Frost In June, Seriously?

I am not thrilled to see the frost in the garden this morning.  It's June for Pete's sake!  It is a very lucky thing that I didn't get around to planting my tomatoes and basil yet.

Some spots have frost, others do not.  Clouds of vapor hang in the air in spots.  This one over the grass is filmy, but wherever water is, the river, ponds, puddles vapor rises like steam from a hot cup of coffee.

Some places the grass is white with frost.. Other places close by look to be frost free.

It must have been colder earlier because the frost on top of the car is frozen, but on the windshield ice is starting to melt and run down the glass.  There is nothing for it but to find the ice scraper and dig out my fuzzy purple hat.  This is a YMCA day.  I hope by the time Ed and I get back home all of this will be like a dream and June weather will have returned.  Maybe the basil and tomatoes will get planted tomorrow!

Thyme For Hard Frost

Jack Frost was back this morning and this time his icy breath was a killer!  When I first awoke and looked out the window the world outside was white.  It was still dark, so I snuggled back under the covers but I knew what would be waiting in the garden when it was daylight.  The frosted thyme on the patio at the west end of the house resembled silver edge thyme.  It looked quite beautiful.

Red creeping thyme was originally planted here.  Thyme that grows wild has mixed with it and I have given up trying to weed thyme from the thyme.  Both plants are extremely tough and went right back to green when the frost was gone.

At first glance the basil planted right outside my kitchen door doesn't look so bad.  It has the same silver edges as the thyme.  A closer look shows more.   Basil is tender and with the temperature below freezing,  Jack's icy frozen breath was the kiss of death!

When the sun hit this plant the frosted cells in the leaves exploded and turned to slime.  It was great to have fresh basil this late, but it's all over now.  Only the clean-up remains.

A close look at this Grandpa Ott morning glory leaf shows Jack's icy breath on the entire leaf.  It's location on top of the porch railing did not protect it.

This plant looks a little better than the basil, but it is just as dead.  Next year basil will be back because we will plant it.   Grandpa Ott seeds unfazed by the cold will return when the ground warms.   I still love a four season garden.  You need and end to have that wonderful new beginning!

Missed By Frost, Kissed By Frost

Jack Frost can be pretty sneaky around here in the fall.  Last night there were no frost warnings issued.  When we stepped out the door this morning it was warm enough that frost seemed impossible.  This afternoon though, a walk around the garden made it obvious that  sometime during the night we had a cold icy visitor.  Nasturtiums find Jack's  breath to be the kiss of death, but these yellow nasturtiums inside the four stone walls look fine. They were missed by the frost.

These nasturtiums not too far away in one of the garden beds were lightly kissed by frost.  They took it hard.  It is October and time to say goodbye!

Basil hates frost. In fact it doesn't even like to be cool.  The basil between two of Ed's stone paths and  close to the front of our white house looks fine.  Clearly it was missed by the frost.

The basil in the garden was hit by the frost.  It was not enough to kill the entire plant outright, but these plants had a near death experience.  The compost is the perfect place for them now!  We hate cleaning up totally dead slimy basil but pulling these plants that are still holding their dead leaves won't be so bad.

This unusual self planted gourd plant is growing perhaps 18 inches above the ground on an old compost pile.   It was missed by the frost.

The gourd vine that got missed by the frost shows at the upper left of this picture.  The vine growing at ground level got kissed pretty hard by the frost.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, compost to compost.  This plant has a very short trip to its final resting place!

Flowers For Me?

Sometimes I forget what a lucky woman I am.  This very week I am celebrating my 73rd birthday.   There is no need for Ed to send me flowers.  The garden is filled with blooms and that is not all. The butterfly bush right in front of the house has beautiful plumes of flowers and attracts butterflies like this tiger swallowtail.

Liatris has taken  over now that the pinxter has finished blooming.  I could never have too many of these plush purple plumes.

Ed's magnificent Spiritual Corridor is so lovely you hardly notice the catnip and milkweed.  Looking out the window from the house even the spent blossoms look colorful.  It all depends on your point of view!

Lemon basil, red basil and nasturtium leaves and flowers all make their way into my salads.  The fragrance makes plant identification a snap.  Yes, there is more milkweed here.

Sea holly is a fascinating plant that draws all kinds of pollinators.  It's purple too!  It makes a great cut flower, but I like to frustrate myself trying to get good pictures of any new visitors that might show up.

I love Alliums! This one, purple again, reminds me of fireworks.  Except for the Clara Curtis mums  the lush green background consists of weeds.  I prefer to see the flowers.  The butterflies, birds, bees ... and weeds are extra.  Oh, I forgot!  I love to pull weeds too!

Twice Used Tree Leaves

Last summer two hills of squash grew here.  Fresh grass clippings were placed under the young plants to discourage weeds.  After frost ended the squash plants, all vegetation was removed and composted and the ground was left bare.  When the village trees finally dropped their leaves, this planting bed received a thick leaf cover.  Various wire cages were placed on top of the leaves to keep them in place.  Today we needed to clear the leaves away to make room for new plants.

This planting bed is bordered by pasture grass.  That means that it will fill with grass runners with each passing day.  Our attempt to win this battle involves expendable plants and leaf mulch.  Three of the sunflowers that reseed freely here were  planted near the peas.  Three cone flowers that also multiply freely were planted next.  A catnip, a rose campion and a poppy round out this planting of free plants for the moment.  When additional weeds are cleared, more temporary or expendable plants will be given a place to grow.  The leaf mulch placed here today came from the bed cleared for planting.

We needed to clear the planting bed so that the basil and pepper plants could finally be released from their pots.  Our frost free date is June first so we are not that far behind.  This ground will be left bare for some time.  Exposure to sunlight is thought to be of some benefit to the soil.  We will then open a bag of tree leaves that were chopped by our lawn mower last fall.  A trip through a sifting screen will give us small sized leaf pieces to be placed under the basil and pepper plants.  These fine old leaf pieces will look really sharp and will nearly rot away be fall.  Weeds will be few in number on this ground then and the rotted leaves will add a much sought after layer of black to our soil.  A generous application of limestone will be followed by new leaves as winter approaches.

This bed of peas is just across the stone path next to the basil plants.  After putting the seeds into the soil, full sized leaves were placed on the bare soil.  Room was left open to allow the peas an easy trip into sunlight and fresh air.  Once the peas were up, the leaves were pushed close intending to keep the weeds away.  The soil under the chicken wire was left bare and we expect to see some weeds there.  The peas have a good head start so our next job here should be picking fresh peas.

We are looking for techniques that will decrease the work required to keep the gardens looking tended.  Some time is required to gather and place the leaves but once they are on the ground plants can reach harvest with little additional effort from us.  A recent inspection of the garlic bed in the garden by the woods revealed a nearly weed free planting.  The garlic will be harvested in little more than five weeks from now and what weeds are present are small.  They will not negatively impact the growth of the garlic now.  Only my pride will require some time spent pulling weeds there.

Beating Back The Wild Things

It's a plain fact that we are being overrun here.  All the rain has served to keep us out of the garden and it has given the weeds the opportunity to run wild in the garden.   Somewhere hidden beneath the grass and other weeds are Ed's beautiful planting beds and  stone paths.  Ed worked on this area today.  He plans to replant peas here.  We have the seed and sometimes we can get a late crop of peas if the weather cooperates.

I chose  to search for desirable plants in this bed .  I uncovered some dianthus, wood betony, closed gentian and a hollyhock.  I caught sight of Ed's rose, but I did not get it uncovered yet. Digging out the grass is slow work and looking for hidden treasures slows progress down even more.

It's not only the weeds that have gone wild.  The trumpet vine has completely engulfed the golden glows.  A few small golden flowers have managed to break through the vines to catch some sunlight anyway.  Other plants in the area of the trumpet vine have not been seen at all.

Trumpet vine tendrils are marching across  our gravel parking spot.  New runners are popping up in the gravel at some distance from the original plant.  One can't help feeling that parking there for too long will result in a car covered with vines.  However, I can't deny that I love to watch the hummingbirds  zip around the trumpet vine chasing each other at dizzying speeds.  As long as the red flowers that they find so attractive are blooming, this vine gone wild is safe.

Still there is great beauty in the garden.  This Salmon star lily and its tantalizing fragrance is so attractive to a hummingbird moth that I was actually able to get this great picture.  We feast on fresh summer squash, basil, lettuce and the now ripening tomatoes.  Today in the garden was great!

Basil, Peppers, Dust Bathes, And Weeds

The garden is hot and dry, but Ed persists.  The basil is all weeded and mulched.

Basil adores the heat, but with the lack of rain the plants are very short and starting to produce flowers.  

You can see by my footprint just how dry the soil in the garden is now.  Some of the birds think it's great.  This morning  I watched a beautiful brown thrasher take a long, writhing, wriggling, dust bath.   It was fun to watch and the bird loved it!

The basil plants are very small, but strangely enough the only way to keep these plants growing is to pinch them back.  The leaves I remove will make tonight's salad something special.  Basil tastes best and is happiest when it is good and hot!

The peppers will get weeded, watered and mulched next.  These tiny little pepper plants have some blossoms, but it is hard to think of plants that small supporting peppers.  I'm sure if we get some rain these plants will grow.  If not it is likely they will drop those blossoms anyway.  Tonight is the first time in weeks that the forecast shows a real change of rain.  I hope we get it.  That brown thrasher has had her dust bath,  it would be nice if she had to wait awhile for her next one.

Time for More Plants

We had some errands to do, and with gas prices being what they are, we made a circle and stopped at some nurseries to look at their plants. It's early of course, but we were driving right by, weren't we?

We walked around the first place and looked. My sales resistance was good. I just picked up some lavender plants since my are all either dead or doing Camille.

The man at the second place had promised me lemon verbenas plants when I stopped there last year late in the buying season. "I had them", he said. "I'll have them next year. Don't come so late in the season." We looked around, asked where the herbs were, but alas no lemon verbena. This time we left empty handed.

The last stop of the day was in Franklin, NY. This nursery has been a favorite of mine for years. The stand is up by the road and the green houses are down the hill. The stand looked lovely with pansies, primroses and other cool loving plants.

"Can we look in the greenhouses?" we asked. "Of course", she replied. "Can we buy the plants now?" we asked. "If you take care of them you can, you know it's too soon to leave them outside!" We assured we would carry our plants in and out until the weather was better, and down the hill we went. She cares because they grow plants here, they don't just unload them off of a truck, and she wants them to live.

These greenhouses are special. The plants are healthy, well cared for and gorgeous. We came home with the plants in the picture: parsley, curled and Italian, tricolor sage, golden sage, a single sweet 100s tomato plant, and red and green basil.

I stopped to look in the pansy greenhouse. The sun was shining and the fan was blowing across the pansies. The fragrance was every bit as wonderful as the colorful display of those happy faces. I took a deep breath, and then turned and left. Here, pansies are rabbit and deer candy. The animals seem to find them irresistible. We promised to take care of her plants, so I couldn't expose them to certain and untimely death.

Ruthless Pruner?

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. . . I would love to be a ruthless pruner. I'm not. I hate cutting new growth back, and I really hate thinning beautiful, tiny, little, innocent, baby plants. But it was time. My tray of basil plants needed me to be strong. So I screwed up my courage, got the small shears and thinned the plants to two plants in each square. A truly ruthless pruner would go for one in a square, but I'm working on it. I'll toss the losers in a salad for tonight's dinner.

I know you must be thinking that I have a lot of basil plants when you can buy them at any nursery, but I have to have some red. I have a recipe that just wouldn't be the same without it. I have to plant spicy globe. I would miss the cute round bush that smells so delightful when you pet it. Lemon basil is a favorite, and you can't always find that. Truth be told I'll still be looking for cinnamon and licorice basil when I shop for plants in May. I think of those fragrant flowers and leaves that you can put in your fruit salad to add that burst of flavor. Wow, I love basil plants!