July Garden

Where does the time go? Didn't I just post my June garden photos last week? Where did this month go? July is always our peak garden month, where the plants are at their best, and this year is no exception. I was really worried that the hail storm I mentioned in my last garden post was going to be a huge setback. While it did damage the plants significantly, the garden rallied. You can still see quite a bit of damage evidence - tomato stalks that were clearly snapped in half, sunflower leaves and cucumber vines riddled with holes, crushed plants. But it didn't stop new growth, fruit and flower production. And that's really what matters in the end. The garden back here is still my little slice of gardener heaven.

Dahlia Bed

The dahlias started blooming in the past week! I've had at least one bloom (if not several) from every plant but Jowie Winnie. Labyrinth, Bell of Barmera, Fairway Spur, Wynn's Moonlight Sonata, Preference, Apricot Desire, Cornel Bronze, Daisy Duke and Totally Tangerine. The Jowie Winnie plant is still small. I had the same problem with Apricot Desire last year, it didn't bloom until almost October. This year, Apricot Desire was the third to bloom and is full size - so it makes me wonder if it was a damaged eye or just an immature bulb that gave it a late start. We'll see how it goes.

I'm totally in love with Labyrinth, Belle of Barmera, Wynn's Moonlight Sonata, Fairway Spur. They are all new to me and BIG dinnerplate dahlias. Just GORGEOUS. The Cornel Bronze, Apricot Desire, Preference, and Daisy Duke are smaller but have long stems, great colors and look lovely in bouquets. For some weird reason, so far this year Apricot Desire is mostly yellow, without any orange at all. I'm curious to see if it grows more orange as the season goes on and the weather cools down. 

The Totally Tangerine (above) is a great dahlia, but it's not a cutting garden dahlia. Even though I've seen these with long stems, looking beautiful in bouquets... this one isn't like that. The flowers are TINY. The stems are 1-2" long. The colors a fabulous (they are a range of pink, orange, coral, magenta, raspberry, yellow, purple all at once), but the stems aren't. So next year I want to move this one to the dahlia patch next to the driveway (more on this one in a bit), where I enjoy the flowers outdoors instead of in bouquets. 

Mixed Flower Bed

The zinnias are great. Every day there are more blooms to pick and put in a vase. The mix this year has the fun striped carnival zinnias and the solid bright colors. 

I do not need to plant more than one row of lemonade cosmos next year. Two is too many! They are so tall and thick and full of flower buds. I love the pink and yellow combo of the blooms. While the stems are on the short side, they are long enough for my favorite tiny vases inside. They also look AMAZING with the Labyrinth dahlias. 

The poor summer berries yarrow is being crowded out. They are producing a few flowers, but not nearly as rapidly as everything else. I'm going go transplant these out in the fall since they are perennials anyway, hopefully they will be happier elsewhere. The two globe amaranth plants are huge and full of lots of red flowers. I use them in bouquets and I'm drying the flowers - apparently they are used in teas and anti-aging herbal remedies! I had no idea when I planted them last year, I just loved the little red blooms and how long they lasted. 

The snapdragons are EVERYTHING. The colors are incredible. Peach, orange, coral, pink... They do this ombre thing that I'm totally in love with. The stems are so tall and they stay upright so nicely. Next year I want to plant more if possible - I could do a dozen bouquets of these a day and not get tired of them. 

Tomato Bed

The tomato bed was the hardest hit by the hail storm. I lost a lot of tomatoes knocked to the ground, and the tomato plants lost a lot of height after snapping their stems (with the exception of the cherry tomato plant that was able to use the archway for support during the storm). But... the the tomatoes recovered. More flowers were set. The existing fruit that didn't fall off started to ripen. There are still A LOT of tomatoes here. The only plant that didn't make it was the yellow pear - it was the only one to get snapped near the base (it took on the weight of the others when they fell over). 

The cherry tomatoes are ridiculous. We're eating buckets of these a day. We've also had a lot of the early girls, which are one of my favorites - they fruit is perfectly sized, sweet and ripens early. Right at the end of July the black Krim set like 10 huge, purple, weirdly shaped tomatoes all at once. Things are good in the tomato bed. The companion plants are also thriving, the marigolds and the borage. Lots of flowers and I think they are definitely helping with tomato plant growth and fruit production. I will definitely be planting these again next year. 

Also, in mid-July when the temps here soared into the 90's and stayed there, the peas couldn't take it anymore. The cool weather plant had one last round of peas and then withered and died. But it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would! And now the malabar spinach has plenty of breathing room to grow and take over. It's always slow to start, but in late July with the heat suddenly it grows like crazy. 

Vines and Things

The cucumber vines have holes in them, but it didn't slow down flowers or production, and now we have more cucumbers than any family can eat. It's been a fantastic month for cucumbers. We're giving them away to neighbors, making pickles and cucumber soups and gazpacho to use them up. 

The swiss chard was very hard hit by the hail (it turned the leaves to mush), but it's bouncing back. The melon vines are aggressively wrapped around the obelisk and there are 5 really good sized melons growing. They are turning tan now and getting that cantaloupe crackling on their skin. I'm so excited! The nasturiums looked like little sticks after the storm, all their leaves gone, and I almost pulled them up. I'm glad I didn't though because they rallied quickly. New leaves, more growth, and suddenly you'd never know there was a massive hail storm. The carrots are growing, just doing their thing underground. The snap peas died at the same time as the spring peas - once they temperatures hit the 90's unrelentingly, they withered. We did have a lot of peas from these vines, it was awesome. The greenbean seeds I originally planted here were actually smothered by the peas, so I had to replant (which is probably for the best). Green bean plants grow so quickly I fully expect to start seeing beans in a few more weeks. I fnact since taking these pictures the vines are now like 18" tall. 

Herbs and Strawberries

Oh my herb beds! I've been harvesting, harvesting, harvesting back here. Fresh herbs for cooking, big bunches of herbs for drying. The calendula and chamomile produce a bunch of flowers every single day for harvesting and they go straight into the drying rack. 

The St. John's Wort, Basil, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano and Borage are all doing great. My drying rack is overflowing. 

The strawberry plants are bursting out of the bed. They don't want to be contained. There are runners everywhere. If I can I'll transplant them to other flower beds. 

I also have potted herbs on the patio. More lemon balm and basil. Peppermint, Mojito mint, and Patchouli. I have a lemon grass we planted in three pots to help with mosquitos that is also doing well. It's been a good year for the flower pots as well. 

Potted Peppers 

We have so many jalepenos and ghost peppers! The habanero pepper plant was snapped in half by the hail storm, but it's rallying now, bigger than ever and covered in blooms. 

Dahlia Flower Bed in the Yard

Technically I don't write about my regular flower beds in my monthly garden notes, but since I have another flower bed dedicated to dahlias, I thought I'd just note them here. There's a couple Thomas Edison dahlias (purple), Duet (accidentally sent this last year, it's a burgundy with white tips), Midnight Butterfly (new - dark purple and white colerette, to coordinate with Duet),  Daisy Duke (pink, split from last year's plant), Gallery Pablo (yellow with pink tips), Bishop's Children (red), Waltzing Matilda (new- red to magenta) and some low mixed dahlianovas in random colors. 

I'm totally enamored with the Waltzing Matilda. The colors are just unreal. It starts as this brazen, rich red and then fades over a couple of days to a bright magenta. The flowers practically glow.

Other Fruits in the Yard

Right now we are in blackberry season. There are SO. MANY. BLACKBERRIES. The kids and friends (who stop by for outdoor, social distancing play dates) are out there eating them right off the vines daily, I am picking the rest, and we can't keep up. 

We had so many raspberries again this year. We did not get to enjoy the blueberries much because once again the birds outsmarted me. I think I need to officially build an anti-bird box around these blueberry bushes with 2x4s and netting. Or even move to a place I can box in better. 

The fig trees have more figs than I've ever seen for July (thanks to a warmer than usual winter) and I couldn't be more excited. I'm really hoping for a good fig harvest this year! 

My citrus trees had their summer bloom, were covered in tiny citrus fruits, and then an aggressive squirrel ate most of them off. The few survivors were then knocked off during the hail storm. So frustrating! I need a squirrel box for these. 

Tomorrow we're getting a tropical storm. Hopefully it's not as damaging as the hail storm we had. It's been so dry this July that we could really use the rain, but the potential flooding is too much. In 2020 anything can happen apparently so fingers crossed.