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July Update

Hello again! It has been too long since I posted here, so this will be longer than usual; my other blog, “Serenity Now: Scents and Sensibilities” has been taking up a lot of time as I’m doing two monthly blogging projects with a blogger friend. And in between, I’ve actually been doing the gardening! I will retire at the end of this month and have been using up vacation days that won’t get paid out, so the garden has gotten much more focused attention lately. I think I’ve finally tamed the vegetable garden; I planted a lot less this spring and have been more regular in pinching off tomato shoots and redirecting wayward morning glory tendrils. My eggplants and herbs have been a major success!

Eggplants Rosa Bianca and Listada de Gandia for the grill; parsley for chimichurri sauce

I’m especially proud of how well my David Austin roses have been doing in their large pots on our sunny front terrace. My working from home two days a week since 2021 has really served them well — I’ve been more diligent about everything from watering to feeding to spraying, and I’ve been rewarded with multiple flushes of bloom, especially from Lady of Shalott and Winchester Cathedral. Gotta admit, my attraction to the latter is based more on the pop song of that name than the actual cathedral, which I’ve never seen. I remember the song from my childhood, when my English mother played pop radio while raising three children, while her younger sister cavorted through Swinging Sixties London as a model and actress. Yes, she sent us Beatles albums before they were released in the US, which made me a lifelong fan. The first song I remember singing by myself was “She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)“.

Winchester Cathedral, by The New Vaudeville Band; film from The Ed Sullivan Show.

My poor neglected Teasing Georgia has not bloomed well this year, and she’s usually a trouper even in our hot, humid climate, so I’m trying to do better by her with more regular feeds, including with micronutrients. I need to climb up a ladder to prune out dead wood, and I think I must get my husband to prune away another branch from a nearby dogwood that now shades part of the rose arbor.

Speaking of doing better by my roses, I’ve been looking into planting one or more into bottomless planters. I have a beautiful Generous Gardener rose in a large pot that I placed in a border. Lo and behold, GG has sent its roots right down through the drainage hole, which means the poor rose now gets waterlogged on a regular basis with all the rain we’ve had this year. That will finish it, so I need a better arrangement, but I did that in the first place because the soil where I wanted to plant her wasn’t great, and it was full of competing shallow roots from azaleas.

Here’s a great video about bottomless planters by Bunny Guinness, a noted horticulturist and landscape architect, garden columnist, BBC radio panelist, and multiple gold medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She also happens to be the niece of the late David Austin, hybridizer of the marvelous English Roses, who named a rose after her.

Bunny Guinness on bottomless planters

Okay, I am seriously not prepared or qualified to saw out the bottom of terracotta pots! BUT I think I’ve found a solution. I was considering using grow bags and cutting out the bottoms (because, of course, on top of the long-suffering Generous Gardener et al., I have pre-ordered four more DA roses for delivery next January), but this seems to be a much better option.

Have you ever used a bottomless planter? For roses? All comments and advice are welcome!

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How It Started … How It’s Going

Well, my winter vegetable garden looked great this fall and winter — until we got temps at or below 10 degrees Fahrenheit for two nights in a row, a few weeks ago!

How it started …
How it’s going.

Almost everything collapsed in a heap of frozen mush. So last weekend, I cleared out the debris, leaving a few hopeful stems that were still green in case they might sprout leaves again. Even my parsley died! The Bull’s Blood beets seem to have survived; the pansies will come back; a couple of kale plants are trying to regenerate. That’s all, folks! Sigh. Even the Swiss chard gave up the ghost.

Interestingly, some of the lavender in another part of the garden has survived very well (“Phenomenal”). The “Black Scallop” ajuga around it looks discouraged but not defeated. I will probably plant more cool weather vegetables in a while, but not until February at the earliest. Any suggestions? I’m in Zone 7, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cartoon character Jack Frost
Jack Frost; image from Rankin/Bass.
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The Winter Garden

I’m quite pleased with how well my winter vegetable garden is doing. I love planting all the colorful winter leafy greens, like rainbow chard, red romaine, purple mustard, “Bull’s Blood” beets, different kinds of kale. I’m even growing cauliflower whose heads will be orange or purple! I have a few pea vines, mostly for their looks although they are thriving. I learned a year ago that it takes a LOT of pea plants to get enough shelled peas for one meal! I also enjoy planting pansies among the vegetables and herbs, as they will bloom all winter in this climate. Finally, there are many fewer weeds in the winter, at a level I can manage to keep under control.

Are you growing and planting in this season?

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Winter Vegetable Garden

My replanted winter vegetable garden! Some of you may recall that I had high ambitions, last summer, of posting regular snapshots of my summer vegetable garden in the new raised beds I had built for my garden last spring. Alas! Between summer trips to see family, and a long, hot, wet summer, plus planting too many bean vines, my summer vegetable garden turned into a veritable jungle, complete with aggressive mosquitoes.

So this fall, we cleared the whole thing out, pulled hyacinth bean vines off everything (seriously, they went everywhere!), and started over with cool season vegetables and flowers. I have beets with gorgeous maroon leaves; Swiss chard with brightly colored stems; red mustard; curly kale; broccoli; cauliflower; parsley; and, of course, pansies. 

Among my containers, I still have lots of herbs that are flourishing; and several roses that have decided to embark on a third or even fourth flush of bloom. Yes, we’ve had unseasonably warm weather; and on Boxing Day, yesterday, it was in the mid-70s! No wonder my poor roses are confused. But the warm weather will help my vegetables get a good start rooting, I think, before it turns cold as expected in January and February.

Are you able to garden at this time of year? What will you grow? Happy New Year to all, and may 2022 bring us increases in health and happiness.

My renovated winter vegetable garden
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Saturday Snapshot, July 4

After two weeks when we were away in New England, the vegetable garden has grown a LOT! I’ve pulled out or cut back what remained of the peas and mustard greens, and will plant peppers. Bush beans, runner beans, and pole beans are all flourishing, as are the basil plants. Squash borers got one of my zucchini plants, so that has to be destroyed and replaced. Melon plants are already climbing up the arch. Tomato plants are setting fruit but it’s a race between us and the chipmunks! I let some volunteer seedlings grow outside the raised beds in hopes that they will draw the chipmunks. My daughter calls it ” the chipmunk tithe.”