Tuesday, July 29, 2014

There Is A Pumpkin

In my third attempt at pumpkin growing one has finally set. It's already cantaloupe size and slowly enlarging. This is the Red Warty Thing from Botanical Interests, some of the seed swag from Asheville Fling 2012. There are even four other smaller potential pumpkins that look like they have been pollinated and are ready to go.

After two failed attempts is it possible I could end up with a bunch of pumpkins?





















You know how seed packets are always saying make a mound and plant three seeds per mound, blah, blah, blah.

Well they neglect the fine print which is the mound should be three feet tall, ten feet long, five feet across and composed entirely of dung. That is how I got my pumpkin. And a whole bunch of zucchini, who knows how many butternut squash, they are setting like crazy, and maybe a sack of cucumbers if they don't get consumed by the pumpkin.

I think I like dung pile gardening.





















I know these pink lilies came from the discard rack, but how did they end up pink? I don't think I'd buy pink lilies even at the discard price. Oh well. Pink lilies are better than no lilies and lilies are challenged up here by a number of pests and varmints.

I had some beautiful white lilies last year. They came up this spring big and fat and were promptly consumed from the inside out. All that's left are remnants.



























This year at least it's looking like there will be pumpkins.

Monday, July 28, 2014

It's In There

There is a very productive vegetable garden in there. I swear.





















The wild flower surround just has a bad habit of stepping inside the bounds. Then I am not ruthless enough to yank a perfectly good wild flower. Maybe I'll get around to transplanting them. Maybe I'll collect the mature seed for flinging. Maybe.

There are vegetables in there with all those flowers. I swear.





















The roadside vegetable garden blends in nicely with the sunny utility meadow. It is a near seamless transition.





















I just need to get all those Rudbeckia and Vernonia out of there and down in to the meadow. The easiest way is by seed.





















They won't transplant well like the grasses. I'll just have to collect the seed. Then I have to get ruthless.


Sunday, July 27, 2014

In West Asheville






















Preparing for the upcoming West Asheville Garden Stroll on Saturday, September 13th.


Saturday, July 26, 2014

Like This

I went to work with the truck loaded like this





















And came back home with two Aralia racemosa in a sack





















Which is how I end up with a garden that looks like this





















And is filled with all kinds of things like this



































































































There is something to be said for gardening with divisions, gifts, discards and findlings.


Friday, July 25, 2014

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Summer Bloom At Client #1's






































Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Torrential

Every other rain has been a gully washer. I've lost count of how many times we have gotten an inch plus of rain in less than an hour. Culvert Falls has been flowing so regularly I was forced to finally and permanently divert the flow to where it needed to go.

But rain makes Lush even in the shade. My bold foliage additions in the shadier parts of the garden are doing fine in all this wet.





















Big foliage like the Rodgersia have are critical to breaking up the little leaf syndrome and saying garden in the wild Lush that grows in the shade.





















Big drifts of one thing also make a statement in all this space. One of this and one of that will only get lost in the green monotony.





















The Lush is still standing pretty straight and tall considering. There is all kinds of budding going on. All that green will soon burst into bloom. The exuberant chaos of late summer is coming.





















Joe Pye is leading the way.


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Leaving Blue

If I didn't have to leave for work. If it wouldn't appear too odd. I might park a chair at the top of my driveway and watch the chicory until it closed for the day.





















It is spreading by its own means and at its own pace. My seed flinging has been to little effect. I need chicory I can see while sittin' on the front porch. I'll fling some more seed.


Monday, July 21, 2014

Mostly Composites

Helianthus





















Helianthus annuus





















Rudbeckia





















Echinacea





















The Origanum filler



























Ratibida



























Echinacea purpurea





















Rudbeckia hirta





















More Echinacea



























And a hillside of Lysimachia


Saturday, July 19, 2014

Moist

It rained for at least thirty hours. I had another day off and another nice long nap. It's odd how fidgety I can get when I am cooped up. I don't sit still well. Oh well.

This kind of wet at this stage of growth of the tall flower meadow is when things begin to fall down. I pay more attention now to those plants that remain standing.

The Ratibida columnifera is still here. It's numbers are dwindling. It stands up, but the competition must be too tough for it to thrive and multiply.



























The Eryngium yuccifolium is a known flopper. It is worth having though. It just means it shouldn't be growing next to any paths.





















Clematis stans is coming into bloom. It is a rambling herbaceous shrub by nature. I need to know the habits of things because Gardy don't stake and tie up no plants. Floppage is acceptable within limits of type and quantity. A complete failure to stand up is a qualification for dismissal. Stand on your own or face banishment.

Sadly, at eight feet tall, the ironweed has great trouble standing and when it falls it bends right at the base next to the ground. Those stems will have to be cut off before they have a chance to bloom.



























It's moist out there. Now we are in the misty fog phase of things. The rain appears to have ended.





















The tall flower meadow grows on.