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.

Well Planned Bed

At some level, planning could be part of the foundation of a garden.  Our main planting beds are five feet wide and thirty-two feet long.  We were able to reach across the width when younger.  Now an occasional footprint in the soil tells of a rare step onto the garden soil.  The length allows for two twelve foot vegetable plantings in the center with four foot flower plantings at the end.   Like all plans this pattern is subject to change but it is our basic method.

Yesterday, two cherry tomato plants were planted in this bed.  Today, sweet peppers followed.  Space remained when all of the peppers were placed.  With many pots of overwintered lilies waiting for attention, it occurred to me that peppers, tomatoes and lilies might share this bed.

Easter lilies, L. longiflorum, were part of my youth.  A few years ago some were purchased at the supermarket after the holiday.  Our late frosts and this lily's dislike for cold limited our success with these bulbs.  Last fall many of our lilies were placed in pots that were sunk to their rims in the ground.  Frost protection was achieved by covering the group with a tarp on cold nights.  Our June 3rd frost found these lilies safely in our basement.  All pictured lilies came from one pot.  Three plants have buds.  The rest are growing from small bulbils.  We expect flowers and plan to try some winter forcing in 2012.

Forest floor litter was the source of the mulch that nearly covers this planting bed.  Hand tools, a wheelbarrow and a sifting screen with 1/2 inch square mesh produced this mulch.  It was not totally free as many of the flying forest creatures feasted on me as I sifted.  I do like the look of the screened leaves as mulch and they will be part of the soil by next season.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck...

In my case the peppers are not pickled, and I picked a five gallon bucket full. ( How much is a peck again?) I have to say the peppers have had a fabulous year. You can see from the picture that our ground is very dry. It's been quite awhile since it rained here, and our extremely well drained beds are drying out. Today was the day to pick peppers and get them in the freezer. I even got to freeze a bag of red peppers. Some of the pepper plants have given up. Others are going strong and will continue blossoming till frost. Ed will weed and water them and replace the fence to give them the best chance we can.