My Half Acre of Paradise

Hey, hey, my friends! My nectarines are ripe now! Been sampling some over the past several days, and it now looks like harvest time has come! Come and get ‘em! We don’t can them, so we really do like to share with friends. We’ll eat a big bowl full, make a cobbler or something, and that’s about it. I’m inviting friends to come over on Thursday evening this week to pick your own. Let me know if you’re coming.

Also, I just wanted to show how enormous those Hibiscus moscheutos flowers really are. Here’s a photo with my hand in it to give some perspective:

Early Saturday morning, before dawn, our Lacebark Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) suffered a major break from some heavy wind. We’ve had wind like this many times, but there was a weak crotch where two major scaffold branches were growing in too deep of a V-shape. When branches grow with narrow crotch angles, they end up with “included bark” which means a line of bark is sandwiched betwen the branches as they grow thicker and thicker. This line prevents the two branches from being knitted together, and it creates a major weakness that someday can turn into this kind of break. It’s heartbreaking to have this happen to a tree we’ve loved so much. It will survive, but I’m not sure if the remaining branch is strong enough where the break is to continue supporting all the growth on that side of the tree. We might end up with another break and another major section of the tree missing.

On a brighter note, check out these beautiful Hibiscus moscheutos blooms. These plants are in large pots on my deck, and they make a great accent there.

My nectarines are almost ripe! I actually picked one yesterday and ate it today, but it was still just a bit green. They should all be ripe in a week or so. Tasted good, even though it wasn’t completely ripe! I’ll also throw in a shot of our second veggie garden on the side of our basement walkout. Those zucchini plants sure are getting huge! And finally, here’s a closeup of some Caryopteris shrub blooms. It’s nice having some things that bloom late in the season like these. They add new life to the garden at the end of summer.

This is one of my Hibscus moscheutos plants in large pots on my deck. The first two blooms opened up today. I love the purity of the white contrasted with the deep, rich red in the center and blended with the soft lemon color of the stamen. Such beauty!

All the Hibiscus shrubs have burst into bloom this week. I love the one above — I think it’s Hibiscus syriacus ‘Aphrodite.’ I also have some double-flowered ones — they’re quite frilly and don’t really look like Hibscuses at all. Oh, and one more of the Aphrodite shrub, too:

And I finally got my ‘Pink Simplicity’ rose hedge blooming well this week. I’ve written before about how some rose experts advised me to give them much more water and fertilize often with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. Well, I neglected to give them the extra care this spring, and so the tiny flower buds mostly fell off in June. Just like in the past. So, about three-and-a-half weeks ago, I trimmed the hedge down a few feet with a power trimmer (thanks neighbor!), and then all this new growth came up and produced flowerbuds. I’ll have to remember that timing of about 3 1/2 weeks if my daughters ever have a wedding reception in our backyard! Hopefully, we could trim them like that again and expect a full bloom 3-4 weeks later!

Here are some other shots from this evening, including my cute son, McKay, some Granny Smith apples that are developing well, and assorted flowers:

Hey, I should mention that middle photo in the last row is an annual called Angelonia (whenever I say the name, I start singing in my mind a blues song called “Angelina” by Keb’ Mo’ — I know, the name is slightly different, but it still happens!). I haven’t grown Angelonia before, but I got the seeds from Park’s last winter and tried it out. I like it so far. I think they’ll get quite a bit bigger by the end of the season.

This is the upper part of my backyard today, experimenting with a stitched-together panoramic shot.

I also took some other photos of things blooming or looking good in my garden. Too many pictures to comment on right now (it’s late at night!), so I’ll just add them all as a gallery below. What do you think? Do you have a favorite photo in this batch? Post a comment below; if you have questions about any particular photo, I’ll answer them in the comments.

I had a lot of catching up to do on weeding and stuff today:

• Weeded the veggie garden (I still need to create some kind of trellis for the green beans, which are only about 3″ tall so far)
• Weeded some flowerbeds
• Mowed the lawn
• Picked a bunch of cherries from our second tree which is much later than the first tree
• Picked a big bowl of raspberries
• Froze some of the berries and cherries for friends who are visiting next month
• Fertilized the flowerbeds and veggie areas with a 16-16-16 granular fertilizer
• Applied some Bayer Advanced 2-in-1 Systemic Rose Care fertilizer/pesticide to my simplicity rose hedge. The roses hardly bloomed at all last month, so I trimmed all the green “blind” growth down a bit and I’m trying to get them to bloom well as they grow back in the coming month. I didn’t give them enough extra water this spring to help them avoid aborting all those tiny rosebuds (see my earlier post about this).
• Tied the growing grape vines up on the sides of the backyard arbor
• Yesterday, I finished thinning the nectarines. I’m trying to be more aggressive than in past years to ensure bigger, sweeter fruit, but I’m a little late finishing it this year, so I don’t know how much good it will do.

I still have more to do this coming week, including fertilizing the lawn and spraying some pesticide on all the stinking grasshoppers out there! In the flowerbeds, I’ll use some Orthenex to give them systemic protection (kill those darn hoppers when they bite the plants), and in the areas around edible stuff, I’ll probably try Malathion. They’ve been eating the little bean plants a bit.

So, I can’t have a post without a photo, right? Here’s something cool. My friend Rich was visiting this week and decided to play with his Nikon on a slow shutter speed while cranking the zoom. This is actually a ‘Rocket’ Larkspur growing in my front flowerbed. Seems kind of rockety now, doesn’t it?

I just had to share that wonderful ‘Yellow Simplicity’ rose. I like how this one came out with a more golden color than they usually do.

My ‘Lapins’ cherries are ripening early this year. Not really sure why, because it’s been cool and wet lately. But it was very warm about three weeks ago, and maybe the heat back then boosted their maturing process. The birds are starting to eat them, but they’re not quite ready to pick yet. I suspect we’ll be picking later this week. I have sprayed them with malathion this weekend and two weeks before. Hope I got them enough to control the fruit fly larva! Sometimes I just eat them without checking for worms, because they’re so good and I don’t want to know if there’s a worm in there!

OK, from left to right, by row: 1) Iceland poppies are still going strong, probably because it’s been such a mild, cool June. I love the warm yellows that have opened up recently. 2) A little bit of Campanula poking out through the Lamium groundcover. 3) I have two kinds of California poppies somewhat naturalized in the front flowerbed - the pink, sort of frilly ones, and the typical orange-gold. It’s looking pretty nice out there. A lot of flowers are getting ready to bloom, including lilies, Delphiniums, coneflowers, and lots of other stuff. 4) Check out those new lavender blooms with some California poppies blurred out behind them. I love that shot. 5) I planted my two Himrod grape vines yesterday. 6) Just another shot of the front yard, with a peek into the back.

I also planted about 2.3 million bean seeds yesterday, along with a couple of rows of sunflowers (Lemon Chiffon variety). They are ‘Baby Gourmet’ green bean - thin pods.

I went out this morning and harvested this nice little batch of strawberries. There are plenty more ripening for harvest in a few days and next week. Mmmmmm…..

Yesterday, I got a little garden work done, in between a bunch of other things. I finished spading and tilling up a former flowerbed on the south side of my house that is now a vegetable garden. It’s the spot where I planted the tomatoes and corn a few weeks ago. I planted the rest of my white Mirai corn seeds as well as some zucchini and pumpkins. I made mounds in the soil for the squashes — I’m not exactly sure why, but that’s how the seed packets recommend planting them, and it worked last year for the zucchini. Oh, and I planted a few more sunflower seeds, too. Henri Wilde variety. Same as the ones I planted a few weeks ago. By the way, I’m disappointed with the germination rate of the corn seeds. Of the 25-30 sown a few weeks ago, only about 12-15 are growing. I’ll have to look back at which mail order company I bought them from and consider a different supplier next time.

I meant to get some green beans planted, along with some so-called “winter squash” but I didn’t get to it. I still also need to plant the remaining flowers that are sitting in little pots. I have some new red Rudbeckias, Angelonias (never tried before), Belamcamda (blackberry lily), Verbenas, lavenders, a few Zinnias, and some lab-lab vines.  Ran out of time.

Here are some shots I took yesterday of flowers and things. The clematis vine is really getting close to peak bloom now. My two-year old son calls them the “big purple guys.” He’s a crack-up!

Starting from the top, going left-to-right in each row, these are: Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’; ‘Nearly Wild’ Rose; a nice area of naturalized Shirley poppies by a Japanese Maple; ‘Stella d’Oro’ Daylily; Lamium or Spotted Deadnettle groundcover; ‘Yellow Simplicity’ Rose getting intertwined with a wild rose; pink California Poppies, descended from the ‘Summer Sorbet’ cultivar, but I don’t know how true their DNA is anymore; and one of my large wild rose shrubs — they’re in their brief spring bloom period right now.

Lots of things to share, and I think I’ll just use the photos as my guide:

My Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’ is beginning its bloom season now. It will hit its peak probably a week from now, and I’ll post another photo later. I’m having a little trouble with the clematis, because after this time of year, the trees by it are leafed out and start to give it too much shade. I don’t know if it can handle transplanting, but I don’t have another great place to put it anyway.

First roses of the season. This is some unknown variety of floribunda rose — it was supposed to be ‘Pink Simplicity,’ and it’s in the middle of a long hedge of ‘Pink Simplicity’ roses. But it turns out to be a case of mistaken identity by the nursery, and it flowers earlier than the rest of the hedge. One day, I need to move it and replace it with the right rose, but I keep debating whether to replace all the simplicities with something else. Oh well, not this year.

These are ‘Lapins’ cherries. I have two trees, and this one is acting a little funny this year. A lot of fruit has fallen off of it in the past two weeks, but I read online that this is common with many cherries, because they set much more fruit than they can really bear. But now, on this tree, many of the cherries are turning red too soon. They usually ripen around the Fourth of July. I’m not sure what to make of it. I’ll try eating them when they ripen and see if they taste normal. The other tree’s cherries are still all green, with just a few getting a hint of blush. I’ll keep you posted on what happens. I sprayed the cherry trees last Saturday with malathion, and I also hit the apple trees and the trunk of the nectarine (to kill/repel any borers that might be lurking).

This is my favorite place in the garden for rest and meditation, although I certainly don’t do enough of that. I like how the shrubs are growing through the benches and it’s getting that wild, natural look. But still, I might have to trim back those shrubs (they’re Alpine Currants), because my wife likes things neater. And the branches may get damaged when we sit there, anyway.

My Jonathan (left) and Granny Smith (right) apples are developing well, I think. I was supposed to pick off at least half the blossoms this year to try to force it back to annual blooming and bearing. But I was busy and late, so I just went out on Saturday and snipped off a bunch of the little fruit, hoping that saves some of the trees’ energy to promote next year’s blossoms. I hope I wasn’t too late. There were a lot of little apples that fell off just when I touched them, so they wereready to abort much of the fruit anyway. I hope they bloom and bear next year! I LIVE for apple pie from my own apples in the fall!

I got my 10 tomatoes all caged on the weekend. Those wild things!

Going clockwise: The salvias are beginning their bloom now. This is the ‘East Friesland’ variety. My ‘Nearly Wild’ rose is also just starting its bloom. These shrubs are kinda cool together, with the fine texture of the ‘Antony Waterer’ Spirea in the foreground and the lighter-colored, bigger-leaved Golden Vicary Privets behind them. My plain green Japanese Maple is getting quite graceful. I hope it doesn’t get verticilium wilt like my red one in the front of my house is getting. I should post a photo of the red one. I had to prune out a lot of dead wood last week, but it’s still acceptable. Next, the bees are all over the raspberries these days. You can just sit there, close your eyes, and marvel at all the buzzing you hear. I’m looking forward to those berries on vanilla ice cream in about three weeks! Finally, just a shot of the lower part of my backyard. I’m still loving that arbor. Going to plant two grapes (Himrod — I have them in pots on the deck) to grow on it this year, but I worry a little that the one of the north side may not get enough sun. When it grows tall enough to be on top of the arbor it’ll be fine, so I hope it grows fast.

That’s enough for now. Happy gardening to you!

OK, well I’ve been a bit slow to get into the groove this spring, mostly because I’ve been working hard to finish my basement construction, and now I’m almost done. Carpet goes in this week, and I should now have much more time for gardening. What a relief! I’ve been working on that basement project for about 14 months, trying to do most of it myself.

I’m going to catch up on several weeks of photos in this post. I’ll start with our big April 15 snow storm — I took these shots the next morning. It was huge! Some areas near us got 13 inches, while we got around four on the ground. In some of those communities, a lot of tree branches broke from the weight of all the snow. You can see in the one photo below how my birch tree was arching heavily from the snow.

One bummer in my backyard: one of my last two alpine firs (sometimes called subalpine fir) is dying. There’s really nothing I can do to save it now, I think. Larry Sagers (who was my master gardener teacher) says it’s showing the stress of something done wrong last year. He said it’s likely that I didn’t give it enough water last year, since these trees live at high altitudes in moist conditions. It probably got too dry last fall, and that doomed it. I do recall reading the advice that evergreens should be well-watered in the fall before it freezes, and I really should have taken that advice. You can also see that it was misshapen, because deer ate all the lower branches when it was younger.

So, here’s something amazing — one week after that big snow storm, the tulip festival started at Thanksgiving Point. I’m a volunteer there now and then, working to get my 40 hours of service done to earn my master gardener title. On that first day, only 30% of the tulips were in bloom, but then our master gardener class went for a tour on Thursday the 24th, and it was more than 60% in bloom. Here are some photos from that day.

A few of those shots are from the “Secret Garden” at Thanksgiving Point, which is really cool. I like the brick walls with Boston ivy growing on them, the wooden gates/doors, the arches with honeysuckle and climbing roses growing over them, and the cool, old-fashioned flowering quince shrub (with the salmon-red blooms above). That shot with all the people is our master gardener class (or most of us), with Karen Ashton, the founder of Thanksgiving Point Gardens, providing the guided tour. Karen was part of our class last fall, and it was fun to hear her personal insights on the gardens and stories about how they were developed.

The tulip festival is over, but I’d bet if you go to the gardens this week, you’ll still see incredible flowerbeds, about 80% in bloom (it was 90% last Thursday). It’s worth it to go see!

Now, onto my garden and what’s blooming this week. My Granny Smith apple (below) is blooming very well this year. I also have a Jonathan apple and it’s a little slower but starting to bloom, too. You may recall that I had no blossoms on these last year. The advice from Larry Sagers was to pluck off about half of the blossoms now, so the tree doesn’t spend too much energy producing fruit and has enough energy to start producing the microscopic beginnings of next year’s flower buds. I’m supposed to do this blossom thinning for two years and then it should be back to normal. I need to get out and do that this week.

Here are a few more things in bloom right now.

Starting from the top left, those are:
1st row: close shot of Kwanzan Cherry tree blossoms (ornamental tree), Vinca minor groundcover, and blossoms forming on leatherleaf Viburnum.
2nd row: Candytuft (Iberis) groundcover, a close-ish shot of flowering cherry (or sand cherry) shrubs, and Rockcress or Arabis.
3rd row: close shot of Prairiefire Crabapple blossoms (just starting to open this week), some Iceland poppies, and some hyacinths (man, they smell great!) with tulips. I planted the hyacinths by my front walkway to give that pleasant aroma as you approach the house.

And now, one final photo. This is Brunera, or Siberian Bugloss (don’t ask about the name - I have no idea what “bugloss” is supposed to mean!). It’s also called false forget-me-not or perennial forget-me-not: