The Roadside Vegetable Garden 2020

Up top along the byway

A late start that missed a Blackberry Winter was pulverized by a hail storm.

It's still in there. There will be fine produce of some kind at some point.

Warm has returned. Repair and growth has resumed.

Amongst the weed flowers.

Half vegetable garden

A bigger half of solid daylilies to the right and she still isn't satisfied.

With parsnips in bloom

And verbena on a stick that was introduced a decade ago. This is the earliest appearance ever.

They drive by

To sky blue chicory mornings

Floral works and Firefly nights

White And Purple Iris

The deer has been kind enough to let me have some Japanese iris during this spell of ugly leaves. They have been eaten in bud before.

No black or bearded or Louisiana iris blooms in this bunch this year, not even a bud. Just the Japanese.

The big patch of 'Black Gamecock' is having a good bloom year. The one kind of many Louisiana iris here to actually bloom.

A strong purple and white from above, the camera can't quite capture what the eye can see.

In the Land of the Crooked Shed

Where the collectibles merely stirred themselves into a new form.

Re-Potted

Buddha got a new do. In my next life please.

One Blue Elf Aloe purchased long ago became many. The ugly lower leaves were accumulating into unsightly. This I could fix. One became two new.

Becoming many is good and after a bit of a wait the Thermopsis has begun to self sow. Not everybody will self sow in the competition of the Tall Flower Meadow.

So what does one do with many Blue Elf Aloe?

They got potted up of course. This is how house plants accumulate. But I am thinking they will need to be re-homed before the cold returns.

The summer weed flowers have started to sprinkle all kind flowers through the meadows with the return of the warm. The floral just keeps building from here.

The state of the roadside vegetable garden was assessed. The okra and cucumbers were obliterated by the hail. Those got direct reseeding. No time for potted births anymore. Six 'Red Defender' tomatoes replaced the mortally wounded. The first sowing of carrots failed. I sowed them again. Then just because and just in case, a whole bunch more squash seeds were plugged in. More mulch was spread.

There will be some fine produce of some kind at some point.

And when it was all finished, two wicked thunderstorms rolled over the mountain. A sunflower and a bunch of parsnips fell down. No hail.

Since The Hail

It stayed wet and got cold for four days after the hail. Perfect weather for hail ravaged tomatoes to get the blight. I should probably just go ahead and do a fungicide spray. My soil is surely inoculated with the blight. If not, it is bound to blow in from some where.

The spell of ugly leaves is here for the season. A fat clump of Louisiana Iris waited to bloom until after the hail.

It's down there in the rain though and will have to wait.

The rain did stop now and again.

I ventured out for a closer look at the 'Black Gamecock' that came through a Blackberry Winter and a punishing hail.

The second, smaller set of Darmera leaves got peltata-ed. All my big bold foliage plants will be having an ugly year. One went completely missing this spring.

And the garden grows on.

Thermopsis caroliniana with its compound trifoliate leaves and spiky growth habit fared much better in the hail.

Leaves have been frozen, shattered and are now browsed by a deer spending far too much time in the garden. It had the nerve to squat and piss on my lawn right in front of me. This one even seems to be a bit of an epicure, sampling all kinds of new things not on the regular menu. The spell of ugly leaves is complete.

And the garden blooms on.

This spell will come to an end in time.

Flowers will bloom atop bruised and scratched foliage that cannot mend.

Five days later it has gotten dry enough and warm enough to assess the damage in the roadside vegetable garden without all the shattered green bits still looking fresh. More planting will happen. There will be fine produce of some kind at some point.

Parsnips and verbena bloom on.

Bloom Day At The Inn At Tranquility Farm

My garden is still soaking wet and hail ravaged. I already did a Bloom Day With Ugly Leaves. There is bound to be a repeat of that as is. Hail is not pretty. So today let's go on a tour of the Inn at Tranquility Farm. No hail there. Hydrangea will be the big feature for this Bloom Day tour.

This is what you get when Hydrangea macrophylla does not freeze to the ground over the winter. Flowers in June. They freeze to the ground in late winter quite often in these parts.

With flower in this bed is Nepeta, hardy Geranium and Daphne.

This part of the garden is five years old now. It was formerly lawn.

Roses and daylily.

Clematis that has the wilt. I think that is why you don't see a lot of clematis in gardens around here. The wilt.

This one bed has Hydrangea macrophylla, H. arborescens and H. paniculata.

I snuck a Persicaria polymorpha in just to watch it grow in a proper garden.

Twin Falls Pond is swimming along. I have been through a number of fish over the years. Damn varmints! I'm kinda over it, but still a bit determined to grow me a fish that is too big to eat.

A small clump forming Filipendula with Darmera peltata. My Damera got pelted to shreds.

The bride goes here. I have been unsuccessful in all these years of getting the tent removed. The plants underneath, while not fully happy, have done surprisingly well.

More hydrangea. The hardy geranium are on the down side of peak bloom.

The porch with the view.

It is year three for the Almighty Falls. There were some pump problems this spring and it had to be rebuilt. I was most fortunate to have a former motor engineer handy who could do the job. It's up and running.

I have managed to get a number of plants growing on constantly wet solid rock. The weeds helped. I kept the pretty and sculptural ones. The 'Black Gamecock' Louisiana Iris in there is about to come into full bloom.

The Wedding Cake garden is at the beginning of year two. Its first spring.

The Ditch Lilies came with the place.

The Staghorn Sumac is finally beginning to look as intended. Now it needs to do fall right. I have this bad feeling we don't have quite the right weathers for that.

So how is this cake baking thing going?

Well. There have been long dry spells and deer that are fond of the native Hydrangea. This is a nativar, Hydrangea arborescens 'Wee White', a very dwarf selection without much take away for browsing. Cayenne pepper seems to have finally done the trick

The hosta are doing fine as long as nobody eats them. The 'Biokovo' hardy geranium is mostly good. There seems to be a bad patch in the bed where they struggle a bit.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the Inn. For more Bloom Day touring visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.