I had not yet found the Potato Lollipop, and my friends Amy and Betsy were clearly flagging in their enthusiasm for the 2007 Iowa State Fair. Time was running short. Would I find it before we had to board the shuttle bus back to my car?
I should note that, at this point, I was no longer hungry. I had already consumed most of an order of fried cheese curds, a corndog with mustard, a 32-ounce cup of lemonade, a pork chop on a stick, a Bauder’s peppermint bar, a bite of Betsy’s smoked turkey sandwich, and about a quarter of Amy’s cinnamon-sugar funnel cake. My Fair mantra?: “Are you going to throw that away? Because I’ll eat the rest if you’re done.”. . .
One of the biggest disservices that I do my houseplants is watering them from below. Even though I know better sometimes I can't resist the urge to fill the sink or a large container with water and setting the plants in the water to get a drink. Watering houseplants from below is a time saver if you have a lot of plants to deal with but you should avoid it when possible. . . .
I’ve been watching a volunteer squash of some sort taken hold in my garden. I have been enjoying watching it sprawl all over the place with it’s big leaves. The other day I was out with my pruning shears pruning a little of this and a little of that. I thought hit me the maybe I will just tidy up the now quite large plant. It’s already the middle of August I thought, so why not prune out all but the largest of stems to see how big it would get. Snip. I had cut the damm one that I wanted to keep. After all these years of gardening I’m still learning by my mistakes.
reBlogged
to squash
on Aug 16, 2007, 11:41AM
Posted by sandy Reblogged by Old Roses to squash on 2007-08-17, 06:23:44
Things are beginning to die down here including the garden. Since I was able to plant most things early here, things are finally coming to an end. I was sure I was going to have a fall crop of some things. But I never got around to it. Too many other things got in the way. . ..
Oh the heat is getting to me, the family, my pets and of course our gardens. The kids are preparing for school (we homeschool but we still have to prepare our minds for the structure of our school time). They don't feel like being outside when it's hot. The garden is drooping. What can you do to help the gardens?. . .
I discovered that the culprits attacking my Asian pears are birds . The bites appeared to be what a squirrel or rat would make and if I hadn't seen it for myself I wouldn't have believed it was the birds. I had no clue that birds could be so destructive. . . .
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to birds
Posted by Carolyn gail Reblogged by Old Roses to birds on 2007-08-17, 06:22:09
Very Exciting Day ! A Third Place ribbon in garlic. A Second Place ribbon in heirloom tomatoes (they were Boxcar Willies) and THREE Blue Ribbons! One in Roma tomatoes, one in zucchini and last but not least .... drum roll please ... Big Zack took the Biggest Tomato.
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to vegetables
Posted by Leslie Reblogged by Old Roses to vegetables on 2007-08-17, 06:21:47
Well here it is.The day of reckoning.This morning I bounded out of bed and headed for the garden.Can I find 15 “fair worthy” green beans?YES!Now it is time to decide on the garlic.Do I go for size (Sicilian Artichoke) or tightness of wrapper and uniformity (Polish Hardneck)? Which pair would you choose?
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to vegetables
Posted by Leslie Reblogged by Old Roses to vegetables on 2007-08-17, 06:21:24
May I invite you to take a seat on our garden bench at the new rose corner? And watch out, I am going to show you something new over there!
I got a sewing project finished last week-end: new cushions for the bench and when the sun is out now, the place looks even more inviting and charming!
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to gardens
Posted by Anita Reblogged by Old Roses to Gardens on 2007-08-17, 06:19:15
All season -- this being my first season growing petunias -- I've been struck by how much new petunia blossoms and old petunia blossoms look alike. In fact, when I started deadheading the flowers, more than a few times I tugged on new blossoms thinking they were spent. Fortunately, I've become more discerning over time and haven't made that mistake for awhile now.
Always one to see the profound in the ordinary, I'm reminded that as human beings we are similar. Though you can't mistake young people for old, we share similarities at the beginning and near the end of life. We're delicate and vulnerable, a little wrinkly, either not fully formed or slowly deteriorating. In the garden, as in life, beginnings and endings create the eternal cycle of living.
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to petunias
Posted by Beth Reblogged by Old Roses to petunias on 2007-08-17, 06:18:06
The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today. Or so would Lewis Carroll, in his book Alice in Wonderland, have us believe. Not so on Bliss though, we are firm believers in jam today!. . .
False Sunflower Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra 'Summer Sun' Synonyms: Rough Heliopsis, Orange Sunflower, Ox-Eye, Heliopsis minor
This is a cheerful flower to have in your garden. It is a tall perennial that doesn’t need staking. It does seed so you might consider deadheading. I guess what I like about it is it gives a good show without a lot of fuss, something I look for more and more these days. . . .
I happened upon this caterpillar while deadheading petunias this morning:
Quite unusual, at least for my yard. Here's a closer look:
I checked a web page called What's This North American Caterpillar? to try and identify him. But I couldn't decide if he fit into the tufted, hairy or bristled category. Therefore he shall simply be called Caterpillar "L'il Dewd."
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to insects
Posted by Beth Reblogged by Old Roses to insects on 2007-08-17, 06:17:02
To make sure your pumpkins last as long as possible, they must be harvested, cured, and stored properly.
A common mistake is to harvest fruit while it’s still immature, which gives you fruit that can not be successfully stored, giving you poor quality results. . . . .
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to pumpkins harvest
Posted by Hilary Reblogged by Old Roses to harvest, pumpkins on 2007-08-17, 06:16:47
It's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and I didn't miss it:) Starting from the front and working my way to the very back of the yard. I have the following blooms. . . .
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to flowers
Posted by Beverly Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2007-08-17, 06:16:09
Small wineries and nurseries have a lot in common. How do you get them into your facility? You can buy plants at Home Depot or Wal Mart just like you can buy wine at BevMo or Costco. You don’t even have to go into the winery or nursery. There are lots of cheap wines that are drinkable just as there are lots of cheap plants that work. Most people will never try a fine wine or fine plants, the cheap stuff is good enough. How do we get them into the store and our world?. . .
Blogger's Bloom Day...and I arrived at the party on time! Yeeehaaah! I will edit in text later, cuz' right now I gotta run....enjoy the pics! Okay, I'm back......first we have boneset, and as you can see, the bees love it! There's even a bee flying in to the left of the flower. This was a volunteer last year, and it has established itself very well. It has various medicinal properties, I just like the symmetry of the leaves. . . .
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to flowers
Posted by lisa Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2007-08-17, 06:15:23
So, did I mention that I started a bunch of melons from seed this spring? Did I mention that I had a few problems?
Like, just as soon as I’d planted them, the whole tray of seeds tipped over and it rained soil and seeds all over my three-tiered seed starting rack. Soon I had melons coming up in my tomatoes and oregano. . . .
The first day of the Eating Local Challenge was a little difficult. Yesterday, I found myself — and my fridge — woefully unprepared. We had a bag of carrots, some left over noodles, a handful of hot peppers and a lemon. Oh yeah… menu planning… I kinda forgot about that part.
I went out into the garden and came back with a cucumber, a Jimmy Nardelo sweet pepper, a few cherry tomatoes and a handful of herbs. Not exactly the berries and yogurt I was craving for breakfast.
So, I started the day with a cup of coffee (so not local) with cream (local) and a muffin from Yum! Kitchen and Bakery (kinda local?). . . .
The August 15, 2007 issue of the Washington Gardener Enews is now out and archived at http://archives.zinester.com/85920. The images seems to be linking to the wrong stories, while I've double-checked the coding and all is correct. I'm asking the web host now to take a look at the problem. I may pull it and repost it today. . . .
One of the things that I listed on my 2007 Garden To Do List was to grow some vegetables that I haven't grown before. One such veggie was sweet potatoes which got destroyed by the critters. Another new addition was supposed to be spaghetti squash. I had planned on starting the seeds indoors under lights but unfortunately I never got around to doing it. Moving to plan B, I bought a container of spaghetti squash at the garden center which had two plants in it. They have been the biggest and healthiest plants in the garden and I thought all was well. We began finding recipes for cooking it and was excited to see if it actually looked like spaghetti. Once the fruits started to develop, I noticed that something was terribly wrong. These aren't spaghetti squash plants! I can't even figure out what kind of squash this is.
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to squash
Posted by Marc Reblogged by Old Roses to squash on 2007-08-17, 06:13:30
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my garden in August. All gardens seem to look great in June and into July--and I love mine in September, when it starts to show the beginnings of fall color--but August seems like a rather tough time of the year. Many perennials have finished blooming, annuals are getting scraggly and need to be cut back, and plants in general always look a little worse for the wear in our typical August heat and humidity.
Not a lot is blooming around here in August. Mostly we are just trying to keep the leaves green for another month.
One plant that does seem happy though is Turk’s Cap. It’s even blooming in places where I haven’t been watering. And somewhat surprisingly the leucophylum are blooming a little. They usually [...]
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to flowers
on Aug 15, 2007, 6:09PM
Posted by Bill Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2007-08-17, 06:11:49
This is probably the worst year ever for my gardens. Definitely the worst since I started keeping a record (this blog). I love experimenting. This year I really pushed the envelope. Too much, it seems. I crashed and burned. Here is it the middle of August when my yard should be a blaze of color thanks to all the annuals that I normally grow from seed. Instead, very little is blooming. My biggest “crop” is weeds. . . .
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to flowers
Posted by OldRoses Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2007-08-17, 06:11:36
Bittersweet moments characterized my photo shoot today, as I realized I was preparing my last Bloom Day post from the community garden. I am likely to see these flowers in another place, in another August, but never again quite like here. Come along with me as I say farewell to my garden plot, in the language of flowers. . . .
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to flowers
Posted by Christa Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2007-08-17, 06:11:02
Attila Kapitany created a little masterpiece we should like to promote. “Australian Succulent Plants; an introduction” is a book which gets you acqainted with Australian succulent plants. There are some beauties amongst them. The book is high quality print and the photographs are excellent. Some succulents look very much alike their family members from Southern Africa and many others are absolutely different from plants anywhere else in the world. The book can be ordered directly. E-mail to gecko -at- connexus.net.aus . ..
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to succulents
on Aug 16, 2007, 4:55AM
Posted by soekershof Reblogged by Old Roses to succulents on 2007-08-17, 06:07:48
Imagine if you were to come home after a long day at work to find a great big awesome Rain Barrel like this just sitting on your patio.
Garden Buddy alerted me a while back that the City of Chicago was offering rain barrels to encourage water conservation and to help keep the sewers from getting clogged. This is a real problem in these parts - my basement flooded because of this the first weekend that we moved to this house. Anyway, GB is on vacation and today she picked one up for me and dropped it off in my backyard. GB - I love it when you are on vacation!. . .
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to watering
Posted by Gina Reblogged by Old Roses to watering on 2007-08-17, 06:07:07
Here are more of the promised photos from the trip to Innis Gardens. As you can see there are quite a few types of gardening styles melded into this space and one part I don't have any pictures of is the Nature preserve- that is completely another effort of posting and picture taking! It so happens that one elderly sister was more interested in the cultivated gardens, while the other sister took an active interest in building a nature preserve ... both parts of the garden are a pleasure to stroll, just the right size area to explore on Sunday afternoons.
via Country Gardener on 1969-12-31, 19:00:00
To make sure your pumpkins last as long as possible, they must be harvested, cured, and stored properly. .JPG)
