Dear Friends and Gardeners Week 18

Dahlia 'Arabian Night'

Dear Carol, Mary Ann and Everyone,

Although the perennials are doing well, as I write this, the vegetables seem lackluster to me.  I am impatient for vegetable bounty to adorn my table and my stomach, but I am still waiting.  The tiny zucchini still appears to be growing, and so do the tomatoes, but nothing, alas nothing, is edible except a few paltry ‘Sungold’ cherry tomatoes.  Those I ate while hoeing.  Carol, you’d be proud.

Do you discern from my writing that I’ve been reading Regency novels?  Nothing could be more true.  I just finished And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily Mysteries, Book 1). It was fun, but back to veggie talk.

Mary Ann, I took your advice on the diatomaceous earth.  It seems to have stopped the damage.  I also dusted the two tomato plants which had the most hornworm damage with Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.  I haven’t seen any hornworms since.  I didn’t dust the other plants which were unaffected.

One of the triangular beds with Mexican fountain grass in the foreground

I now remember why I like bush beans better than pole beans.  Every year, in the garden magazines, I see these charming tripods covered with beautiful bean vines.  This year, I fell for their charm and ordered only pole beans.  However, for some reason, in Oklahoma, the pole beans are not productive.  They grow and grow with very few blossoms.  I now remember that I had this problem one other season when I grew them.  Perhaps, it’s the heat discouraging them from setting pods.  Bush beans grow quickly and bear the same way.  Disgusted, I planted some bush beans this week, ‘Top Crop’.  We’ll see how they do.

Last night, on the 4th of July, we received 3/4 of an inch of rain.  It never rains in Oklahoma on the 4th.  The cold front that came through was sorely needed.

Carol, I’ve heard a rumor that you bought some daylilies.  I am ecstatic.

H. 'Eyes on the Prize' (Emmerich 2002)

Love y’all,