered, dried-out Agapanthus out of the garage this Spring, it didn't look like much.  So I planted nasturtiums in the container around the Agapanthus.  They had their burst of bloom, then burnt out.  Now the Agapanthus is blooming generously. 

Geraniums need dead heading.  The 90s to 100 temp, and blazing sun, burns out the petals.  The leaves look good.

The borage died out, but now a second wave of volunteers is blooming, and a 3rd wave of seedlings has germinated.

The Joe Pye Weed is settled in and growing robust leaves.  At the top - there may be some early flower buds.  That would be nice.

Four O'clocks, Nasturtiums, Geraniums.  7.26.15

Tigridia.  7.26.15

Tigridia continues to bloom.  Even though each flower lasts one day, each stem has a succession of bloom.  Planting them in a cluster, in container, works well.

Four O'clocks are blooming nicely too.  The plants that survived the winter are larger and more robust than the new seedlings, but they all look good.  The more I grow Four O'clocks, the more I like them.  They don't mind a little shade, but they grow better in full sun.  They do make a lot of volunteers, but those are easy to pull out if not wanted.

Sedums grew robust new mounds, with lots of flower buds.  They will be the 3rd wave of flowers in the front borders.  Bees really love sedum flowers, so that is an additional benefit.

Of all of the main flowers, borage is about the only one that really feeds the bees.  I have bunches of oregano plants throughout.  The bumblebees and honeybees also forage heavily on oregano flowers, in full bloom now.

Chickens. 7.25.15

Earlier this summer, Ning gave away 2 of the post-menopausal hens for pets.  Then another died of unknown causes.

Three weeks ago, I bought 3 Rhode Island Red pullets.  They are growing nicely.

Then some mysterious person or persons, added 2 Leghorn roosters to the chicken yard.  Which resulted in battles and discontent and bloody feathers.  I found someone to take the roosters off my hands, and we are at peace.

The rooster and hen won't let me near the pullets.  They are very protective.  I think we will start getting eggs again in a month.

Stone Fruit Seeds. 7.25.6.15

El Dorado Genetic Dwarf Peach Seeds.   7.25.15

Peacotum Seeds.  7.25.15

 After letting the dried pits sit for a couple of weeks, I decided to remove the seeds from the pits. 

A Vice-grip works almost perfectly every time.  One precaution:  This needs to be done with the seed, vice-grip, and hand, in a plastic food bag.  The seed snaps open so suddenly, the seed and pit parts can fly across the room if not contained.

I was surprised at how puny and dried out looking the El Dorado seeds were.  Maybe they are not viable.  I placed them on a wet paper towel, folded, placed into a jam jar, and they are now in the refrigerator.

Not shown, two regular size peach seeds were a bit bigger, but still didn't look great.

Maybe this is an issue for early ripening peaches.  Or maybe I should not have let them sit for a few weeks.  Or maybe this is how they should look.

The peacotum seeds, same duration, are a little bigger but not much.

The apricot seeds, one week less, look much more robust.  That's either because they are better seeds, or more air-tight pit, or the shorter time.

Apricot Seeds.  7.25.15

I have the peacotum seeds soaking in some water overnight.  Maybe they will plump up.  If so, the same might be helpful with the El Dorado seeds.

Veggies 7.23.15

Veggies.  7.23.15

Getting more and more veggies.  Tomatoes, a few every day.  Ditto for summer squash, sometimes zucchinis, sometimes the yellow summer squash.  I have not tasted the pale yellow crookneck squash yet.  They have an interesting oily feel to the skin.   The green beans are the first of the Romas.  We had an earlier crop of yellow wax beans.

As usual with zucchinis, we have too many.  We can shred some to feed the chickens.  I have given some away.

New Daylilies, 10 days later in the heat. 7.21.15

Daylily Carefree Peach, 10 days later.  7.21.15

 The new daylilies are surviving the 100F week after planting.  I watered every day.  The original cut foliage died off, leaving the start of new leaves.  I  think this is promising.

These are tough plants.  I don't know of a lot of perennials that would take digging up, hosing to bare root, chop roots and top, then plant and expose to 100F sun.

Daylily Strawberry Candy, 10 days later. 7.21.15

Daylily Siloam Virginia H. 10 days later.  7.21.15

Starting Buckwheat for Green Manure / Cover Crop / Bee Forage. 7.21.15

Bed prep for buckwheat.  7.21.15

Today I took a little time to prep the former borage bed for Buckwheat.  I planted the borage late winter.  In this location, the borage plants grew to 5 foot tall, some 6 foot.  Might have been influenced buy the organic nitrogen, and might have been due to whatever was already in the soil.  The soil has been used, either as a dumping location for fireplace or grill ashes, or was a burn location.  Lots of biochar and ashes.  That may not be a good thing, for many reasons.  But the borage grew like gangbusters.

 The borage has dried out and was done blooming.  I wanted to collect seeds, but not up to it.  It pulled out  very easy, leaving an almost weed-free bed.  Quite a bit of water was needed to soften the soil, then worked it shallowly, smoothed with garden rake, spread buckwheat seeds, smoothed a little more, and watered.

Original book source: Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany.  Image via commons.wikipedia.org

From what I read, buckwheat is an excellent plant for conditioning the soil (green manure, cover crop).  It crowds out most weeds - which apparently borage also does - and is killed by the first frost.  Buckwheat grows in hot summer, and has a fast life cycle.  I don't know yet, but am hoping it will bloom in the fall.  Buckwheat is also considered excellent bee forage.  A comment on solarbeez blog states buckwheat started flowering 3 weeks after planting.  Mother Earth News states some bloom starts as little as one week from planting.  From Mother Earth News:  "Buckwheat is one of the best sources of high quality protein in the plant kingdom. It's easy to grow, harvest, and process; it prospers on soils too poor for other crops; and it's not susceptible to any major disease or pest problems. On top of all that, buckwheat is an excellent smother crop for weed control, a superb green manure crop, and a legendary nectar source for honeybees.".  From this extension website, Buckwheat is not tolerant of hot, dry conditions.  I'm thinking it will need the same watering as I am currently doing for squash and corn, until fall arrives.  Never having grown buckwheat, some experimentation is likely needed.  Also from the extension site:  "Buckwheat can be raised for grain if planted by mid-July in northern states or by early August in the South.  If we want to try, according to Mother Earth News, a gardener can get a usable amount of buckwheat for food in 40 square feet - a little more than my raised beds.  I guess, for us or for the chickens.

The seed package was very large - 5 pounds.  Plan: pull the weeds out of the 3 raised beds I lost to weeds, and plant buckwheat.  The area planted here is about the same as 1 1/2 raised bed.  Ditto for the garlic bed, once the garlic is harvested.  Ambition and energy, those are the limitations.

Saving Seeds and Making Hybrids. 7.18.15

Many flowers are setting seeds now.  For ornamentals, there is a choice between, letting them do their own thing, or deadheading to stimulate bloom and allow photosynthetic energy to go to root and stem storage, or let the seeds ripen and save the seeds.

For some plants, it takes intentional pollination.

My plan is to save the following seeds.

Ornamental Alliums - already discussed.  Cutting off dried seed-heads and shaking/rubbing the seeds into a bowl, then save in envelope.

Chives - same as Ornamental Alliums.

Dried El Dorado Peach Seeds.  7.21.15

Peaches - saving seeds from genetic dwarf tree to play with and experiment.  Those are dry in an envelope.  I need to crack them open and stratify some, plant others for nature to do its own stratification.

Peaches - from locally grown RedHaven, also dry in a bowl.  I want to grow one for a peach tree, maybe.  The others are for rootstock.

Apricots - see if I can sprout a couple to use as scion on a plum tree.

 Peacotum - ditto as for apricots.

Marigolds - save yellow and rust red varieties.  They are open pollinated so doubtless have mixed.  I'm not crazy about the more common orange ones, so I won't save those.   If orange dominates yellow or brick red, I could wind up with mostly orange again.

Tigridia Early Seed Pod.  7.21.15

Seed Pods Among Flower Buds on Daylily "Fooled Me"  7.21.15

Tigridia - I've been pollinating each, either self or with other color blooming at the same time.  no rhyme or reason.  I like the yellow/red mix the best.  I should cut off the seed pods for the others, why grow the ones I'm not crazy about.

Chicago Apache Early Seed Pod.  7.21.15

Dayilies.  Cross pollinating Chicago Apache (triploid) with Fooled Me (triploid).  Each gets the pollen from the other.  I am not emasculating them, so there could well be some self pollinating going on.

Also pollinated mystery variety "Vigoro" which has a triploid look, with pollen from Chicago Apache and Fooled me.

Also some others among the diploids.  Pardon Me with Stella De Oro, and with Luxury Lace.  Luxury Lace with Pardon Me.  Selfed the pale yellows.    I don't know if the one sold as Daring Deception is a mutant of that variety, or if in tissue culture it lost its polyploidy and became diploid, or was mislabeled, or is a seedling of Daring Deception that was mistaken as the real thing.  Still, it's the only lavender daylily in the bunch, so I used pollen from both diploids and triploids to see what sets.

No real strategy.  Only one currently with a contrasting eye color, which would be nice to pass on to progeny.

That's a lot of seeds.  It's all experimentation, doesn't matter if they don't grow, or if there is nothing worth while.  I bet some will grow, and there will be something worthwhile.

Freezer Jam. 7.17.15

Cut up enough plums for 2 cups.

Mix in 1 teaspoon of fruit preservative, vitamin C.

 I made my first batch of plum freezer jam.  Easier than expected and delicious.

I did the same thing with King figs, except chopped them by hand into about 1/2 inch pieces.  That was my first try, and I used 1 cup  of sugar, which was too sweet.

Dissolve 1 1/2 teaspoon low-sugar pectin in 1 cup water.

Heat to boil while stirring.  Boil one minute while stirring.

Mix the fruit with the pectin solution.  Mix in 1/2 cup sugar.

I like to pulse a couple of times in food processor but leave lots of chunks.

Ladle into fruit jars.  I used 4 ounce.

Cap, label, chill or freeze.

King Fig Jam.  7.17.15

A Couple More Irises. 7.17.15

Iris Shipment from Schreiner's.  7.17.15

My bearded iris shipment came yesterday from Schreiner's.  As usual, they are big fat rhizomes with thick healthy appearing leaves.  If they don't grow, it's something I am doing, and not the product.

I bought -

Owyhee Desert.  1997.  Again.  Unusual flower, with white edges on falls and white standards, with falls washed with rusty brown  and violet stippling.   Previous one never bloomed, and died in the bacterial rot epidemic.  It might not be suitable for her but I want to try again.  This time around, using chopped evergreen mulch, no summer water after the first planting, keep most other plants out.

Sea Power.   1999.  Highly ruffled blue.  Fragrant.

Kinkajou Shrew.  1999.  Highly marbled, grape purple, fragrant.   Reported as vigorous.

Other than watering them in now, intent is no further summer watering.  Nor, any of the others.

I also planted another of my own hybrids, in the iris bed.  This one has not bloomed yet, so I don't know what it will look like.  Probably also hybrid of Immortality X Spiced Custard, although there were others.  If I name them, I would like something colorful, such as "Yellow Caterpillar, Shivering in the Snow", or "Happy Puppy, Rolling Around in the Dust".

Irises Quickly Planted.  7.17.15

Bearded Iris Beds. 7.16.15

Bearded Iris Bed.  7.16.15

Bearded Iris Beds 2 and 3.  7.16.15

Sempervivum.  7.16.15

Looks like the bearded iris beds have fully recovered from the bacterial rot an leaf spot fungal infections of this Spring.  Hot dry summer, lots of sun, no added water, keep weeds out, and ground-up-cedar-tree mulch. 

I gave up on companion planting, except for Sempervivum.  Sempervivum do not shade other plants, they do not crowd other plants, and they are happy with the hot dry conditions, same as bearded irises.

I have a shipment of 3 varieties coming in a day or two.  I also added back a seedling that I grew by hybridizing "Immortality" X "Spiced Custard", that bloomed this spring, nice white flower, yellow beard, not too large.  There is room for a couple more seedlings from that cross, that might be entirely different.