What Was I Thinking?

One thing I've noticed about gardening magazines: they're all beautiful. The gardens are pristine, the paths are wide enough, the plants are flourishing, and the pests are few.

I'd like to inject a little reality here.

Unless you have the income to hire a staff, buy all the "right stuff", and devote yourself to your garden 24/7, it will not be pristine, plants will die, weeds will flourish, and you will have plenty of pests. Oh -and the soil will more than likely not be balanced.

These are some of the gardening mistakes (or just problems I haven't the energy to deal with and have let go) I find daily in my own backyard.

Top photo: witness my love of all things liquid. I love water. Probably a result of growing up on the Gulf shores. Unfortunately, just because I have built a 500 gallon rain collection system does not mean I should dump all of it on the tomatos. This poor tomato plant has yellow leaves because I simply cannot seem to quit watering it (it's 90 degrees, hot and sunny -it must need water,right? No. Put the bucket down and step away from the plant.)

These poor transplanted cauliflower are victims of a preventative medical tragedy. They were
absolutely heart-stopping gorgeous plants I raised in the greenhouse. Then I transplanted them, and as a precautionary measure to ward off beetles and other nasty insects, I mixed up a batch of my usual Dawn detergent-hot sauce-water mixture, and sprayed the little darlings. Since I was in a hurry, I didn't pay attention, and I added too much detergent - burnt their delicate leaves. Really, really bad. I've left them in the bed for the moment as a reminded to me to think before I spray.

Wiregrass. Not really my fault - more like a curse upon my head. I've tried everything - read endless forums on it - no one has a solution for getting rid of it. Apparently they actually plant the stuff in South Carolina and call it a lawn. Ideas so far for its termination: Pulling it up, blocking it with edging, burying it under mulch, burying it under carpet, changing chemical balance of the soil, adding salt to soil, planting a thick green manure crop over winter, and finally, but certainly not least, using a flamethrower.

Nothing works. It spreads, it grows through and around, it adapts to soil changes, it grows amidst other innocent plants and converts them, and it thinks flamethrowers are foot-warmers.

Wiregrass is the Devil. And it is invading every corner of my garden.

This bed just got away from me but at least it's pretty. These are actually volunteer potato plants, with horseradish mixed in, all being covered by morning glories. It looks like an overgrown weed patch but in reality, the potato plants are perfectly happy being shaded by the horseradish and the morning glory. It only looks like a disaster.

Back in the greenhouse, this is what bok choy looks like when you forget to repot it outside in the big boy garden. Beautiful flowers, but no longer edible, and actually pretty bitter at this point.

And of course, it has wiregrass in its pot - I have no idea how it made it through the screen door into the greenhouse, and up into the pot - I told you it is the Devil.

On the other bench in the greenhouse is a box of sad remains of what was a beautiful tray of lettuce. Between extreme heat (100 degrees plus) and my forgetting to transplant/water it, it gave up the ghost. There are simply not enough hours in the day. And in hot summery Virginia, to work in the garden, any hours you have need to be before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m.

And, my finally entry in the hall of gardening shame - my soaker hoses, all needing to be re-laid in the garden to replace ones that are worn out - instead hidden beneath potato plants and morning glories. And since we found that black snake, I'm very nervous about pulling through the pile to find whatever length of hose I need.

Welcome to a garden that is not pristine, not ready for a magazine cover, and where things do not always turn out like the picture on the seed package - all for lack of energy on the part of the gardener.

I do however have the best of intentions for next year....

Heat Wave and No Rain

It's not a pretty combination, and frankly there aren't enough rain barrels in the world to compensate for a long-term lack of rain.

We're at the pivotal growing point where lack of water can really impact the amount of produce that comes out of the garden. No rain = no blossoms = no tomatoes-no cukes - no squash - no peppers.

The container garden is doing somewhat better than the big garden in the yard, probably because I have the big water barrels up here and it's much easier to carry water for them.

The Scottish heather is just about to bloom -you know we had to have lots of Scottish heather.

The Monarda are just slightly past their peak - the butterflies have been stopping by and clustering on the flowers.

The bees are next door at the Provence Lavender. It seems to continously blossom. Not really enough to cut and dry, but enough to enjoy. Next year I may give up on vegetables and just grow herbs.

One yellow tomato is almost ready (Golden Jubilee), but you can see the effects of lack of moisture. The tomato leaves start to roll upward, sortof like a taco shell. And these have been watered, but the afternoon heat dries them out as fast as I can add water to them.

Still, the Roma's have blossoms coming, so maybe all is not lost.

But the Mr. Stripey's (my favorite), while loaded with fruit, are having a difficult time with the actual stalks and leaves. They may or may not make it. Tomatos are very sensitive to inconsistencies as far as water goes. They prefer being watered once or twice a week, and having lots of warm sun in between. Unfortunately, with no rain and intense 90 degree heat, they need some water almost daily, meaning the gardener has to find that fine line of water/heat that makes them happy.

Of course, the inedible coleus' are doing fine. Wonderful. Peachy. At the very top right, see those red/green leaves ? Those are the seedlings that were a couple inches tall a week or so ago.

The hanging coleus basket is doubling in size, and the new leaves are coming out brighter than the old ones, with a yellow patch at their center.

Nessie is still watching my boxwood basil (big afro of a plant on the right -just brush it and you smell like basil the rest of the day. Who needs perfume?). In the same pot, to the left, is lemon basil - the scent is exactly like cutting open a raw lemon. Green peppers further to the left, loving the hot sun, and their roots in that black pot.

The basic rule to remember with a container garden is: water. In the heat we're having here in Virginia (upper 80's and lower 90's and higher) and with no rain in sight, containers will need water everyday. Ignoring them for even a day can mean the loss of a plant (particularily vegetables).

Herbs of course are exempt from this rule. Herbs, after all, are beneficial weeds, and could care less what humans do.

Next year, I may plant only herbs. It's much less nervewracking.