The problem with Veronica...

No, not our V! :p

I'm talking about the Veronica in my garden. It grows very tall, flowers, and then looks like hell. It doesn't bloom again if you trim it back, like flax or catmint. I might take it out next year. At least the yarrow flowers continue to look decent after they have faded...

In the meantime, my Spirea is out of control, my Mojave sage is blooming for the first time (it's been in the ground for 2 years...), I have oodles of itty bitty tomatoes and peppers on some very robust plants, my oregano is about 3 feet tall (!!), and my sunflowers (all volunteer from the bird feeder) are about 7 feet tall. Oh, and I have the cutest little coneflowers (they look like little sombreros).

:D

How's your garden? Anyone harvested any tomatoes or peppers yet?

That's funny! I always wanted to grow Veronica - just 'cause, you know. :D

Those sunflowers sound pretty.

We decided no garden this year. Just too busy to do much with it.

V.

but the bees love veronica. :o

Lisa, no problem with the bees...they like the Penstemon, and clover, and oregano...

The Veronica is pretty much done. Poof. Blooms and it's gone. :(

The big swallowtail butterflies LOVE the penstemon!

It's been so wet that the first two rounds of buds just dropped off the tomatoes and peppers. They're only just starting to set fruit. Broccoli is coming along, almost everything else is teeny tiny. Except the zucchini. The onslaught of zucchini is beginning. We're going away (again) for a few days next week, and I know I'm going to be coming home to ball bats. :eek:

ETA: I've only just noticed CCD hitting here, although area beekeepers have been hit by it for the last couple-three years. The weird thing is, there seemed to be plenty of honeybees early this spring, but it's only after the weather turned warm that they vanished :confused: Lots and lots of bumblebees (and rebounding of native populations is a good thing of course) - some snazzy hummingbird moths visiting my bee balm every day - but I think I've seen one honeybee in the last three weeks :(

5 years ago we had tons of honeybees on everything- our crabapple tree was alive with hundreds of them at a time, you could hear a big HUM about 20 feet from the tree, and they were all over all my flowers. I have not seen a single honeybee in 2 years now. :( I see other bees, and bees that look similar to honeybees, but no actual honeybees. Not a one anymore. This Spring there was a different kind of bee on our crab apple, and bumblebees, but not a lot of either of them.

New house = garden (again, finally!). I hope to be in the house in time to plant a winter crop of garlic and collards.

I cut mine WAY back after bloom with garden shears. This keeps it nice an compact and it looks great. Sometimes I get a second bloom. Also, if you shear once BEFORE it blooms the first time, you'll get a more compact plant in in general.

The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust is an awesome book for perennial management. She's a big fan of pruning and shearing to control bloom, growth habit, sprawling and general looks of plants.

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Originally Posted by yellow

In the meantime, my Spirea is out of control . . .

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We have a bank of 3 or 4 under our dining room window that put out gorgeous foliage this year -- and 1 little button of flowers. Wimps.

The sunflowers are only 15" tall, but the foxgloves are going to town and the hollyhocks are firing up

Strawberries galore. I think I'll go have a bowl now.

In the pasture we have black eyed susan, blue vervain, moth mullein (a new flower to me, delicate and pretty), daisy fleabane, grayhead prairie coneflower , and others. This is a good site to get a wildflower fix:
http://citnews.unl.edu/florasearch/p...?id=1002556732

One flower I don't have, and really really want is butterfly milkweed.

http://citnews.unl.edu/florasearch/p...1002553886http

We had a lot of rain this year and the grass is tall. It's worth all the chiggers and ticks to wade through this year's deep grass and visit the flowers.

Oh yes! I garden! I have 33 tomato plants (thank goodness they are staggered in age so I'm not too overwhelmed with them). The bigger Roma tomatoes go into dinner or become sauce, the tiny Romas get cut in half and dried. :D

Also collecting beans, squash, zucchini, and corn. Had a friend give me some cowhorn pepper plants and okra (that's still a new one to me). Been freezing quite a bit. Carrots and onions will be coming in soon. I also get some bounty sometimes from the organic bakery I work with a few days a week - sometimes a box of produce is rejected by another customer, and we're the last stop before the driver has to turn the truck to freeze instead of refrigerate, so I've had some good stuff to preserve there too.

For whatever reason, my basil isn't doing well this year. All the other herbs (rosemary, lemon balm, sage, oregano, mints and thyme) are doing fabulously. I'm about to dry all the culinary herbs, and have yet to dry some of the herbs for teas. I've collected all the yarrow, dandelion and calendula blossoms I need (and tinctured two of them). Waiting on the St. John's Wort to bloom, and Self Heal is getting there.

Blueberries I have picked, and picked, and picked. I've frozen gallons of them, and made blueberry jam which is disappearing very fast. Have to make more!

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Originally Posted by Irulan

Also, if you shear once BEFORE it blooms the first time, you'll get a more compact plant in in general.

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So just as the new growth is up but the flower stalks aren't formed?

I know you live in a northern clime, too...how do the plants handle cold weather when you shear new growth? I'd be afraid of shearing it back and then having the next May snowstorm destroy it.

The Veronica is kind of squished in between the out-of-control Spirea, which I do mercilessly hack back after bloom. I had an azalea like that once at another house...no matter how much you shear it, it comes back even bigger.

carpaltunnel...the grass is crazy tall here as well. We had a very wet (and cold) winter and spring. The trails that I run have trailside grass (that falls over the trail) that is at least as tall as me. I think last year it was only about 2-3 feet tall. We do not, thankfully, have chiggers. I just get all cut up by the grass. :p

My goldenrod is going to bloom and we'll get our first tomatoes while we're on vacation next week and the week after. :( I hope my neighbors enjoy it!

Gray - wow, what a garden! You must save a boatload of $ raising all that healthy food, and it's so much better tasting than produce from the store. I hope when I etire I can go back to gardening. How do you dry tomatoes?

Yellow - We had a long cold wet winter and spring too. Then we had a pond built on our farm and it hasn't rained since then! At this rate it's going to take years to fill!

Anyone - help me remember what kind of butterfly larvae those are on the dill. Sunday I told someone Monarch Butterfly, but I know that's wrong. Is it Black Swallowtail?

Swallowtail is right.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
Also, if you shear once BEFORE it blooms the first time, you'll get a more compact plant in in general.
So just as the new growth is up but the flower stalks aren't formed?

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Yes! I do it with a lot of plants, it works great. If you like perennials, get that book from the libarary, she explains the technique/theory very well.

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Originally Posted by carpaltunnel

Gray - wow, what a garden! You must save a boatload of $ raising all that healthy food, and it's so much better tasting than produce from the store. I hope when I etire I can go back to gardening. How do you dry tomatoes?

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I bought a used dehydrator. Seeing as how I grow so many culinary and medicinal herbs, it makes more sense (and is faster) than hanging them upside down or on screens in the shade for a few days and worrying about weather and bugs and dust and such.

here's a couple of shots of my perennial beds

http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/misc/wallview2.jpg
http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/misc/wallview4.jpg

OMG Irulan! I have serious garden envy coupled with a severe case of underachiever-itis! Amazing and wonderful job! :p

Emily

Beautiful, Irulan!

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Originally Posted by yellow

How's your garden? Anyone harvested any tomatoes or peppers yet?

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Down the road from you, we will have tomatoes, cucumbers and apricots in a week and a half or so. The peppers are a little slower. Our garden was planted late this year. I will plant fall lettuce, peas and radishes early next month.

On a more positive note, we harvested our first yellow squash, red tomato, and green pepper this very week. What a wonderful color combo! I can't take any credit, tho; my DH does the veggies, I'm the flower gal. :rolleyes:

Emily

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Originally Posted by Irulan

here's a couple of shots of my perennial beds

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I'm totally jealous.

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

I'm totally jealous.

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Thanks.

I find perennials very easy. Esp. since I can't seem to grow veggies.

My secrets? First, soil prep, use good amendments. Then, get easy care/hardy/ non invasive stuff. If it can't make it through winter on it's own, forget it. If they don't mind their manners and stay relatively contained in their alloted space, I won't put it in, or I rip it out. The only care they really get is regular water, occasional weeding, maybe one, maybe two shearings a season,( only certain ones) and the occasional dig up and divide. Notice I said occasional. I'm slowly filling the beds with the babies that are made out there.

Those pics are actually pretty old. I've added a natives area, and a hummingbird area.

I also get the best plants I can. We have a lovely nursery around here that has very high quality plants, and not the usual stuff. I maybe have at least 7 varieties of hardy geranium.

My biggest problem (besides weeds, drought, etc.) is deer. I live in the woods. For the first time in years, my perennials are actually still thriving in July. I don't know what the problem is; normally by now the herds have sheared them off, and taught their fawns that perennials of all sorts are their natural salad bowl. This year, nada, tho I've seen does and fawns out in the woods.

Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining! Some of the flowers I have blooming this year have never even made it to bloom time before the foliage was eaten to the ground. :o

Irulan, I'm kinda guessing you don't have deer issues?! :rolleyes:

Emily

I have a 6' fence. I did see a great deer solution in a beautiful mountain garden last weekend. He's got rainbirds on motion sensors. They spray the deer, the deer run away and don't eat anything.

I've seen those rainbird/motion sensors in the High Country Gardens catalog.
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ca...product/99819/

I think they have a web site too. They have great xeric plants. I am fascinated with the buffalo grass because of the little mowing, water, and fertilizer it needs.