The Feral Vegetable Garden

There was a roadside vegetable garden in there.

Low on energy and enthusiasm, it got away from me.

This could happen to your vegetable garden too if you let it.

But in a wild cultivated garden full of wild and gone wild flowers, the invaders are not all bad.

They can even stop traffic. I get more visitors while working in the roadside vegetable garden than any other place in the gardens along the scenic byway.

I took a day off and played in there today. Mid-June it is not too late to get some things planted in the vegetable garden. Mid-June is probably even a better planting time at my elevation for a good number of things.

There is some open space left and it isn't difficult to make more. Weeds and feral vegetables pull easy in my dung enriched soil.

But the roadside vegetable garden will be on light detail this year. The freezers are still full of fine produce.

The leeks have been returning for ten years running.

I planted tomato and pepper right before the monsoon. The tomatoes grew major leggy. I am considering pulling them and starting over they look so sad and skinny. The peppers are fine. I have lettuce to eat.

She was a bit shocked when I told her they were parsnips.

Yes, parsnips. She stopped to admire the parsnips.

In a feral roadside vegetable garden.

Full of blooming weeds.

I take my responsibility to be scenic seriously.

I Have Flowers

In all this green.

Many of them are weeds or weed like.

I paid good money for some of them. The Thermopsis caroliniana was worth it.

Others were gifted and turned weed like, considering the conditions.

I did not plant this wall of Hydrangea arborescens.

I did plant this spirea and kind of regret it. It wants to mimic the hydrangea's behavior. Some things self sow in the wild rather prolifically.

And some things don't. I got the first bloom on my catalog bought Louisiana Iris. It has a name. It's in a bag of tags somewhere.

Louisiana Iris is close enough for Bloom Day.

The sturdy constitution of the 'Black Gamecock' La. Iris encouraged me to buy more.

I'm waiting on 'Clyde Redmond' to bloom. I did 'Clyde' on Maui. I think I need to move him to more sun for better results. Perhaps that will happen this weekend.

I grew some Iris ensata from seed. I should have just dug a division from one I wanted. White is kind of boring. But I will say both these iris species are much better than the bearded iris for growing in the wild at this elevation.

I have Carrion Flower. Do you?

Soon I will have Bottlebrush Buckeye.

Will I eventually have more of the native Astilbe biternata? Just because it is a native does not me it will self sow in a wild garden. This should. It grows all along the scenic byway.

The hosta are not blooming yet, but their foliage fills time in the shade. The wait for flowers takes longer in the dark.

I have a river of hosta running through the forest.

This is Rodgersia post peak bloom. It is a big foliage plant the rest of the time.

The Calycanthus is filling the garden with its fruity smell. Reminds me of mango/banana until it turns rotten. The fermenting fruit smell is part of the cycle.

I never get monarchs on my milkweed, but it does not go to waste. The number of insects and critters that use this plant is astonishing. I think the deer even sampled it.

Even my rotten logs bloom on occasion. How many rotten logs in bloom will you find at Bloom Day headquarters? I'm sure mine is the only one.

Another Objet de rolled down the driveway. What will become of it?

I have plenty flowers in all this green. Day by day there are ever more. In my garden it is best if the flowers can act like weeds.

Maybe next Bloom Day I will be able to show you the first ever super bloom of liatris. It is looking to be the kind of thing gardener's dreams are made of and I have no idea what combination of factors has set it off. It's all out there in the Lush.

Not Yet

This is just a warm up.

The big roadside bloom is a month away. It could be a very good year. I have pretty much let the roadside vegetable garden go feral. I have too many gardens to tend and my batteries are running low. The vegetable garden can easily be reclaimed at any time.

There used to be a red ball on top. It disappeared. Strange things happen along the scenic byway. I have run countless scenarios. None of them are provable without more evidence. It is a mystery to ponder.

I replaced the red orb with a new shape, left unpainted in defiance should the culprit pass by again anytime soon. Trinkets will be sold at the Roadside Possum Stand in the future.

Meanwhile, there is big bold foliage.

I got smart this year and planted portulaca in the small fast draining cement pots on a gravel patio in the baking sun - when it's out. Gardey don't have time to be watering crap.

I was waiting for paint to dry and knew better than to wander out into the garden. Even so, I will never be good at waiting for paint to dry. The mini-library got cleaned. It was the location of the chosen color of stored paint.

You can't be a Southern writer without a screen door.

From a strong tugging notion to a hung painted door in about two weeks. It was the buzzing that did me in. I got tired of the wasps and flies getting inside. The bugs don't bother me. The buzzing sound drives me crazy. I have been working to evict the carpenter bees from the front porch beams too. If only the cats would have learned to leave the door open just a crack. Yes, I am blaming it on them.

It is taking some major contemplation to decide on how to latch the screen door, a door catch, standard hooks? Inside, outside, both?  I won't be waiting for the wind to get it slapping. That is a given and that metaphor has been worked to death. The latching system has to work ever so simply for me, the cats, the door and the wind.

I bought the door and all the hardware I had to have. No reason to buy paint when I had plenty colors on hand to choose from. The screen door got painted the Spruce Frost haint blue of the basement patio ceiling. I have actually been surprised how little bug debris collects on that ceiling. Why not try it on the screen door?

I upgraded on the door handle to a fancy cabinet kind because I am worth it. A good knob can do wonders. I will be needing an inside handle too.

I finally have a screen door for my front porch. Now maybe I can learn to wait for paint to dry. That is what a front porch with a screen door is for.

A Meditation On The Great Lawn

They were planted as a sapling and a seedling.

I have raised a number of kittens into sloth.

I never had a plan, I just garden.

The Great Lawn spoke itself into being.

The forest rumbles with the multitude of summer voices. The sky strums wooden instruments.

I must say seeing a bear spooked me.

The civilizing effect of well mowed paths and a patch of lawn can not be overstated.

It was the maintenance gardener who heard the Great Lawn talking.

Will it keep a bear away or just make her easier to see?

The Great Lawn is not just for me. The deer have been hanging around for more than a quick nibble this year. I watch what they eat to make sure there is enough preferred forage to spare. No need to encourage experimentation.

We talk in the In Between Time. That is where I have been most of the time.

My New Eyeballs

The young woman who sliced open my eyeballs and gave me new ones and her boyfriend came to see the wild cultivated gardens on Sunday. I told her I was a long time peasant gardener for the well to do living in the Winter of Monet.

She had asked me what was my favorite time in the garden. I told her at dusk, in the evening, when the garden had entered the shadow of the mountain, particularly on sunny days. I can see better in that light. What I was searching to say was the In Between Time, but that is late night blog talk, not every day talk.

While visiting the gardens, she explained to me that there is an actual color shift to the blue spectrum during the in between time. What I see in the garden is all the subtle shades of green separate into their own colors. All the textures stand out and individual plant species show themselves in the Lush. Waves, drifts. specimens, trees and shrubs all show themselves as individuals in the garden. The garden vibrates in the blue spectrum

I wander in that.

The monsoon has finally passed. Monday morning I drove to work under amazing clear blue skies. When I crest the hill leaving Fines Creek I can see twenty miles to the far mountain that is my general destination.

Monday morning the air was so clean I could see the texture of the forest on a far off mountain. Every ridge line and fold of the mountains was totally clear. I felt like crying it was so beautiful. On the way home today I was reading road signs for fun. I couldn't do that at all before.

I still need reading glasses, but now they actually work. I'm in process of learning how to use my new eyes. Every thing is different. My old seeing strategies no longer apply. I've been fiddling with caps and sunglasses to keep the sun off my eyes, but even that is way better now.

It is time to pick up a book and give that a try. I love my new eyes.