Fall 2009

end of summer

As the equinox draws nearer this week, the last of the summer flowers are floundering in their soaked beds.

This has certainly been the season for slugs, fungus of all types, powdery mildew and the like. The autumn mums, however, have somehow avoided much of the fuss and are well on their way to happy this week...lending some freshness to an otherwise tired idea. Another bright spot amid the muck--the hydrangea--have, since August this year, been turning subtle shades of green and maroon that I find rather comforting.


Rear bed, hydrangea in upper left.


Creeping Jenny constitute the only bright spots in the rear beds.

And the marigolds and sweet alyssum are still shining long after the midsummer lettuce patch was cleared away to make room for a fall sowing.
The last of the junior phlox fight powdery mildew beside spent lavender and just blooming pink mums.
In the edible category, cucumbers continue to pour in, despite some foliar powdery mildew.

And late blight finally arrived in the vegetable patch this month, starting on the cherry hybrids and moving to all three tomato plants very quickly. Since the season is drawing to a close, I decided to try to save some of the fruit, which seems to be tougher at resisting the spots than the leaves. As luck would have it, I'd already harvested a few dozen pints of cherry hybrids, so I wasn't too sad to pull and dispose of the entire plant. I cut out all of the cankers and infected leaves and stems on the brandywine and striped german, but left them on their stakes. This worked, for the most part, and we've been continuing to enjoy heirloom tomato basil salads and bruschetta for the last few weeks. Here you can see that the central stalk is all that is left of these two plants. These are nearly 9 ft tall and house at least a dozen more tomatoes, waiting for the plate, if they can hang in there. Last year I was swimming in green tomatoes in early October. Ah, well.


Nasturtium taking off as the weather cools off.
Beets ready to eat.

cucmbers, cucumbers, tomatoes and storms

On the cutting board today:

We've been eating cucumbers, cucumbers and more cucumbers this month. Tzatziki, cucumber and mint salad, cucumber sticks, cucumber rounds, cold cucumber soup, cucumber everything. And the hudson valley has had so much rain that I can hardly keep up with the harvest. Tiny little fetal cucumbers morph into giant monster kirby cuke blimps, quite literally, overnight.
Next to the pile of cucumbers on our countertop are two of the dandilion pots I've been making lately along with a handful of rudebeckia from the garden.

Thus far, my three tomato plants have shown no signs of late blight in spite of the havoc it has wreaked everywhere else during this cold, rainy summer (knocking firmly on wood). I've been harvesting the cherry hybrids since late July and I've got a dozen softball size heirlooms hanging in there through some incredibly strong storms. Two did fall a few nights ago and I have put them in a paper bag with a banana in the hopes that they will ripen off the vine.

The beets are doing well in spite of encroachment from the cucumber and jalepeno plants. Barely visible in the front here are the strawberry pips that Vika dug up for me from her garden in Nantucket. They are liking all this rain.

Meanwhile, the phlox and delphinium are barely surviving the slug fest in the front garden. Rain rain, go away for a little bit, ok?



The same storm that pummeled my brandwines also brought down a large Norway maple branch a few nights ago which landed upright, impaled in a rear flower bed. While John and his dad turned this overnight "tree" into a pile of firewood, I snapped a photo and decided we'd have to plant a real one in that very spot this fall.

midsummer flowers

Garden roses blooming

By late May and early June, the Garden Sun climbers were blooming in front in spite of a bit of powdery mildew this year. I sprayed them with some "organic" sulfur concoction I made up and have been regretting it for weeks now. Instead of the sweet smell of roses welcoming one into the front door, you get the distinct odor of rotten eggs.




Snow-in-the-summer blooming along with the early delphiniums.Earlier in May, the moved pink peony produced three small and short-lived blooms.
And in the back, coral bells, white campanula persicifolia and the red climber I moved from the front began to bloom in late May.

Peas and beets in June

The garden enjoyed the rains and 70 degree weather in much of may, and I've been mostly neglecting it these last weeks...just letting things grow as I work on another huge project. The early spinach came in all at once and my mom has been helping clip and freeze the overflow. Nearly 6 feet tall now, the sugar snaps are finally blooming and fruiting out in early June, although they don't like the 80 degree noontimes.


6 different varieties of beets are adjusting to their outdoor beds, hopefully well out of the future reach of the tomato and cucumber plants this time. Two jalepeno pepper plants have been transplanted for a few weeks now but don't really appear to be growing much. Perhaps they are waiting for warmer skies.

I gave away most of my extra tomato seedlings and put in one each of the Striped German and Brandywine heirlooms and the F-1 cherry hybrid. I get striped zebras and sungolds aplenty from my CSA share so I thought I'd try something different this year. No sign of cutworms yet.

And finally, my herb garden is beginning to ballon with cilantro and parsley volunteers leftover from the seeds of last season, chives, sweet and purple basil, fennel, dill, thyme, and several varieties of mint.

lettuce seedlings in

Yesterday I tucked a row of lettuce seedlings I'd started indoors into the spinach bed. They look a little droopy but I'm hoping they'll perk up in this cool weather. I edged the bed with marigolds that I also started from seed and sprinkled some sweet alyssum seeds around them. And I direct sewed a row of mixed greens around the pea trellis.
Also today, the wisteria blooms are continuing to unfurl.
And the peas are struggling to recover after the 90 degree stretch last week scorched many of their growing ends. A few seem to have begun to grow faster, but the rest are sort of lagging. I wonder if they don't get the right kind of sun in this spot, or if they are just slow growers.

While nearly all of the first tulips fell apart in the rainstorm last night, a few late bloomers keep a little color going amid the green.

azalea in bloom

Cooler weather is finally upon us, and on this misty rainy day the azalea bushes are blooming together with some sweet woodruff and geum.