Pandemic Garden Club
Aug. 12th, 2022 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksWelcome to the August edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!
Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.
As for myself...
These lovely little salvias have, by now, actually put out pink flowers. I mentioned last time that I was surprised they grew at all. A lot of the things I planted this year lay dormant well past what should have been the germination point, only to spring up unbidden and out of season. Here's the thing, though--I didn't plant these. The salvia I planted is called Blue Victory and is, as one might expect, a blue flower. Also, the leaves and stalks look nothing like this. I just checked the seed packet today, for unrelated reasons.
So, uh, whomst be this? Near as I can figure, the hummingbird salvia that lived here before, which died over the winter, managed to set seed. It had pink flowers and bright green, very wide-based leaves. You know, exactly like these. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the succulents that had been blooming have wound down now. This dorstenia is starting to grow again though. I always get nervous with anything that has a caudex like this. They tend to die back to the base seasonally, and I can never tell if I've killed them off properly or not. Since the course of action either way is to stop watering them and wait, I suppose it makes no difference. I lost one of my other dorstenia this month, though, so I was glad to see this one resurrecting itself.
It's been a very hit-and-miss year in the garden. Some things haven't grown at all (*cough* about 200 bulbs *cough*). Some things didn't seem to be growing, so we planted replacements to avoid a year of no harvest, only for the first batch to suddenly get their act together. Other things, like the shade and fruit trees, have put on tons of new growth and added a lot of height.
I happened to find a great pair of shots, taken six days apart, that show just how fast things can grow in the summer. Twenty days later, these sunflowers are even further along.
A few of the flower heads on the Mammoth and Mongolian varieties have gotten ripe enough to have whole, fully developed seeds in them. The smaller varieties are still getting there, with the seeds visible but still soft and white.
Inspired by this video from Emmy, we tried roasting a couple of the flower heads. I picked a couple of small ones and one of the Mammoth heads. I haven't cooked the Mammoth yet, but the two small ones... Well, it was an interesting experience, anyway. Even choosing what I thought were still young and tender heads, there's just a lot of fibrous stuff to contend with. I wouldn't do it again, but I'm not sorry to have tried it. We'll let the others fully ripen and we'll harvest the seeds both for roasting and replanting.
Speaking of harvesting and replanting seeds, we picked the first lemon drop melon. This is grown from seeds I saved from a store-bought melon variety I covet every summer. We weren't sure, commercial agricultural practices being what they are, that it would grow at all or grow true. This one isn't quite ripe enough--the flavor isn't fully developed. But it seems to be right and proper.
You know what this means, don't you? I have successfully pirated fruit. :D
Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.
As for myself...
These lovely little salvias have, by now, actually put out pink flowers. I mentioned last time that I was surprised they grew at all. A lot of the things I planted this year lay dormant well past what should have been the germination point, only to spring up unbidden and out of season. Here's the thing, though--I didn't plant these. The salvia I planted is called Blue Victory and is, as one might expect, a blue flower. Also, the leaves and stalks look nothing like this. I just checked the seed packet today, for unrelated reasons.
So, uh, whomst be this? Near as I can figure, the hummingbird salvia that lived here before, which died over the winter, managed to set seed. It had pink flowers and bright green, very wide-based leaves. You know, exactly like these. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the succulents that had been blooming have wound down now. This dorstenia is starting to grow again though. I always get nervous with anything that has a caudex like this. They tend to die back to the base seasonally, and I can never tell if I've killed them off properly or not. Since the course of action either way is to stop watering them and wait, I suppose it makes no difference. I lost one of my other dorstenia this month, though, so I was glad to see this one resurrecting itself.
It's been a very hit-and-miss year in the garden. Some things haven't grown at all (*cough* about 200 bulbs *cough*). Some things didn't seem to be growing, so we planted replacements to avoid a year of no harvest, only for the first batch to suddenly get their act together. Other things, like the shade and fruit trees, have put on tons of new growth and added a lot of height.
I happened to find a great pair of shots, taken six days apart, that show just how fast things can grow in the summer. Twenty days later, these sunflowers are even further along.
A few of the flower heads on the Mammoth and Mongolian varieties have gotten ripe enough to have whole, fully developed seeds in them. The smaller varieties are still getting there, with the seeds visible but still soft and white.
Inspired by this video from Emmy, we tried roasting a couple of the flower heads. I picked a couple of small ones and one of the Mammoth heads. I haven't cooked the Mammoth yet, but the two small ones... Well, it was an interesting experience, anyway. Even choosing what I thought were still young and tender heads, there's just a lot of fibrous stuff to contend with. I wouldn't do it again, but I'm not sorry to have tried it. We'll let the others fully ripen and we'll harvest the seeds both for roasting and replanting.
Speaking of harvesting and replanting seeds, we picked the first lemon drop melon. This is grown from seeds I saved from a store-bought melon variety I covet every summer. We weren't sure, commercial agricultural practices being what they are, that it would grow at all or grow true. This one isn't quite ripe enough--the flavor isn't fully developed. But it seems to be right and proper.
You know what this means, don't you? I have successfully pirated fruit. :D
