From ‘hardly ever’ commentor JAM:
I live in Oklahoma. This is the bed that I planted entirely with seeds and bulbs directly in the ground, though a lot of them have planted themselves since.
All of the petunias and cosmos are volunteers every year now, as well as cornflowers that come up earlier in the spring. The hibiscus seeds were from my grandma’s plants that I carried around for years before I finally bought a house.
The climbing petunias were originally volunteers that came up in a patch of daffodils that I planted in the front yard. I soon realized that they pretty much just come up anywhere you disturb the soil. This year they came up mostly in the lawn where the dogs were digging for moles all winter.
This is a very low-maintenance bed except in early spring when I pull all the winter weeds and rearrange the volunteers into something slightly less chaotic-looking. I also give a lot of plants away when I can because I am so reluctant to kill the extras, which explains the mess of flowers you see here. (The hibiscus are taking over.) I’ve only watered once this year. I let the dead stalks stand until the spring cleanup, so I probably won’t do anything with it again this year unless a big nasty weed pops out.
Flowers: Hibiscus moscheutos, Liatris, Coneflower Pow Wow White, Old-fashioned climbing petunias, Cosmos sulphureus. Also bonus Sunflower Autumn Beauty.
***********
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
WayneL140
That’s the way to grow a flower bed! Good job.
Cermet
Nice picture and great effort to make such a nice garden. I tend to get too many weeds (and tend to just allow a certain level of said weeds – if you can’t mow it, best to ignore it … ;)
Well, the agony of Afghanistan has ended one phase (Kabul has fallen) and enters a new one. At least we will be out of there.
Van Buren
That’s a very busy flower bed! I wholeheartedly approve.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
The pictures are so beautiful?
debbie
@Van Buren:
Agreed. The way nature intended.
janesays
Kabul had been sacked by the Taliban, and the United States is now evacuating our embassy and the country. I’m not sure what to make of all this, but I know the media is already analogizing this to the Fall of Saigon in 1975. It’s not great.
Betty
Beautiful garden, JAM. It must be a pleasure to sit back and enjoy.
satby
Beautiful cottage style garden! I’m really getting interested in the larger hardy hibiscus. I was going to ask some of the neighbors around here if they’d mind me saving some seed from their plants. So it’s good to hear you can start them from seed.
I harvested my first batch of crabapples and will make jelly probably tomorrow. The second crab variety is getting ripe now, so I’ll pick some today. And weed, though it won’t even make a dent in the profusion of weeds in the back. At least the weather is perfect and will stay that way for most of the week, with occasional rain.
Betty
@janesays: It is tragic, but there was nothing left for us to do. What a mess.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m gonna go on a murder spree. The squirrels are decimating my maters.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m going to drown the gd chipmunks. They’ve decided that my furniture is nice and cozy. I’ve tried everything, besides murder, so far. Rats.. all of them, some just cuter than others.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, that means war.
debbie
@JPL:
Those suckers are tiny but so speedy!
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: When I get done with the squirrels I’m going after the chipmunks. I tried to make an alliance with the chicken killing weasel, told him all about the easy pickings around the bird feeder, but all he said was, “I hates da chipmonks, they sit on the stomach like duck eggs. Chickens is much better.”
Mousebumples
Penzey’s fyi – free small Mexican vanilla with purchase today. I don’t need anything but that’s too good of a deal to pass up on, so I’ll be stopping by my local store later today.
Immanentize
Great flowers and I love a minimally tended garden look. Hmm, but I also like a very formal garden….
Thank you for the view of your place.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Condolences. I will confess to using a trap to
evictexterminate a ground squirrel that was free-ranging in my veggies.At least you have ‘maters. I have lovely big mater plants with hardly any fruit, except for my sungolds which have been prolific. Not sure why the lack of fruiting. I wonder if I need to start my seedlings earlier.
Joy in FL
That is a beautiful garden : )
I love that your hibiscus are from seeds from your grandmother’s plants.
OzarkHillbilly
In other garden news, Addelyn loves her some green beans. Which is nice because I’ve had an exceptional crop this year. I’ve sent a gallon bag home with her the past 4 weeks in a row and we still have more than we can eat. I found a “30 recipes for green beans” article and I’m working my way thru it.
My eggplants have been plentiful as well. I only planted Rosita and Real Black this year and they were good choices. I made an eggplant parmesan last night and it was mmmm, mmmm! but damn it’s a lot of work. I say this every year, and this time next year I will once again only remember how much I love this dish and not how much is involved in making it. I barely had enough maters for it.
My Romanesco zucchini is getting ready to flower which means I will soon be eating my other favorite veggie. The best way for me to avoid the squashbugs is to not plant it before July 1st. Unfortunately that was when I tore up my shoulder and I couldn’t do anything until the 14/15, so they are running a little later.
I’ve got 3-4 litres of sauerkraut fermenting in the crock. I read Cole’s recipe and thought, “That sounds good.” and decided to give it a try. I could not find any horseradish root at either of our 2 groceries tho so I used a small jar of super hot prepared horseradish instead. We’ll see.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks to your recommendations, I planted romanescu zucchini this year — and they’re great! Will never go back to the regular zucchini again. I grilled my eggplants last night and topped with tsaziki, made with cucumber and dill from the garden. Also tasty and a lot easier to prepare than eggplant parm (which also sounds delish and ultimately worth the effort). :)
P.S. Have you tried the lemon squash from Baker Creek? I bought the seeds from them a few years ago and they’re prolific. Tasty too. Best to harvest them when they’re the size of small lemons. I constructed a cage this year to keep the vines from taking over all available and unavailable space.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Tip from my murderous neighbors: squirrels cannot resist marshmallows
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: I’ve tried live trapping our squirrels to no avail, they are just too smart.
Our last frost date is 4/15 but inevitably we have a hard frost after that almost every year, so I wait an extra week to plant them. I was starting my seeds on 2/15 but they were getting too leggy, so this year I waited until 3/1. Worked out just fine.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: I gave up on live trapping and have resorted to…other methods. But I typically only get one ground squirrel at a time. Cute evil bastards have acres of land to play in, but my tiny garden is sooo much more attractive. Free lunch!
I’ll have to research why (or why not) tomato plants flower and fruit. My plants are otherwise healthy and growing, although they got a bit of a battering in a hail storm last week. Thankfully not too much damage. The leaves on the squash and pumpkin plants are perforated like Swiss cheese though.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: Romanesco… Nothing better. No, I’ve never tried the lemon squash. I always plant patty pans for my 2nd summer squash. I was overrun with them last year so this year I only did one mound. I planted 2 winter squash too: Delicata and Galeux D’ Eysines. It’s an experiment, not at all sure how they will do with the late start. Pretty hopeful for the delicata, not at sure about the galeux, but I feel like I have to at least try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
@Immanentize: Hmmmmm…
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Our winter squash this year are kabocha, which is coming along nicely, and sugar pumpkin. I’m leaving Tuesday for an extended trip, so fingers crossed my garden elves can keep up
ETA: I heartily recommend the lemon squash if you’re in the mood to try a different summer variety.
Spanky
@Mousebumples:
I hate you.
prostratedragon
No garden, alas, but was last night National Eggplant Night? I made caponata for the first time this year. Made a royal late supper of some along with sardines.
O. Felix Culpa
@prostratedragon: Aaah, you got the memo! Your eggplant preparation sounds delicious too.
prostratedragon
@O. Felix Culpa: Lemme tellya. I’ve been trying to think of things it wouldn’t go well with. Even weird things like sweet potato pie have a chance.
OzarkHillbilly
Damn, that looks really good. Gonna have to try it next.
MomSense
Gorgeous flowers!!
Yesterday was pest discovery day. Something is burrowing in my side border. Whatever it is even dug under the drip line which is about 10-12 inches deep. Now there are stones everywhere. WTF
I also found a large nest of wasps or hornets in the lilac.
I’m meeting some dear friends today I haven’t seen since the beginning of COVID. We met when our boys were babies. Our kids haven’t seen each other in at least 10 years. My kid’s band is playing in Portland today and my friends are bringing their boys so it’s going to be a trip to see them all together.
RaflW
So, our family bought a cabin, closed on it in February of this year. There are various landscaped beds. One of them had vigorous growth in spring, and what I assumed would be day lilies.
In fact there are day lilies just a dozen feet away in another bed. But this bed, the green fronds died after a couple months of spring. Brown, wilty, and then collapsed. We couldn’t figure it out. What did we do wrong? The adjacent bed got very similar light and water.
And then we come back in early August and =wow= there’s dozens and dozens of flower stalks, sort of pale and with light lavender lily flowers. Poking up 18″ from the ‘dead’ bed. What?!
No one in the extended family, including us, had ever heard of surprise lilies/magic lilies. What a fun delight!
Spanky
@prostratedragon: Simply sliced into 1/4″ disks, put onto parchment paper covered baking sheets. Dribbled with a Tuscan Herb infused olive oil and dusted with salt, pepper, and rosemary. Roasted at 425 for about 20-26 minutes, and Bob’s yer uncle.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense: Have a nice time with your friends! In a fit of optimism, we booked a cottage within reach of Portland for a week next summer, so will keep you posted about potential meet-ups.
Grrr about the pest invasion. I hate it when I walk into my morning garden and find critter destruction.
Mary G
Beautiful hibiscus and sunflowers. I bet you get all kinds of pollinators visiting. Plants that reseed themselves are the best kind.
RaflW
re: the first photo in the OP: we visited someone’s lake place yesterday, friends of friends. They had a hibiscus with white flowers fully the size of dinner plates! Amazing. (And come to find out “Dinner Plate Hibiscus” is actually the name – I just called ’em that because huge).
Back to our cabin, I’d also been wondering what this one stubby tree-form sort of shrub was. Turns out a rose of sharon. Being condo people, we’re learnin’ so much these days. :)
prostratedragon
Oh I know!! We’re all vaccinated, right? The chips must have gone live.
@Spanky: Sounds even easier than mine, which took only around 10 minutes prep. The essential olives and tomatoes can be prepped on the side during roasting.
O. Felix Culpa
@RaflW:
Heh. I moved six years ago from a 7th floor condo in downtown Chicago to a small house in rural New Mexico. Had MUCH learnin’ to do and am still learning. There are good surprises, like your magic flowers, and sometimes less good surprises. But the learning and attendant delights continue.
MomSense
@O. Felix Culpa:
We definitely need to do a meet up next Summer. We were hoping to have a B-J lobster fest this summer but the lobsters fled to Canada and Delta decided to flex so maybe next summer we will finally be able to have a meet up without so much worry.
JAM
Thanks everyone for the nice compliments!
If you’re planning to plant hibiscus from seed, they sometimes won’t bloom the first year, and it takes about 3 years for them to get really big and tall like you see in the first picture.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense: Hopefully Canada will close its borders to the lobstah and they’ll stick around Maine next summer. I will be crushed if I don’t get my fresh lobster fix. Although a BJ meet-up would (somewhat) make up for any dearth of crustaceans. :)
Yutsano
OT: saw Jimmy Carter trending on Twitter. Turns out it’s because the Drumpf humpers are comparing Biden to him because of Afghanistan. Looks like the hospice rumour was just that.
Spanky
@RaflW:
Like these?
MomSense
@O. Felix Culpa:
I used to get them for free or $2-3 a pound for the “off the boat” price. Now the “off the boat” price is $12-14 a pound. Oh and the green crabs are destroying our mussel and clam harvests so it’s really down to the wild blueberries and maple syrup.
We do have great whites now so that’s cool.
ETA if you like oysters we can definitely count on those. Lots of wonderful oyster farms nearby.
Another Scott
I cut the grass for the first time in about a month yesterday. Our lawn mostly goes dormant in the summer, but I’m sure the neighbors with the lawn services and watering systems were getting ready to call the county…
I pulled up a couple of volunteer velvet leaf plants that grew up near where I keep our lawn waste bins. I haven’t seen them before here in NoVA. There was a cloud of nearly microscopic little white flying things that flew up off both of them – made me feel a little bad (taking away their homes and food), but nature is red of teeth and claw and such.
Stuff gets around this big world of ours!
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense:
LOL. I remember from childhood vacations in Maine turning blue, just putting my toes in the water. I guess things have changed [shakes fist at yet another consequence of AGW]
ETA: Oysters are good!
Fleeting Expletive
My granny in OK had a front yard garden like this. I remember as a kid visiting we would sit in their rocking chairs and watch the flying bugs sampling her hollyhocks’ blossoms, much like these hibiscus. She also had a formidable patch of prickly pear cactus among the flowers, and my curiosity about them ended in tears every time.
Oh, and it’s my birthday today. I’m not too happy being the oldest of my clan by now. Well, I guess I’m happier than I would be if I weren’t here to claim the title.
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: Thanks for this update. I had googled and could not find anything on Carter so decided he must be alive and well — interesting to find out about the start of the rumor.
Immanentize
@MomSense: dont forget red tide! The whole north east coast of MA has it, so no clams from most of the area.
What a summer! But I did get a good lobster and steamed clam (pissahs) dinner at my friend’s house in Gloucester. It was just pricey to put together.
O. Felix Culpa
So I’m off to tend my real-life garden before it gets too hot. Been great looking at the pretty pictures (thank you, JAM) and chatting with you all. Enjoy your Sunday and eat well!
Immanentize
@Another Scott: Ok. This totally cracked me up about velvet leaf in your link. It describes it’s habitat as being:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Fleeting Expletive: Happy Birthday.
I hope you have some fun
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Your toes will still turn blue and your ankles will scream in frozen pain. Just as it should be.
Another Scott
@O. Felix Culpa: In the last 5 years or so, chipmunks have exploded in our subdivision, and foxes have followed them. I like seeing the wildlife, but don’t like our Ellie digging giant holes in the yard to try to get at the little buggers. :-(
A dozen or so years ago, I started using huskless sunflower seeds for the bird feeders, and got “hot meats” varieties that were soaked in a tabasco-like coating to keep the squirrels from eating it all. Mammals don’t like the stuff and generally leave it alone, while the birds love it. It keeps the chipmunks out of the feeders too.
Lately I’ve been doing the coating myself to save a few bucks. Lyric Sunflower Kernels + Cole’s Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce. I shake it up in a big old screw-top plastic pretzel jar.
Sprinkling some cayenne pepper or some of the Seed Sauce or similar might help keep the little monsters away from your garden.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Fleeting Expletive:
Happy birthday, damn you.
Immanentize
@Fleeting Expletive: happy b-day! I guess your expletives have not been so fleeting!
Elizabelle
@Yutsano: So sick of conservatards gaming social media. Twice recently the top trending on twitter has been
# ResignBiden.
No way. Jackasses.
Raoul Paste
So AL is posting at 10:50 pm, 2:28 am, 5:50 am, and 6:45 am
I hope you’re getting enough sleep
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
this is good knowledge!
Mike in NC
Chuck Todd’s beard is on fire as he and the other Sunday morning talking heads freak out over the Taliban and Kabul.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
There’s pricey and then there’s take out a HELOC to pay for the clam basket. Damn.
Elizabelle
@Mike in NC: I would pony up for a rifle and tactical gear for Chuck Todd and all the neocons and journalists to saddle up and take on the Taliban themselves.
How they’re covering this story is a real indicator of who is wired for Republicans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in NC:
dsc
@OzarkHillbilly:
my cats bring me at least one everyday. nothing move in that garden without their approval.
Me, my heirlooms are killing me–canning jar after jar after jar of tomato soup, tomato juice (mmmm bloody marys), and chopped for chili and veggie soup.
Not to mention what’s known in my family as Gramma sanwiches = slice of a GIANT slicer, mayo on white bread. Better eat it over the sink!
RaflW
@Spanky: Yes! Though the stalks are not very green on ours. Reading about them here, I see that partial shade is OK if the tree leafs late – and whaddaya know, the tree is a shagbark hickory that, indeed, leafs late.
We had heard from the neighbor that the previous owner, well the husband anyway, was an avid gardener. We apologize in arrears that we may not preserve that legacy.
OzarkHillbilly
@JAM: Thank you for the nice pics.
RaflW
@Mike in NC: Endless war fluffers, all of ’em.
The broad American public disagrees, and we have to keep sight of that. Also just saw a stat that 3/4ths of vets support the pull-out.
MomSense
@Mike in NC:
If the Afghan government “falls” so quickly after 20 YEARS and TRILLIONS of dollars then it was never going to succeed.
I remember an interview with a former Soviet general at the onset of the war. He said something like ‘there’s no winning a war in Afghanistan, only rearranging the rubble’. I’d say that was a fair assessment.
OzarkHillbilly
@dsc: I have talked to the wife about getting an outdoor cat. The only response I get is “No way.” Pets are family and that is all there is to it.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: It was the deer ten years ago that made me give up gardening. Good luck!
Fleeting Expletive
Thank you for your birthday wishes. I’m appreciative, as I don’t get out much these says.
Yutsano
@Fleeting Expletive: HAP DAY OF BIRTH!!!
@Elizabelle: Proud Boys is trending because, to the surprise of NO ONE…the LAPD is protecting them as they violently protest in downtown LA. They even apparently attacked a Black woman who was just walking by. The police did nothing. Serve and protect my tuchas.
HinTN
@dsc: I approve Gramma sammiches!
MomSense
@Fleeting Expletive:
Happy birthday!!
HinTN
@Mike in NC: They should be required to read Kite Runner.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: The great thing is, Biden has no idea what’s trending.
Elizabelle
@Yutsano: On the topic of Los Angeles: here is an LAPD statement on violence that occurred at an anti-vaxx rally. Get a load of this officer’s language:
Antifa! Because they are masked (during a pandemic) and dressed in black. And “people gathered for the permitted event”, readily identifiable because they’re the unmasked ones. And they’re the ones in the accompanying photographs assaulting others. Jebus.
LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-14/anti-vaxers-face-off-with-counter-demonstrators-in-front-of-city-hall
J R in WV
With regard to the resurrection lilies, we have a similar bed of fall crocus, which put out vigorous greenery in the spring for a few weeks. That dies back all at once, comes early summer. Then a couple of months later on, we get profuse blooming of just the flowers for 3 or 4 weeks. Pretty, carefree.
More seriously, we have invasive Allanthus aka Tree of Heaven around the house, hard to kill, travels underground as well as by seed, can cause violent allergic reaction to the sap. Want to cut the shoots down and poison the stubs, but it’s raining hard, probably will keep it up all day long.
There’s also Autumn Olive aka Russian Olive, once planted profusely on old strip mines as “reclamation” plants, now spreading all over. This stuff is so hardy you can’t just cut it down, you have to cut it and spray the stubs with brush killer, repeatedly, over and over. Grrr. We hates both of these invasive plants, and they’re both really hard to get rid of. Grrr!
opiejeanne
@RaflW: My grandmother called those “naked ladies”.
JAM, your garden is lovely. Thank you for sharing with us.
stinger
JAM, this is the kind of garden (and gardening) I love! Great pics!
stinger
@RaflW: Yep! Our family always called them “surprise lilies”! Probably other commenters have provided the Latin name, which I forget. Will read on.
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: We had many shoots, a small thicket, from the “tree that grew in Brooklyn” (ailanthus) in our backyard in Anaheim when we bought the house, thanks to a neighbor who had planted one in his garden. It took a lot of work and time to kill it off. What finally helped was the owner of the tree cutting it down. Then he had the thickets and we didn’t
I remember it as being really stinky when you cut it.
stinger
@Yutsano: Thanks for the update — I was asking about that last night. Whew!
stinger
@Fleeting Expletive: Happy birthday! It’s tough getting older, mentally more so than physically IMO.
Hungry Joe
Quiltingfool
@opiejeanne: I was going to tell RaflW those flowers were called Naked Ladies, but wanted to see if someone else got there first!
My grandmother had those flowers (the pink variety). When I asked her what they were called, she nonchalantly said “Naked Ladies.” I was shocked that Grandma said the word “naked” but I was about 8 years old, so…
Quiltingfool
My hubby has wanted to move a shed from the south part of our property to the north part (for our renters to use). He was pondering how to do it, and I suggested he borrow tractor forks from his cousin. Which he allowed was a good idea. And, if that idea didn’t work, he could blame me, lol!
I looked out just now and saw the tractor going across the yard with the shed strapped on the forks. I guess my idea worked! Now, honestly, I’m surprised hubby didn’t think of it first, he is very clever and, as his family was poor, they were very good at coming up with ways to get things done on the cheap; or as we say around here, “poor people got poor ways.”
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@O. Felix Culpa: I know a guy who pollinates his tomato plant flowers with a toothbrush. Every single flower results in a fruit.
Mousebumples
@Spanky: aww, sorry! One upside to living in Wisconsin, i guess?
JAM
@opiejeanne: My grandma called them naked ladies too! I have a row of them blooming along the driveway now that were planted by a previous owner.
SWMBO
@Fleeting Expletive:
Happy Birthday!
opiejeanne
@JAM: It used to upset a neighbor years later when we called them that. She was in her 80s and wanted us to say “naked lilies”. We didn’t.
opiejeanne
@Quiltingfool: We lived next door to my grandparents, and Grandma was amused by calling them that. She worked very hard at being a Christian (the closest I’ve ever seen anyone manage) but was neither pious nor prissy, and I think she was a bit of a scamp when younger. But she was never the Bad Girl; that was her younger sister Pearl. Oh, I could tell stories about Aunt Pearl, and I have! My kids and nieces have been amused by the tamer ones, which were pretty bad. I should write down the whole of the stories, for when I’m gone and their ears are not quite so tender. One of Pearl’s grandchildren is still alive and believes the woman was a saint. Ha!
opiejeanne
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Last year I used a cheap paint brush like the ones you find in cheap painting kits for children.
Geminid
@JAM: Than you for the pictures. Oklahoma is a beautiful state, and it’s nice to see a small piece of it.
Another Scott
@opiejeanne: Maybe she actually was a saint.
Augustine’s life as a young man was characterized by loose living and a search for answers to life’s basic questions.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.