These are bigger versions of Gravie’s flower. I love them to death! I’ve got a pink one just like hers and several red ones and the flowers – especially on the red ones – are humongous (about the size of a salad plate).
Also (h/t commentor Southern Beale), a Regretsy saga explaining why it is important for urban farmers to know the difference between okra and… other palmate green plants.
***********
What’s it like in your gardens, right now?
Montarvillois
The heat has kept me inside too much but have tried to keep up the watering which at this time my town only allows to be done manually (no sprinklers or soaker hoses). I purchased a blue Hibiscus (syriacus) last week which will be planted when things cool off. Beautiful. Rain in the forecast for today so keeping my fingers crossed.
raven
The princess got up at 6am to water and, of course, it rained like hell @ 9! The vegetables are pretty much lost but the zinnia’s are ok. Crape myrtles are in full bloom and she’s had so many figs she doesn’t know what to do with them. She gave away tons.
raven
In case ABL or Southern Beale swing by
jenn
Ok, that was one of the funniest stories I’ve heard in awhile. Think I’m going to pass that along!
.
Happy that its finally cooling down. A little bit of rain, ooh, and the first rumble of thunder. Tried sleeping outside, but the dogs are having too much fun to settle. So, popping in here, and checking out the Olympic mary liveblog. Go Shalane!
JPL
Yesterday we had a shower so the plants are happy. Actually it was nice not to drag around hoses at six in the morning. If the ten day forecast is accurate, the hose might not be necessary for awhile.
The Williams sisters are warming up and play should start soon.
R-Jud
When I returned from vacation in mid-July I found my garden devastated by slugs. I mean, shredded. Sluggagedon. Slugnarok.
I wrote off pretty much all of my vegetables, but am pleased to say that the sugar-snaps recovered entirely, and a few of my broccoli plants fought back. They’re nearly ready to harvest. And it looks like we will get a second raspberry crop, this one bigger than the first.
geg6
Total and utter exhaustion in the geg household after the dog-almost-drowning adventure yesterday. I’m the only one up and it’s finally a morning in the mid-70s with intermittent showers. We’ve been eating cherry tomatoes like berries and plan to make some tomato sauce to can today. Bought some corn on the way home from the camp in Titusville yesterday and, wow, was it sweet. Think I’ll get some steaks and have those with more corn for dinner. Add some cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden and a bottle of red and that will be an easy peasy dinner.
In political news, we saw several cars in downtown Franklin, PA yesterday with Obama 2012 bumper stickers yesterday. This is rural Western PA folks. It made us smile.
mai naem
@raven: I watched an NBC interview with Gabby Douglas with the other gymnasts before the actual competition. My impression of Gabby was pretty negative. She acted like she had already won the medals. I don’t really follow gymnastics except for the Olympics so I didn’t even know who Douglas was. Also it seemed to me,again this is just the impression I got, was that she was “apart” from the team. Right after Ally was done with her routine and they were waiting for confirmation of the gold she ran off to the side with her coach, the other girls huddled together. I don’t know if the rest of the team’s treated her badly or if she’s caused some kind of schism, it’s strictly my impressions. BYW this was all before all the super positive coverage she’s received. I just wonder if ABL is being oversensitive about Douglas’ coverage.
OT, why does MSNBC have Olympics coverage right now , but NBC, CNBC and Bravo all have infomercials. MSNBC which is the only station which would have new current programming has the Oympics.
Also too, I have nothing to add to the gardening thread because I just get jealous reading all this garden stuff. Nothing grows in our house except ugly ass desert plants.
Kathi
Outside of Pittsburgh, I’m really hoping for rain today because I’m getting tired of dragging the hose around. Still getting close to a pint/day off the blackberries and the grapes are starting to ripen. Think I’m going to make myself a mess of fried green tomatoes and okra for dinner tonight – I can feel the arteries hardening in anticipation but what fun is growing your own veggies if you can’t indulge yourself now and then?
geg6
@mai naem:
Word is, like happens in almost any group of teenage girls, there is a clique that has decided they were the queen bees and that Abby wasn’t. As for the coverage, it would seem to me that when at least two major newspapers put a big frontpage photo of the gymnastics team without Gabby in the photo or in the background with her back to the camera, despite the dozens and dozens of photos they had access to that showed the entire team, there’s something wrong there.
wonkie
Annie Laurie, Did Triassic Sands ever get back to you about that black and white cat?
geg6
@Kathi:
Outside of Pittsburgh? Do you mind if I ask where? I’m just outside of Pittsburgh, in Center Township in Beaver County. It’s been raining, on and off this morning here.
JPL
@mai naem: I’m watching the Williams sisters online but I believe it’s on NBCsports channel.
NancyDarling
It has been raining in my part of NW Arkansas all night. Yay!
Some thunder and lightning came with it so I shared my bed with my 90 pound sissy boy. I was terrified of thunderstorms when I was little so I understand how he feels. He is very brave about everything else, and I have no doubt he would give his life for me. A few years ago I had gone out for a few hours and left him in his chain-link pen. A thunderstorm blew in and he busted out of it—that’s how scared he was.
amk
Williams sisters win Olympic Gold Medal 6-4 6-4.
JPL
@amk: The bronze medal matches are delayed and the USA has another opportunity for a medal.
gelfling545
I don’t grow okra as I am allergic to it. Oddly enough I am very allergic to that other palmate plant as well.
Today is going to be a killer as it’s very humid but my favorite local nursery had an end of season (about a month early) fill a cart for $25 sale so naturally I filled a cart, stuffed my car full, unloaded it & went back for another cartful. My driveway is covered with flats of perennials. Given that I have only a city lot this may take some creative placement. Some of it will go in the curb strip where I removed the sod & mulched last fall and a few things are donations to my daughters’ gardens. OMG it is so hot, though, I am already watering my containers 3 times a day. I need to get these in the ground fast because more containers to water is not part of my plan.
Kathi
@geg6
I’m in New Kensington, where it’s oppressively humid and also overcast but no rain yet. Radar is looking good, though…
Wag
Dead. The heat last month nuked my tomatoes
Actually, the basil is doing well. I guess it’ll be pesto this year
Phylllis
We tried veggies in containers the last couple of years, but took a break from it this year. Hubs mentioned yesterday we probably should try again next Spring, with all the talk of rising food prices.
Today we’re off to the State Museum to see the Titanic exhibit. I have a discount membership due to working in a school district that we really don’t take enough advantage of.
Canuckistani Tom
Doing well. We got an unexpected shower yesterday evening as a t-storm came ashore further west than expected. All the rain barrels are full again.
cathyx
Of course I have lots of zucchini. But I harvest them really small so I can keep up. Carrots are exceptional this year, and lettuce hasn’t bolted yet because it’s been cool. But because it’s been cool, no tomatoes yet.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Wow. First I’ve heard of the dog-almost-drowning adventure. You must have posted about it (I would imagine), and I thought I was pretty much caught up on recent threads, but I missed that! Hope everyone involved is okay.
Steeplejack
Getting slightly cooler in NoVa. It’s 82° already this morning, with 70% humidity, but allegedly going only to 91° later today. Then highs in the high 80s the rest of the week, which will be a nice change from the mid-90s this last week. Maybe some rain later this afternoon, which would be nice.
Off to Target now in search of a small microwave oven, hoping to beat the crowds but maybe too late for that already. And I need a lampshade for a really cool little lamp that a friend gave me.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@mai naem: As a random data point, I showed the USA Today photo to my PT without comment. Black guy, track and field type. His immediate reaction was “Someone’s missing.”
We talked a bit about the various reactions to Gabby. I left him vowing to follow up with his ex-wife (a cosmetologist) and some of his other clients about ideas for combating the hair nonsense among the kids he also works with.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
OMG, too long a story to post again, but check out ABL’s thread from last night. What a day! It was a very Cole-like accident.
raven
@geg6: I agree I just don’t think the assassin comment was all that horrible or unique.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6: Holy cow! What a scary time for all of you. I’m glad Otis is none the worse for his not-so-excellent adventure, not to mention you and John. (I must have left that thread just a minute or two before you commented so missed it completely the first time around.)
JPL
@geg6: I just read the story about your dog. Wow! I’m glad everyone is safe. Once while canoeing we had to carry the canoe because the stream was blocked by fallen trees and limbs. Duchess, my golden, jumped into the stream and got caught in the rubble. My SO at the time saved her. The dog was okay but it took me a few days to recoup.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Hope your birthday was filled with fun.
WaterGirl
@Montarvillois: I got one of those years ago, and planted it in the corner of my yard. At the same time, I also planted 3 of the hibiscus whose flowers are the size of a dinner plate.
A couple of years later, in the fall, I cut down the 3 hibiscus, as you are supposed to do. So I come out in the spring only to discover that one of my hibiscus is still there. How can that be? And my rose of sharon is gone!
As is probably obvious, I had accidentally cut down the rose of sharon (like the one you just got) and left one of the hibiscus.
I held my breath for weeks waiting to see whether I had killed the rose of sharon with my mistake. It came back bigger and stronger than it had been before, and it also put out a ton of shoots, so I have close to a dozen rose of sharon in that corner.
What I found most interesting was that I now have a mix of colors: the original blue, which I think is a hybrid, and colors from the original plants used to come up with the hybrid. I think it’s very pretty.
WaterGirl
@raven: I fell in love with crepe myrtles when I went to North Carolina a few years ago. I wish they would grow in Zone 5.*
This may be a case of “be careful what you wish for” since climate change may well change what we are able to grow. While it would be awesome to be able to have a crepe myrtle, it would be devastating on the state-of-the-earth front.
WaterGirl
@wonkie: I was away earlier this week so I have been playing catch-up on some older threads. I saw your comment about how you found a home for the black and white kitty and sent Soonergrunt an email about it, hoping that he would be able to contact one of the principals.
Still no response from anyone involved?
I think it’s awesome, by the way, that you made all the arrangements, and I imagine that it’s maddening that you can’t seem to get a response now.
Kathi
@WaterGirl: Think it’s very hard to kill a rose of sharon. I don’t cut the native hibiscus back until spring, same as with the ornamental grasses and butterfly bushes because i read a long time ago that leaving that chore until spring helps keep them nourished longer. Don’t know for sure about that but they are all more interesting to look at in winter.
smintheus
One of my three tomato beds has been suffering from a lot of septoria leaf spot. Mulching and pruning hasn’t deterred it, so yesterday I thought I’d try some light bleach water spray. So far so good, keeping fingers crossed.
Spent 5 hours last night de-stemming basil leaves and making pesto to freeze. Regularly pruning off the tops of the basil this summer, and the plants are producing like mad. Already have pesto in the freezer enough for 15 lbs of pasta, and I’m aiming for 50 by Sept.
Best crop of corn this year we’ve ever had. On the other hand, the heat killed off the potatoes so early that we’re getting at most half the normal crop. Luckily I planted twice as many potatoes as we needed.
muddy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudpix/7717738674/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudpix/7717738244/in/photostream
MooDoo encouraging ridiculous growth, I never had the like in the old veg space.
RSA
OT: TBogg points us to an unnamed-but-easily-guessed blogger who, in preparation for the upcoming election, is holding a fundraiser: “I need — yes, need, and desperately so — to raise the capital for at least one very good and reliable all-purpose rifle, one that I can use for defense, close quarter combat, hunting, and maybe even as a melee weapon.” Unfortunately, it will cost a few thousand dollars, but his wife doesn’t think it should be part of their household budget.
smintheus
We finally got our first ripe figs this week here in PA. The trees were set back at least a month by an early heat wave followed by a late frost, but they’ve finally bounced back and are loaded with figs.
Last summer we had such a bumper crop that I couldn’t give the figs away fast enough and finally turned about 30 lbs of them into 5 gallons of wine. Created my own recipe, and it’s damned good.
muddy
@geg6: I had a black lab mix that hated water, it only belonged in the bowl as far as he was concerned. One fall we were shutting down the pool, had got to the point of having the cover on, but it was not tightened down.
The dog sees an apparent new surface he has never gone on before, and happily launches himself off the deck onto the new “lawn”. Went straight down wrapped inside the tarp. Thank the gods my son was there, because the ladder had already been removed, and there was no way I could heft the 125# dog. He had to jump in the freezing October water, and disentangle the dog, and heave him up over his shoulder to clamber out.
The dog was then completely convinced that his theories of the horrors of water had come true.
Then the next year he was sleeping on the pool deck while I was swimming, and he rolled over in his sleep, right into the pool. Both times he was so panicked that he didn’t even realize he was swimming. I shoved his ass up the ladder, and he ran away to hide somewhere dry. Poor guy.
Kristine
Harvested the first tomato this week, one of the St Pierre. The Black Cherry caught up after an early-season caterpillar-induced stumble, and had put forth fruit like whoa. I will be picking quite a few of those before the week is out, along with the Arkansas Traveler.
We had about a third of an inch of rain in far NE Illinois yesterday; the city and points south got pounded. After that, cool front. Mid-90s and humid yesterday, lo 80s, dry, and a cool breeze today. Supposed to stay in the 80s through the week, which should bode well for the tomatoes.
I did have to execute a hornworm yesterday. Didn’t catch it until after it had wiped out several Black Cherry greenies, and only found it when I followed the trail of chewed leaves. Funny how something so big can be so hard to find. Kinda like Mitt’s tax returns.
Kristine
@geg6:
Went back to ABL’s thread and read–so glad Otis is all right.
jnfr
Unless we get hail I’m on course to have a bumper crop of eggplants, peppers and tomatoes by the end of the month. The heat finally relented a bit and everything started to set fruit like crazy.
Yutsano
@raven: I will gladly take some fresh figs! I’ll even kick in for shipping!
gravie
I spent about three hours today cutting down a small junk tree that was infested with porcelainberry and uprooting some honeysuckle that I foolishly allowed to take root. So now I have two new chapters for my Mid-Atlantic Gardeners’ Guide to Staying Sane: “Don’t Get Sucked In By Honeysuckle” and “Porcelainberry: Spawn of Satan.”
wonkie
@WaterGirl: Yes. It is maddening. I sent three emails to Annie Laurie and gave Triassic my email and I’ve heard absolutely nothing. Thanks for forwarding the situation to soonergrunt.
Im not sure how much longer the home in Chehalis wil be available. The old gentleman who would like a cat can go down to the pound and get one any time.
WaterGirl
@wonkie: I don’t know that it will help, but I just sent email to Anne Laurie, too.
Anne Laurie
@wonkie: For some reason, your emails never reached me (FY, Eudora!) but now I’ve sent you an email with Triassic Sand’s phone number & email address so that you can make direct contact.
For general reference, the black-and-white cat is still hanging around, and Triassic Sands thinks someone else in the neighborhood may be feeding it as well. He’s got a live-trap from the local Friends of Animals, and the promise of immediate veterinary treatment if the cat can be captured.
He’s got my phone number as well, and I told him that as soon as he contacted me with news, I will put up another ‘Rescue Bleg’ post so people know what’s going on (and if we’ll need to call in any of those offers for donations, transport assitance, etc.)….