portulaca! portulaca! portulaca!

The portulaca border is (mostly) stunning. On to the mostly bit: where the gate path drops a half step, the portulaca is decidedly not thriving. The stunted plants look healthy other than their relative size. There is no indication of overwatering, even less considering the slope continues downward past the path end. The division line […]

pepperpalooza

…has arrived! Only a few types of hot peppers made it into the ground this summer, but those that did are big and bushy, and full of fruit!

august is full of surprises

August is the month for surprise lilies:

surprise!!!

It is nearly August. So… Surprise!

one potato, two potato…

Our midsummer potato experiment is going along. Still no idea if we’ll have a crop this fall, we will see. Eight sprouting starters planted, four plants sprouting so far.

today in the garden

Even in the heat, I got a small amount of work done this past weekend. The basil plants have spent months in their little plastic grow pots. They are leggy and sad, but I got most of them planted on Sunday. Hopefully, they will recover and produce for the rest of summer. The delay was […]

garden miscellany

Various things in the garden:

you take the good, you take the bad…

…and there you have the facts of ‘maters. The Terra Cotta is promising: full healthy plants with large clusters of fruit, slow to ripen. The Black Beauty had a great start, but the most mature fruit just rotted on the vine. The plant looks perfectly healthy. The San Marzano are prolific, even if the lower […]

lawn care in high heat

This evening was overcast and in the mid-80s for the first time all week. And the only time, with a heat advisory through the weekend. So, I gassed up the Toro and cut the yard. It needed it. For all the drive I have to diminish the lawn and replace it food and flowers, cutting […]

today’s haul + flowers

After a heavy rain, I harvested the botched garlic crop (planted late) and hope to dry them some and replate this fall. What we got right this year are beets and carrots. some are still growing to size, but they are gorgeous! Additionally, the randomly scattered dill seeds (plus some volunteers from last year) were […]