This month has been a hard month for gardening. The first 3 weeks of the month it rained 6 days out of every 7. There was so much rain it was very hard for me to get out and do much in the yard. No matter, I was incredibly busy. School ended, my dad came to visit for the better part of a week, and I taught vacation bible school for a week. The last week of the month there were 90 degree temps and no rain for almost a whole week. Unfortunately, this was the time that dh and I took off for a vacation in Indianapolis with our police car club. The neighbor kindly helped me out by watering my containers a few times, but I really should have been watering every single day. I am lucky that they helped me so things didn't completely die. You can see only 1 of the nasturtiums in the bottom of my brugmansia is doing well. 2 died completely, and one is marginal.
Here are some nasturtiums in the tippy pot planters. They are doing okay, in spite of the dry weather, but they've got a long way to go before they are spilling out all over the place. I am going to try fertilizing this week and see if that helps.
The spitfires that I put in front of the gate are doing well, but they are having trouble competing with the ornamental kale that I planted in front of them. Where is the gate, you may ask? Well, it is sitting right next to the flower bed, the person who gave it to me suddenly decided they wanted it back, even though all they are going to do is dump it in a corner and do nothing with it. Ask me how I feel about THAT.... Moving on, I was hoping the nasturtium would feel inspired to climb up this trellis instead.
To help it along, I yanked out the back leaves of the kale, so the spitfire could get some more sunlight.
You can see the extreme heat after the excessive rain really made some stuff explode while I was gone. This bed is cucumbers, green beans, and scallop squash in the back section. With a few sunflowers, it is looking pretty lush. I am going to have to tame some of the cucumbers and squash so it doesn't try to spread out into the flowers.
I am impressed with how well these cucumbers are doing. If it fruits out as well as it is flowering, I am going to have tons of cucumbers.
One of my special, locally hybridized lilies bloomed. It looked just stunning, even dripping with the rain we had all day today.
I guess I am guilty of nasticide. These are some leftover nasties I had...no spitfire, these are 2 of the other kinds...I hadn't done anything with them yet. I guess they didn't get watered much while I was gone, they are mostly beyond help.
In my front planter I have my first spitfire blooms. I love the color, it is so vibrant. This plant needs a little fertilizer as well, it is a little sparse yet.
These are some of the starts I got at the master gardener sale. You can see it has many little yellow flowers...and something has been picking at it, but it is sending little snakes out all over the place. In spite of the mini-drought, it doesn't look too bad.
I have a birthday party to plan, a wedding shower to plan, a wedding to be in (not mine), but other than that, this month should have more time for cooking and gardening. I am looking forward to eating some delicious nasturtium recipes during the month of July. Have you had much experience with fertilizing nasturtiums? I really want my foliage to fill out, so I am going to try it. I would like to hear about your experiences.
"I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee's Garden for the seeds."
I fertilized my 'Spitfires' last month with some of that Terracycle worm casting foliar feed. Mine are not trailing a whole lot, but they're definitely on their way. I'm thinking about fertilizing again, maybe this time with fish emulsion. One thing I don't have is the ginormous leaves some of the seedGROW bloggers are getting. So far, lots of just kind of medium-sized leaves, but lots of blooms too, so I'm not complaining too much :-)
ReplyDeleteI love your pictures -- and my garden has been just as schizophrenic this year. I've grown nasturtiums before and found that fertilizing them will indeed make the leaves and vines go crazy, but it won't do much about the blooms. Actually, I've read that nasturtium blooms better in poorer soil. (Do what you want with that tidbit.)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the squash going crazy, though... we even have one growing out of our compost pile.
It's been a crazy summer, that's for sure. :D
- Julia at Midwest Moms
I haven't fertilized my nasties, and rarely fertilize anything else. If it doesn't grow of its own accord, I ain't got time for it. I'm a lazy gardener. ;~)
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad--everybody is guilty of plant neglect once in awhile. I forgot to get someone to water my classroom plants while I was gone last week, so all 15 may be dead after sitting in an unairconditioned room for twelve days.
ReplyDeleteActually, all things considered, most of your plants look just fine. That spitfire flower is just gorgeous!
LOL, I committed nasticide a lot earlier in the season. I liked seeing other thing sin your garden, too. Glad I'm not the only one who yanks out certain foliage to give other plants a bit more sun... P.S. I'm a snapdragon too. :)
ReplyDeleteLOL @ nasticide
ReplyDeleteYou're not kidding about the extremes. At least you got some nasties that look really healthy.