Weekly journal of a Midwest gardener, which includes mowing, watering, weeding, deadheading, and reading.
It was unseasonably chilly this morning for mid-June, but also delightfully cool for working in the garden.1 I started in front by watering containers and then did a bit of deadheading, weeding, and tidying up before moving on to the back garden. There I potted up the basil seedlings, which means, at the moment, I have nothing left to pot up or plant out, unless you look inside at the houseplants begging for attention. (Do not look!) I also finished weeding the remaining beds in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral2 and took care of a spot nearby behind some shrubs where thistle and other weeds were trying to take over. I vanquished them, along with some animal scat, and called it a good morning in the garden.3
Another beautiful morning. Like yesterday, I started early in front with a bit of watering and weeding, then on to the back where I watered containers, maybe solved a little fountain problem,4 and then started to weed in the flower border in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. I ignored, for the moment, the purslane making a comeback around the squash. I simply didn’t have time to deal with it due to other errands, etc. It’s on my list for tomorrow, weather permitting.5
I got out early once again and finished weeding the flower border in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and also pulled out the purslane and crabgrass that had started to re-grow around the squash.6 Where I weeded looks great, but will weeds return?Absolutely! Weeds are as certain to return as the sun is to rise in the morning. Anyway, I was busy the rest of the day outside of the garden—though I did make time to water houseplants and start a few more microgreens—but I kept an eye on the weather forecast which called for tornadoes, winds, and rain. The gamut of bad weather!7
I wasn’t expecting over four inches of rain from last night’s storms, but that’s what we got. I went out and double-checked the weather station recording of 4.10 inches of rain with what was in the CoCoRaHS rain gauge. Spot on about the same. While I was out there, I suckered a few tomato plants and tied them up, noted where I need to rake some mulch back in place in the paths and then left the garden to recover on its own before I got all muddy.8 What else did I do? Shopped,9 read, and of course, since it was Thursday, I went to trivia night.10
On the eve of the eve of the Summer Solstice, I watered containers under cover in front and topped them off with some liquid fertilizer. The lawn was a bit damp, but I mowed anyway, after cleaning off the bottom of the mower deck which was gummed up with wet grass clippings from last week.11 After mowing, I trimmed all around and blew the clippings off the sidewalks and driveway. Then I put my newest solar-powered fountain in the bird bath in the front. We’ll see how it does!12
On the eve of the Summer Solstice, I drove to the family reunion with my younger sister. I enjoyed seeing mostly cousins, because the generation ahead of me now includes just two aunts and an uncle, who were all there.13 At one point, as one of my cousins was telling me about her vegetable garden, we discovered that another cousin had never heard of, nor tasted, spaghetti squash. What? We explained how to cook it for a yummy side dish.14
Happy Summer Solstice and Happy Father’s Day. After church, I went out to the garden and watered plants in containers and checked on the overall health of the vegetable garden. Green beans are flowering! Tomatoes are forming! More hollyhocks are blooming! But no sign of blooms on the squash plants and, as usual, the pepper plants are taking their sweet time growing, waiting for hotter days. According to the weather forecast, they’ll like it in about nine days when we should warm up considerably. But also in the forecast, I’ll be getting more rain on the garden this evening.
I’ve been thinking of changing the name of this Substack to something like Diary of a Midwest Gardener, or maybe Diary of a Spinster Gardener? I would change the email heading to look something like this:
Or
Thoughts? Would you know it was still me if I changed the title?
Or if you have another idea, put it in a comment or send me an email.
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” ~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Until next week,
With a shared love of gardening and reading15,
Carol
When I was a kid, we rode our bikes to swim team practice in the mornings. I think we started around 8:00 am. We would NOT have liked a chill in the air like we had on Monday. That water would be cold! Young Carol had no idea how much Old Carol would appreciate such weather for gardening.
When writing “remaining beds in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral,” I am leaving out the strawberry bed, the long flower bed, and the flower border on the east end of the garden which all need some attention. And by attention I mean weeding. But those beds where vegetables are growing are looking good!
The fountain problem was this. I purchased another solar fountain for the front, but this particular fountains shoots water up pretty high, causing the shallow birdbath it was in to quickly run dry. However, in back, I have a large self-watering container that, IMHO, doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do because it seems it is always full of stagnant water and keeps the soil too wet. So, I took the planter part out and that big outer container is now a very deep reservoir for the fountain. It would take quite a bit of overspray for it to ever run out of water! And if that doesn’t work, I’ll punch holes in the bottom of the container and turn it into a new big pot and figure something else out for the fountain.
On Tuesday, the forecasters were calling for some scattered showers overnight, then more rain late on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, I listened to Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven while working in the garden. I finished on Friday while mowing the lawn.
Rain on Wednesday started a little after 3 PM as a slow steady rain. About an inch had fallen when I went to bed.
After a heavy rain, you could do more damage than good in the garden, tromping around in the mud, rubbing up against wet plants, perhaps spreading diseases from plant to plant. Because that’s one thing we learned in college. Never walk through a wet soybean field. You’ll spread diseases from plant to plant. I no longer recall what diseases, nor have I ever had occasion to decide about walking or not walking in a soybean field when it was wet, but I’ve carried that admonition over to my own garden. Except when it comes to mowing. If necessary—and sometimes it is—I’ll mow the lawn when it’s still a bit damp from dew.
I bought another solar-powered fountain at Aldi. I now have three such fountains after going my entire life with one. I’ll see if I can use this one in front somewhere, especially if I can set it up to not shoot water up into the air, but to be more of a “bubbler.”
Here’s a recap of trivia night on Thursday. At the halfway point, we were in the lead! So exciting. But then we missed a few too many questions in the second half and finished in fourth place. We guessed correctly that the only naturally occurring waterfall in the Mississippi River—St. Anthony Falls— is in Minnesota, but I knew with certainty that Julie Andrews was the original Eliza Doolittle on Broadway.
My goal/plan is to gradually move my mowing day to Thursday, which would give me Friday as an alternative day to mow if I couldn’t mow on Thursday. Or I could mow on Wednesday if I had plans or there was rain forecasted that would prevent me from mowing on Thursday. The goal is not to mow on the weekend if at all possible.
I don’t have high hopes for the fountain in front. I don’t think it is going to get enough sunlight where it is. But hope springs eternal!
My aunt also gave a bit of history lesson, reminding us that one of our ancestors fought along side George Washington in several battles of The Revolutionary War, before moving west to Indiana.
To be fair to my cousin who didn’t know about spaghetti squash, I only discovered it as an adult myself, as it wasn’t something my father grew in his garden, and I suspect my grandparents also didn’t grow spaghetti squash. But really, who hasn’t heard of spaghetti squash these days?
I’m still currently reading The Priory by Dorothy Whipple (1939) on my Kindle and the paperback edition of The Feast by Margaret Kennedy (1950).
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