This is somewhat of a depressing time of year for me. My Echinacea and Rudbeckia are looking ragged and have gone to seed. The Blackberry Lily (Belamcanda chinensis) seedpods have split open, and while the berries are fascinating, there aren’t any more beautiful leopard-spotted flowers left. Part of me wants to attack the garden with the pruning shears and deadhead everything. BAM!
But, as the song says, to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose…
Finches are in LOVE with our Echinacea. We’ve had several American Goldfinch visitors in the last couple of weeks – two males and a female this afternoon. They seem to prefer the Echinacea seed heads over the feeder with the fancy seed.
I spotted a hummingbird in the Agastache ‘Apricot Sprite’ this afternoon. At first I only caught it out of the corner of my eye, but it kept coming back for more. I think they like the Zinnia too, which is great because the Zinnia just keep blooming their heads off. I imagine that’s why the butterflies keep hanging around.
Maybe instead of worrying about what the plants look like, I should accept what is, and revel in the beauty of the birds and other wildlife that have chosen to grace our yard. I can also think ahead to planting more plants for the birds next year, and to planting more fall-blooming plants. To everything, there is a season!
You’ll remember my last post about the Nasties. They’re not dead yet, so I don’t have to write a death notice. They’re not dead, but they’re not flourishing either. They’re just hanging on.
Thanks to Mother Nature, we’ve had some cooler weather. Although tomorrow is only supposed to be 86 degrees, we’ll hit the upper 90s by Wednesday.
I hope that I’ll be able to write a happier post in a month or so. I’ve cut back the dead bits and I’ll probably plant a few more seeds towards the end of August. I’m hoping for a bumper crop of flowers and some seeds to try next year. Until then, I’ll eat ice cream and hope for cooler weather.
I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.
While it’s so goddawful hot outside, I’m thinking ahead to fall plants and next year’s spring crops. I have to pull out my fall planting guide that I received at the WDC Gardener Magazine Seed Swap this past January. I’m sure I should have started a bunch of stuff already… I also have to think about what I’m going to start next spring. Now I have a cold frame, so I can start things even earlier. Who knows, I might even get organized enough to do some Winter Sowing.
I just ordered coconut pellets for the next batch of plant starts. No more peat pellets if I can possibly help it. Peat pellets have been the most reliable method of seed starting for me, but the environmental toll that harvesting peat causes, negates the benefit of my growing food for myself. Coconut fiber is supposedly more sustainable (until someone tells me otherwise) which makes me feel better about using these pellets.
In the meantime, I’ll be sitting in the house, enjoying the A/C, and looking at pictures of what is outside:
I was at it again this weekend. Walking back to work from lunch at the DC Waterfront, I happened across some Gladiolus stuffed in a trash can. If I were a normal person, I would have kept walking. Being me, I felt the need to check to see what was going on. Somehow I knew they weren’t just cut flowers, and I was rewarded with at least 10 beautiful peach colored Gladiolus with bulbs attached.
My enabling co-worker helped me out by finding a garbage bag at work so I could carry them home. When I got back to my desk, I cut the stems down to about a foot tall, and put them back in the bag under my desk. Then I went to the bathroom and disinfected my hands and the scissors.
Just another day in the life of this crazy plant girl.
My first homegrown radish ever!
I really need to take time to enjoy our garden more. I’d forgotten that my Blackberry Lily was blooming until I was reading Garden Muse and saw Cindy’s pictures. I get so caught up in watering and deadheading flowers that I forget to just walk around and enjoy everything.
So of course, I grabbed the iPhone and snapped some pics.
Note to self: Enjoy the fruits of your labor and don’t forget to walk around the house at least once a day.
…or donate a boatload of seedlings.
If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you’ll remember the eleventy thousand billion tomato seedlings. I’d given meanlouise a bunch last month, but they keep growing and I’m still swimming in seedlings.
I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t feel guilty weeding out the smaller ones, but it’s been frustrating to have all of these great plants and know that these plants could be useful to someone else as well. But how to get them to people that would like them?
Last weekend I stopped by the Arlington Public Library’s Central Branch to pick up a book that Fairfax County didn’t have (I LOVE reciprocal library lending!). As I walked to the door, I passed by the Library’s garden, and I thought to myself that it would be great to find a way to donate some plants to the garden. As it turns out, the garden was planted to benefit the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). When I contacted AFAC later that week, I found out that they would be willing to accept plant seedlings as donations.
Today I brought 45 seedlings to AFAC. They’ll be sent home with families in need of healthy food. Even if not every one of the seedlings goes to a new home, I can feel good that some families will have real food that the’ve grown themselves.
