Garden – Summer 2023
It’s time for another nice, light break to forget about the rest of the world and see what’s happening in the garden, isn’t it?
Most of the front hasn’t been mowed since early May, so the orchard stands among mainly low-growing wildflowers and grasses. After most of the wildflowers faded, I mowed the portion directly in front of the house to make approaching the front door nicer. We’ve had some insects visiting our flowers, but only a small fraction of the usual number.
The Russet apple tree suffered most from the aphids and ants, but the Falstaff apple tree is so heavily laden with fruit that it needs support. This is only the second summer we’ve had these trees. I am astounded that any of them are trying to bear. I shouldn’t be surprised by the Falstaff apple. It gave us three apples last year when it was still new here.
The blueberry crop this year has been pitifully small. The plants seem healthy so maybe next year they’ll bear more.
You might recall that we deployed ladybird (ladybug) larvae to combat aphids that were decimating all our fruit frees, front and back. Then ants attacked the trees to defend the aphids they farm. I put goo around the trunks to keep the ants from getting up into the trees any more, but we fear the ants killed most of our ladybird larvae. We have seen very few ladybirds this summer, and friends say they have also seen very few.
I deployed ant nematodes everywhere that I saw ants.
The ants are still winning. They split up their nests and moved to areas they weren’t in before. As a result, we now have smaller ant nests, but more of them and they are all over the place.
This is mostly my wife V’s territory. The cherry tree bounced back reasonably well from the aphids and ants, but the bumper crop it was promising got cancelled by so much stress. It looks like aphids are attacking it again. I hope it is not too late to deploy more ladybirds… and ant nematodes…
We’ve been eating onions, runner beans, cucumbers, basil and tomatoes from this area of the garden. The peppers aren’t ready yet and my experiment with okra in the greenhouse has produced big plants with very little promise of okra spears. Sigh.
V has dried and put away enough lemon balm to make tea with it for a year. We also have mint, chives, sweet peas and a couple of other things I forget about in there. When we first created the veggie patch from a slate chip seating space to growing space a few years ago, the soil was awful. Now the runner beans in particular love it so much, they are visiting our neighbors at the top of the high retaining wall.
The jasmine on the new large trellis is happy. That big trellis is the only change we made this year in our sun lover’s corner.
My veggie growing territory is in the new strawberry planter and in balcony boxes, most of which are on the fence. Some seeds germinated better when their balcony boxes started in the greenhouse and then moved to the fence.
Sugar snap peas bore well and were tasty, but they’re finished now. So is the first balcony box of purple dwarf French beans, but the second box is bearing. We’ve eaten the Red Holland onions from one balcony box and are going through the second now. Both boxes of Chantenay carrots are doing well and taste great. We’re on our second crop of radishes. The variety of head lettuce that I tried doesn’t like being in a balcony box, but the two boxes of cut and come again lettuce have been wildly bountiful. The box of parsley is so full, I’m going to harvest it and dry it for our herbs and spices collection. I found a variety of kale that stayed small and did well in a balcony box, up where slugs didn’t destroy it.
I left the dill standing after it played out because insects are enjoying its flowers. When the coriander and rocket finished, I replanted them.
Strawberries bore well even though this was their first year. Tucked between them, I planted purple-skinned carrots which are now mature and taste very nice.
I’m trying to be patient about the potatoes.
But… as you know, we had Big Plans for the soggy lower back garden.
In case you don’t remember, this is what our lower back garden looked like in May.
This is how it looks now.
Working on this consumed my summer. I am still sore from using a heavy thumper to set posts for the picket fence which I did in mid-June. I still have a lot of displaced slate chips with 20 years worth of muck in them to wash and redistribute, and I still need to install a cat flap in the front fence as a hedgehog door. But behold! It is done enough for us to enjoy it while some summer remains!
V got the clematis she wanted after all, but a small variety that doesn’t need so much sun and will be content on a smaller trellis that is partially visible at the left of this photo.
The picket fence keeps our dogs out of the lower back garden. They didn’t spend much time there anyway. The grassy part by the house was almost always mushy. The slate chip area wasn’t interesting to them.
The grassy part is now what Victorians called a stumpery, although it isn’t using chunks of wood as oddly as they would. They did such things as stick the uprooted base of a small tree in the ground upside down with its bare roots in the air in the midst of a fernery. The idea is to create a feeling akin to being among ferns in a woodland, where ferns grow among the leaves and deadfall.
The wood is all donated pieces from friends. The largest ferns came from a friend in the Welsh hills. Some of the brunnera, small ferns and a sweet cicely plant came from garden expert Sue. The plants like shade or partial shade and love to pull water from the soil. Next year it should all mature.
This is the new seating area V wanted, 2.4 by 2.4 meters (8 by 8 feet) of reconstituted paving slabs (imitation stone) on a bed of sand. It doesn’t look like as much work as it took: removing slate chips, laying sand, laying the slabs, washing slate chips and putting some of them back around the slabs.
Of course, what good is a seating area without something to sit on? We had other intentions for comfy seating, but this swing was on sale and it just spoke to the part of us that loves swings and rocking chairs. We can just about fit a few patio chairs there too if a few friends such as, say, Knit Club want to sit there. That spot always has a breeze and in the afternoon it gets great sun (when the clouds allow). The cover we got to protect it from foul weather is on the ground behind and beside it so you can get a good look.
What you see is where my “spare” time and energy has been going. For a while I wasn’t sure I’d get far enough fast enough for us to get to enjoy it at all before the weather turns for autumn. V’s plan is much more interesting than what we had in the lower back garden before and sitting on the swing is lovely on a day like today.
I will be even happier when I have finished the last vestiges of the work and can really enjoy it.
(All photos in this post are mine, copyright 2023.)
Looking at that garden swing reminds me of one I had in Maine, and like you, I was soooo busy taking care of the gardens that I rarely had time to enjoy it. Yet, that work was my medicine. I had never heard of a Victorian stumpery. A great way to enhance the garden. I'd love to know what kind of clematis V has that needs less sun. Full-on sun is difficult in my back yard due to the lacebark elms. I found the coneflower (Echinacea) cultivars grow quite well in my yard and I'll be adding more when Lowe's marks them down. They are hardy perennials, attract butterflies, and stand up to the climate and my clay soil here. Your lush greenery looks so inviting - reminds me of Maine. August in Oklahoma is pretty brown. I can tell gardening is your "medicine," too.
It looks spectacular, Bonnie! Kudos to you & V!