how all my plants are doing-

My beets are looking nice- healthier than ever I think. Some of the leaves get pale, bleached-looking patches I've read this is probably leaf miner and the best thing to do is just remove those leaves, throwing away the bugs on them in the process. I've been doing that and the incidents of bleach-patched leaves is reducing.

Carrots are also nice and thick now. Added more straw mulch and there's few weeds. Those bits I had pulled up earlier thinking they were carrots, turns out is a sedge. Still pulling some.

Tomatoes are planted out, around the tokyo bekana. About twice a week I cut all the tokyo bek (it grows back quickly) and we eat it sauteed in butter and salt. After cutting out the worst bits with slug holes, it's just enough for one side dish. I ought to set a slug trap again- the coffee grounds doesn't seem to be much deterrent.

Some of my tomato plants had yellowing leaves (see just lower left of center) at the end of their time in pots. But the new leaves are growing in a healthier green- as you can see on the upper part of this plant- so I think they'll be okay. There are some flowers appearing (top right)!

We have begun eating the chard:

Lettuces and tatsoi are starting to bolt, we're having a few days in the eighties now. The last cutting I took of lettuce was a bit bitter, blanched that out in cold water all day to make it edible, but now they're at end. On the right in bed 5, lavender on the near side of it is awfully scraggly- it suffered this past winter- but after flowering I will cut it back and hope it regrows nicer. 

On the far end, sorrel is overwhelming the bit of lemon balm. Which is okay, I never really use the lemon balm. Sorrel is sending up flower stalks which I regularly cut off. I will probably have to divide this plant soon, it's getting too big! There's green onions there in the middle and some sculpit, but too small to see from the overhead shot.

and the lower center plant is purple clematis climbing the deck post- just at the end of its bloom time

Turnips are doing okay here in bed 9, but collards remain small. I think it is because I made the mistake of putting layer sticks and wood bits over the cardboard when I started this bed years ago- nothing has done well in 8 or 9 since. Why do people recommend that so much? It definitely hasn't work for me. Other sources tell me that wood buried in the garden bed can tie up nitrogen for five to seven years! I am not positive of course, that's the reason my plants falter in this bed (tomatos did poorly here several years ago) but I'm not repeating the experiment.

In that round repurposed planter in the corner, I've put out the hyssop.

More later

reckoning

There's a lot to re-evaluate as I start working in the garden again. I found out which plants can't survive the winter without extra mulch and care. I've lost my potted figs, chocolate mint, green onions, tarragon, some stinking hellebores, the hyssop, winter savory and probably more that I can't remember now. Or have forgotten their names. 

I was surprised to find that both rosemary plants are still alive- doing better when I ignored them. My shady sideyard has been overwhelmed by the joe pye weed and black-and-blue salvia (which pleases me). The salvia crowded out the lamb's ears and gladiolas. Somehow I don't mind loosing some glads- I'm not as fond of them anymore- but I do miss the lamb's ears. Mabye I will try to move them to a different spot, because I love seeing the blue salvia thrive. I even saw two hummingbirds fighting over the space this week! 

I find I'm not too keen on the yellow salvia under my trees anymore, or the sensitive fern that looks terrible half the year, or the 'autumn joy' sedums that the deer munch on so they don't look great and have very few blooms. My lilac appears to be suffering, some branches have died, and my lavender is much reduced in size, but I cut out a lot of dead stems and hope it will grow back.

Today I pulled out a ton of mock strawberry in and around some garden beds, and straightened out one whole brick row of edging, on bed 4. I thought I was lining the bricks up straight enough, but then when I got to the end the last brick wouldn't meet the corner one square. So I took them all off again and ran a string line from one end to the other. Redid it- much straighter! Packed the clay soil in tight underneath and hopefully I won't have to re-do this one for several years (the clay gets pretty solid). I'm pleased because this bed has always had a crooked edge where the stump of an old tree never came out. I finally broke up and removed most of that. Then planted some calamint (nepitella) along the edge- which I'd pulled up when trimming in the front bed. Stems had rooted where they trailed on the ground. Easy to move and put in more areas. Such a bright, sharp scent.

The lovage there at the end wasn't doing too great but a few weeks ago I cut out yellowing foliage, weeded around it, mulched and watered. It's perking up a little bit.

In bed 1, I yanked out all the mock strawberry but left half a dozen of this plant that's growing there as volunteer (or weed) also. I've always left a few of these around the yard, they seem to get eaten more by the insects - so I view it as a decoy or trap plant. I still don't know what it is!

I was also pleased to see that the little broken stone "mowing strip" I dug in along the outside base of bed 1, is mostly still in place! There were some weeds in the cracks but once I pulled those up, it was far easier to make this a clean edge when mowing. Encourages me to continue with that project (I have a lot of rocks stacked on my bench intended for this). There are more edging bricks to straighten too (as visible on the left).

Here's the few herbs I have: parsley, thyme and chives. All bought as starts from the nursery months ago, I didn't do anything from seed this year. With my cat Eliza in the window.

She was meowing at me.

I had basil and mint also, but they died. I forget to water sometimes, still. I've removed and dumped the soil from the planter boxes that hung on my deck railings. One was badly cracked and spilled- I'd fixed it with duct tape years ago but it wasn't holding and looked awful. Another was warped, and all four the plastic really faded and discolored. Not sure yet if I will replace those or use them somewhere else. 

It's a lot of work but I'm trying to just do a little bit at a time. Mostly focused on rebuilding and fixing structures in the garden, improving the soil again (when I pulled off the bricks, nice to see the soil was still dark and healthy-looking under the dried crusty top inches), and getting rid of weeds. Have to figure out a fencing solution too, or the rabbits will just eat everything I grow. Oddly, I have not seen many squirrels in my yard this year. We do have red-tailed hawks, an owl and foxes that come through regularly, I wonder if they have just reduced the numbers. Or if they don't have as many nuts to bury, or if they aren't interested in digging in my garden because the soil got so hard and compacted without me working and amending it.

not much

in the garden, so I admire more what is there. I was out pulling weeds (purple dead nettle mostly) from beds five and seven, noticed right away that the one which I'd mulched with cut monarda stems just recently, already the soil is softer and holding moisture. Here where it's been untouched and bare all winter except for the weeds, dry and compact. I took a break after weeding to just sit and admire some of the foliage colors- especially the ones that are kind of blue-green: lovage

catmint 

the one collard

Lavender.

Then found myself once again staring at a plant, feeling sure I recognize it, but not able to remember its identity, if I want it or should pull. 

(I thought it another catmint at first, but those have toothier margins)

Had the same experience with a bug. Twice the other day I saw an oblong beetle fly to a plant stem and settle. I instantly had the urge to step close and slap it between my hands- felt sure it's a bug I don't want around, but I couldn't recall why.

Later I remembered ha, of course- it's that beetle that wrecks part of my garden every year. I wonder how how the emerging insects will do with an empty garden. Will they leave, looking for host plants elsewhere? or stay around and eat other plants instead. 

I'm mostly thinking of the pests, in that case. I'm glad if the beneficial ones are still around, and anxious if they don't have enough plants! I saw a black swallowtail yesterday landing on the lovage and carefully curling its abdomen to lay a single egg on a leaf here, another one there. I'm planting a few flowers for the hummingbird- though maybe it would have enough with just the black-and-blue salvia.

Which is coming up now!

spring herbs

A few days ago I posted pictures of my herb bed last summer. Well, here's what is actually green right now. Sorrel! I'd have more of this to eat if it wasn't for the deer.

Next to it, lemon balm still alive under there. Don't know why it cheers me so much each spring to see these things growing again- they do it every year- but yet it does, enough to take pictures and admire.

Sculpit- enough to start eating it again. Just had some the other day, with onions as a side dish to pasta.

I still don't know why my winter savory is not doing well. I didn't even eat any of it this season. Only a few green leaves on the whole plant-

most of it dried up and sad like this, or naked twigs.

Lavender is doing great, though!

I'm not expecting my sage to regrow, sadly- that one also hasn't done great lately. And I'm going to have to restart green onions again. But hope to see the tarragon and lovage come up again.

today is cold and damp

Perfect for digging and moving things. I dug up nearly the entire perennial herb bed (sparing only the corner where bunching onions grow) and raked in three scattered layers of broken rock. Leftover fragments of stuff my husband brings home from fossil-hunting trips. It was a heap on the back patio and now it's dug into my herb bed. Because I've read that they prefer rocky soil.

The sorrel was getting quite large so I took some divisions off the sides of the clump, but also accidentally broke off nearly all the leaves. However it seems pretty robust and I think will grow back quick enough. It's now in the far corner alongside the onions. Lemon balm replanted to its right.

The middle is rearranged- left here it's winter savory and tarragon, sculpit in the middle, two sage plants on the right.

Most of it doens't look like much right now, but the winter savory (which got a trim) has tiny leaves sprouting in its tangle of stems,

and the sculpit is only scraggly because I've been eating it.

Lavender replanted on the other end.

I tossed a finally layer of broken rock over the surface after replanting, and then tucked all the leaf litter back in place- because we have a temperature drop again this week, with nights just below freezing. 

blanketed

This past week I did the final work putting the garden to bed for winter. Turned the compost pile- there was less than before, only the bottom fourth or barely third was finished material, but it was very finely done, with a clear demarcation. I put six wheelbarrow loads on eight garden beds, the rue and perennial herbs just got leaf litter mulch. On top of the compost layer went four wheelbarrow loads of finished leaf mould from last year's pile. Started a new one. While it feels quieting to see all the beds flat and dark with their winter mulch, it also feels restful and I sure was satisfied, happy even, to find the rich darkness at the bottom of the piles. It still feels something miraculous and wealthy, to dig up all this goodness from heaps of waste and blanket it over to feed next year's plants. Only green in the garden now are a few leeks, sorrel, winter savory and lavender in the perennnial bed, rue and some volunteer borage on the back wall that brave the cold a little longer. 

All the vermicompost went on the front lawn, when I emptied out the blue bin a few weeks ago (don't think I mentioned it here). The worms were looking a bit poorly but now with fresh bedding and regular feedings again (I had ignored them lately) they're looking better.

The green tomatoes I picked and put on kitchen windowsill didn't ripen, they just got moldy and tossed. Should have tried making fried green tomatoes! Half the cowpea pods I picked just withered icky-looking too, but the rest I am waiting for them to dry and see if the seed inside is any good. Next time must watch the weather reports more closely, and pull them all before the first night the drops below freezing. We've had a few now.

last beets, herbs

Pulled the last few golden beets from the garden.

Finally cut some herbs to hang and dry. 

I don't have enough parsley or thyme to do this, and the summer savory suddenly died, but there's a decent bunch of sage. 

What's really done well this year is the tarragon. So I cut several bunches of that. 

Also one small bundle of lavender. To make sachets. 

Cut back the sorrel in the garden, because it was overwhelming the sage and winter savory nearby. 

Still eating some sculpit, but the salad burnet didn't did well here. In fact I forgot it was there, and never ate any of it. 

My digital camera is having issues- I have lots of photos on it but can't move them to the computer. So this will be a journal without pictures for a while. Which isn't nearly as fun.

Edit add 9/18- Found my husband has a little usb device that can plug the SD memory card from my camera straight into computer. So I retrieved all my photos and am updating the posts now!

garden

First the good. I harvested sweet pea seeds to save

and tatsoi (so many!)

Lavender is done flowering, so I cut it back. Chopped up all the trimmed stems, leaves and flowers, scattered on the beds of amaranth calaloo and leaf beet chard / cowpeas. I think some bugs don't like the scent! A few striped beetles immediately took flight away from the bed onto collards. I tracked with my eyes and smacked 'em.

The cowpea, bush green bean and leaf beet chard bed:

with collard greens behind:

I trimmed out over half the leaves of the sorrel- because they looked sickly- leaving more room for the sage and lemon balm now. Tarragon has grown nice! I used some in a soup but a bit too much, my kid complained the flavor was strong

Then moved on to a dismal chore: cleaning up all the wilted foliage. Carrots- all looking dead and brown-

but the smallest inner leaves are fine. And I pulled one- the root is fine. No rot. So I don't think it was the downpour.

What's left of my tomatoes, after I cut off all the brown and yellow and wilted leaves. Dreadfully familiar, this. At least now you can see how many tomatoes I have! But I don't know if they'll be okay.

I didn't find any pests on the tomato or carrot plants, but startled a few stinkbugs in the zucchini and cucumbers. After clearing out half the zucchini leaves that were rotting or blanched of color, this is what's left. It looks so leggy and open now.

But maybe enough still healthy to recover. Here's one zucchini growing!

On the opposite end of that bed, what's left of the lovage (that towered over my head just a few days ago)

I haven't been out here enough the past two weeks, to keep ahead of the bugs. There's whitefly and cabbage loopers on the collard greens. Leaf hoppers in the chard and green beans. Some kind of beetle in the amaranth, and slugs in several places. I have biodegradable, organic insecticidal soap, but can't use it in hot sunny weather or it will cause leaf burn. We have several more days of sun before it rains again. I'm considering coming out to spray the plants very early in the morning, before it's hot- and then hose them down after . . .