As we barrel toward the end of June, it seems a good time to take stock of how things are going in the garden. There’s still plenty of time to make adjustments, replant what’s not looking right or start seeds for fall vegetables. We’re a long way from that hot August morning when you decide to throw in the trowel on this year.
So take a walk around your garden this weekend and take stock of the wins and the places for improvement. Here’s my list, starting with the wins.
In honor of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I decided to plant red, white and blue containers at my shady front door. I had three beautiful blue pots and filled them with white Beacon impatiens, Glimmer bright red double imaptiens and Catalina Midnight Blue torenia. The Midnight Blue looks more purple than blue but I still like the pots and I think by the Fourth they will be even more colorful.
My containers out in the real front of my townhouse next to the garage have an apricot and burgundy theme (an attempt to match the trim on my house) and they look good and are tall enough to avoid any bunny damage. The coleus is part of the ColorBlaze series, which grow large and come in wonderful color combinations. With a few exceptions, noted below, most of my ornamental containers are thriving so far.
I’m experimenting this year to see how many vegetables I can grow in containers on my deck. It turns out, you can grow cabbage in a planter box. I have four well-formed, bug-free cabbages growing in my planter box now, which is three more cabbages than I have ever successfully grown! The variety is Earliana (recommended by a subscriber here — thanks, Mary!) and it makes a small, early head of green cabbage. The one that gets the most sun is ready to be harvested, which I plan to do this weekend. As I remove the cabbages, I will be replacing them with annual flowers, probably lantana, to encourage more pollinators to visit my deck.
My community garden is looking remarkably healthy. It’s still plagued by galinsoga, a weed that inhabits spaces where there is a lot of tilling, but the deer and rabbits that were such a problem last year are nowhere in sight. I have several types of tomatoes, peppers, squash and melon that all are healthy and thriving, as well as snapdragons, zinnias and sunflowers for cutting. Our recent rains — about 1.5 inches there — greened up everything up nicely. Fingers crossed for a great harvest! How is your vegetable garden growing? Any pests?
Not everything is growing according to plan, of course. Two mandevilla that I bought at a fundraiser in April quickly dropped the blooms they came with and have been sitting on the deck, like green blobs, for the past month. I have fertilized them and one is starting to bloom again. I’m wondering if forcing the plants into an bloom early for the fundraiser set them back. Have you had this experience?
Sometimes you go for plants you just were not meant to grow. For me, that’s an unusual hydrangea and lisianthus this year. The hydrangea is called Fairy Trail™ Fresco cascade hydrangea with large blooms that tumble over a pot’s edge. It’s a beauty. I saw them in Memphis, Tenn., last year and really wanted to grow them. The rep from Proven Winners told me it was not going to thrive in our climate—so I was warned. But I wanted to try them anyway, so I bought one. It’s in a pot, and it’s not doing much yet—no blooms and very little growth. I haven’t given up hope but have a new resolve to contain my enthusiasms. Lisianthus is a beautiful roselike cut flower. I knew I would not have time to start any from seed this year, so I bought some pre-started plants. They arrived in fine shape, are long settled into their pots, and are doing absolutely nothing. Could it be they don’t like containers? Maybe it’s too hot or cold? I’m stumped.
Which plants are struggling in your garden?
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