The Planting Of Cucumber And Squash

Could it be? Is this step one in repaving the Haywood County side of Highway 209? The last two miles, at the top and with the most curves, had all the tire ruts and long cracked depressions paved over. They have a much more level surface to work with now.

Up by the roadside the Miscanthus 'Morning Light' has pretty much claimed the entire front bed after all these years. The weed flowers like Chicory, Ironweed and Asters will join in when it is their time. The Chicory has commenced.

The Meidiland Rose at the entrance to the roadside vegetable garden is now in bloom. I had business to attend to up there.

In between rumbly thunderstorms that is keeping the garden well watered.

The planting of the cucumbers and squash was done. This is hopefully a squash department. I did not label any of the seed trays. Things cucurbit all look a lot alike as seedlings.

These are the black bean, bell and sweet banana pepper aisles. The beans got thinned.

The tomato department is looking especially nice this year. So far. The short cold snap that got down to 38 didn't seem to phase them.

The okra has germinated. The what I think are the cucumbers which looked stunted were set out. The cucurbits were all seeded, not germinated before the cold spell. As backup, fresh cucumber seeds were also planted.

About now is when a hail storm could arrive. The thunder can make me a bit jumpy. It is when a torrential downpour starts that I keep my fingers crossed and pray no hail.

Big Foliage In A Wild Garden

First up are big flowers on the Kousa dogwood. The bloom is so heavy the branches are drooping. The passing thunderstorms bend them even lower. I have been here long enough to watch a small sapling, planted when Hale Mana was officially finished, grow to a full sized tree ..... and still growing.

Thermopsis caroliniana

It takes big and bold to stand out in the Lush.

Darmera peltata, Cinnamon Fern and Aralia cordata 'Sun King'.

Persicaria polymorpha with more growing trees, Nootka Cypress, Bosnian Pine and Foster's Holly.

Mowed paths meander through the Lush.

To wander in search of what's in bloom today.

Like the iris that didn't with some that will.

Leucothoe, Persicaria polymorpha and Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'.

On the Great Lawn, a negative space in the garden that is just as important as big bold foliage.

The wild ferns are still a bit smaller than usual this year. Last spring was not kind to them.

Spikenard, Aralia racemosa

 

And in the world of botanical oddities, Carrion Flower, Smilax herbacea.

It wouldn't be a garden without them.

Wedding Cake For Sale

This is spring #3 for the Wedding Cake Garden. After a slow then frozen start, the cake reached a good deal of baked for June. I've been waffling a bit on if I even like this as a garden, but what are you supposed to do with stone walls that just scream wedding cake? Those stone walls were going to be featured not hidden in a planting of mine.

I think it is the yellow of the Vinca minor 'Illumination' that is the jarring note. It had that nice blue vinca bloom this spring before the flowers froze. That pale blue and yellow together was unusual and never seen before. Some plain green vinca creeped in and I have let it be thinking as the two mingle the 'Illumination' will become more like glitter on a greener backdrop.

The "Wee White' hydrangea has to grow back too. There is supposed to be white hydrangea on top of all that yellow vinca. They all sprouted from the base. The tops died back to the ground which is not normal for Hydrangea arborescens. At least nobody is eating them this year. No more fertilizer. They were too juicy, tasty and succulent on the juice.

The Wedding Cake Garden is officially for sale. It can be yours for 6.5 million. It comes with the rest of the garden of course, including the Almighty Falls.

The other ingredients of the cake are Brilliance Autumn Fern, 'Biokovo' Geranium and Hosta 'Patriot'. I'm hoping I will grow to like it more as it continues to mature and fill in. The ferns need to be bigger and fatter. Next year if there is one.

Other gardens are priceless.

I watched a sapling I saw in dreams grow into a tree.

The Roadside Vegetable Garden 2021

This weekend has been making an attempt at warm and steamy. The shift to summertime afternoon showers is underway.

It is the kind of warm and rain fine produce wants.

Up by the roadside, I am ready.

This years crops are planted and ready for the warm. Feral parsnips are getting ready to bloom.

Up and growing are tomato, pepper, potato, pole beans and black beans. A second sowing of beets and carrots with slug bait added got done. Okra and more parsnips were also seeded. The squash seedlings can grow for another week in their seed trays. They will be fine. Bigger is better than freshly sprouted seedlings.

This is the tidiest garden you will see on the place.

Everything else is wild. The little hill above the roadside vegetable is packed full of daylilies. When they bloom well it is a major show. We shall see what happens. All the daylilies got smacked pretty hard by the spring freezes. I think that weakens the summer bloom.

I culled some reverting to greener, more vigorous clumps in the grass Miscanthus 'Morning Light'. Variegated plants reverting to the green type is a pretty common event. I've never seen it happen in grasses until now.

The first thunderstorm of the season is currently rolling by. My computer has no connection to the internet. Must be a big cloud. The kind that can have hail. The baby pictures of the roadside vegetable garden of 2021 show it looking mighty fine. So far.

Blue Light Special

Out in the gloaming with Potentilla running, Liatris pushes through in the process that leads to bloom.

Blue Baptisia

In the low blue light.

It is a time of enchantment.

This is the reality of a hillside maintained as a meadow. I have been out editing generously because it is my want.

To have more of the blues

A complete metamorphosis of the garden in living motion.

Big and Bold

Two Carrion Flower survived the asparagus phase. The others were plucked as juicy spears like you would eat wild asparagus.

There is every kind of wild thing

Where sunlight reveals the true purple of Black Iris.

In A Light Drizzle

The Time of Vegetation is here. The Kousa Dogwood is in full bloom.

As I wander I have been pulling Goldenrod and New England Aster.

The varmints - deer - have been eating the Blue Wood Aster, among other things, I'm wanting to fill in the space.

If only they would eat the plants I don't like. Is it too much to ask that they might be a little helpful? I have a huge meadow to edit.

The Kousa Dogwood is in full bloom.

The lighting was just right in a light drizzle. The garden was looking good.

There were even more iris in bloom. The Persicaria polymorpha and Solomon's Plume are topped in puffs of white.

One drew me down in the drizzle.

This is a meadow garden as it enters the mowing season.

A place where Black Iris bloom.

And this Joe Pye is looking like it wants to get as tall as the red Japanese maple this year. I made need to make a decision about that.

I didn't get the okra planted. The bed is ready to my satisfaction.

The time for sowing okra will come. Today the Kousa Dogwood was in full bloom.

Keep on peddling.