The Weekly Gardener Volume 3 July: December 2012

By Francis Rosenfeld

Collected articles from theweeklygardener.com - July through December 2012. For current articles visit The Weekly Gardener blog

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Rosenfeld
• Release date: Jan 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301644629

Francis Rosenfeld

I started learning about gardening from my grandfather, at the age of four. Despite his forty years' experience as a natural sciences teacher, mine wasn't a structured instruction, I just followed him around, constantly asking questions, and he built up on the concepts with each answer.As I grew older I applied this knowledge, experimented with new plants and learned a few things from my mistakes. That was fifteen years ago, and since then I was blessed with a thriving perennial garden. Half way through the journey, the micro-farm concept developed, a yearly challenge to figure out how much produce twenty square feet of dirt can yield.I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born this way: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might find it useful it in their own gardening practice.The blogs contain many stories (I am a writer and couldn't help myself), but also practical information about plant propagation, garden maintenance, working with your site, making preserves and keeping the yard welcoming for beneficial insects and local wildlife.

Book preview

The Weekly Gardener

Volume 3

July through December 2012

A collection of weekly articles from

The Weekly Gardener

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012

Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to http://smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

The Weekly Gardener is a live blog, for current articles please visit the website.

I would like to thank my blog readers whose continued interest gave me the confidence to keep writing. The Weekly Gardener started in June 2011, with Week 23.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Week 23 - June 11, 2012 - Reflections

Week 24 - June 18, 2012 - Mixed borders

Week 25 - June 25, 2012 - Here comes yellow

Week 26 - July 2, 2012 - After the rain

Week 27 - July 9, 2012 - The fullness of summer

Week 28 - July 16, 2012 - Study in magenta

Week 29 - July 23, 2012 - A blessing of peppers

Week 30 - July 30, 2012 - Buzz

Week 31 - August 6, 2012 - A little bit of heaven

Week 32 - August 13, 2012 - What to do with basil

Week 33 - August 20, 2012 - Lavender dreams

Week 34 - August 27, 2012 - Perfume

Week 35 - September 3, 2012 - Thoughts on an overcast day

Week 36 - September 10, 2012 - Hostas, mostly

Week 37 - September 17, 2012 - Harvest

Week 38 - September 24, 2012 - October pink

Week 39 - October 1, 2012 - Unbounded

Week 40 - October 8, 2012 - When roses are most beautiful

Week 41 - October 15, 2012 - Copper shades

Week 42 - October 22, 2012 - Autumn in the garden

Week 43 - October 29, 2012 - The garden lately

Week 44 - November 5, 2012 - Wild harmonies

Week 45 - November 12, 2012 - Planes, trains and automobiles

Week 46 - November 19, 2012 - Gobble-gobble

Week 47 - November 26, 2012 - Inside and out

Week 48 - December 3, 2012 - December cheer

Week 49 - December 10, 2012 - This week

Week 50 - December 17, 2012 - From Christmases past

Week 51 - December 24, 2012 - Fairhope

Week 52 - December 31, 2012 - Happy 2013!

Week 23 - June 11, 2012

REFLECTIONS

Summer plumbago

Normally plumbago starts blooming sometimes at the end of August, beginning of September. I am not surprised to see its bright blue flowers, because they fit in harmoniously with the rest of the late summer bloomers: solidago, daisies, mums, coneflowers... The sedum will ripen any moment now.

The garden displays unexpected plant combinations that blend monardas, daylilies, and goldenrods in the same picture. Tall Casablanca lilies counterpoint the image, heavy with vanilla scent.

The first time I passed them by I thought my nose deceived me, but I got closer and their much darker stamens really look and smell like vanilla beans.

Something about this unusual landscape reminds me of the old woman's perpetual garden in the story of Snow Queen, where all the flowers bloomed continuously and non-seasonally, all flowers except the roses. Not to worry though, they are all alive and well, just taking a little break for now, they are not very fond of the heat.

I lower my head gently to pass under the lily, yes, it is a foot or so taller than me and it arches gracefully under the weight of its many flowers, striped with yellow and smelling of vanilla beans. A little cottontail jumped unexpectedly at my feet, I almost stepped on it.

Beloved

It is such a joy to watch the healthy garden thrive after a deep watering! The long drought is finally over, a normal amount of moisture came back together with reasonable temperatures.

The little bunches of fruit on the tomato plants are still green for the most part, for them the summer is just beginning. Every veggie and flower unfolded extra compartments to make room for more food and water. The always thirsty cucumbers unfurled broad leaves and sprung up countless curly cues to secure their attachments to the supports. Speaking of veggie personality, you can't ever give too much water to the cucumbers, these sponges will absorb any quantity and grow insanely fast.

Reasonable weather surprised the delicate pea stems and they shot up immediately, happy to produce more pods, even though technically this is not their time to yield fruit. Fuzzy eggplant leaves tower over low sprawling squash, basking in the warmth of the long growing season.

Water drops were abundantly dripping off the edge of the balcony when I stopped to admire the healthy garden. The water landed right on the top leaves of the tomatoes, as every gardening book recommends to avoid, but the tomatoes beamed with good health and condescendingly ignored the potential for black spot.

The vegetable patch reflects the pampered assurance every beloved being returns to its caretaker, and does so beautifully and without pretense. After years of puttering around in your garden you can feel its moods just as easily