We both managed to catch one of the lovely respiratory cruds going around, so I lost some time to that over the last couple of weekends. I did manage to dig out the first batch of dahlias ahead of a big rainstorm during the week (see above), and those were cleaned off and packed up […]

I’m glad I pulled in the three dahlias that hadn’t bloomed yet. Hurricane and Lady Darlene have obliged. The Bloomquist York has had a bud since 9/3, which seems to be stuck. I probably should have cut it off a long time ago. I did finally cut it today, as there is one other semi-formed

Well, it happened. First frost, overnight on Thursday the 9th. On the one hand, still later then September. On the other hand, four of my dahlias still haven’t bloomed. So I did something I normally wouldn’t do, and brought the three that have buds inside for the night. The long range forecast isn’t predicting frost

Figured I should do a last day of August garden post – here’s the back bed in all its still pretty droughty glory. A few highlights: The maypop is actually starting to resemble a vine! We’ll see how big this gets this year. I’ll put it up another size pot if I think it warrants

I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I did a garden update. Things are trucking along in that August way – most things are finally blooming. I’ve had to resort of the above “mulch” for my maypop seedling. Some little shit (probably a squirrel) kept digging at it. The final straw was when I

The garden is filling in nicely. I planted more marigolds and calendula today that my father sent home with me last week. It’s funny, the creme de cognac dahlia put out three blooms, and then seemed to go back on pause with the rest of them. The new dinnerplate dahlia is finally budding, and a

I went away for a week and came back to fair amount more bloom than when I left. The calendula went crazy while I was away. My father sent me home with some more seedlings, so I’ll be filling in a few holes when I get a chance. In other news, the potential maypop finally

The creme de cognac dahlia bloomed! This was the one dahlia that I bought last year, that was the saddest little tuber you ever did see. It at least leafed out nicely, but it never did bloom. I figured if it did survive the winter, I’d give it another go this year. And look at

The garden didn’t do too badly while I was gone. I enlisted my mother to come over and water. There were some nice sunny days, so some things grew in quite nicely. It hasn’t been warm enough for the peppers and basil to be thrilled, but they’re doing ok. I was pleasantly surprised by how

The dahlias are out of the greenhouse, and I’ve switched it over to the net covering, and put that over the brassicas. It’s a bit big for the space, but it’s tall enough, so we’ll see how it goes this year. The bottom doesn’t have a complete seal, so I’ve piled up the straw at