The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

Today we planted part of our outdoor fall vegetable garden.

The list of vegetables today included:

• Lettuce: Iceberg (Crispino), Romaine, Buttercrunch, Black Seeded Simpson
• Onions: White Spear (for green bunching onions)
• Spinach
• Beets (Detroit Dark Red)

One thing you have to be concerned about when planting these cool weather crops is the weather. Today it was fairly cool, in the low 70′s for the high. Also, after yesterday’s rain, the soil temperature was cool as well, making ideal germinating conditions for the lettuce seeds.

The forecast for the remainder of the week is for a return to hot summer temperatures. If air and soil temperatures get too warm, these cool weather seeds may not sprout. It’s worth taking a chance on the weather however, as we usually get most of our fall crops to grow.

Of course, weather at the other end of the season is as much a concern. A colder than average fall can ruin these crops… that however, will be discussed in a future post!

I’m thinking about sowing peas as well. I have never had much luck with a fall pea crop, but, I have plenty of seed left over from the spring and will probably go ahead and plant them anyway.

Each fall I get a big kick out of looking at the prices of lettuce in the produce department as I harvest our own from the garden. It doesn’t take much to entertain me.
Bob

One of the things I hope to accomplish with this blog is to provide you with at least a little bit of gardening inspiration.

I believe one way to do that is by posting photos of my garden and others.

This is a photo I took last week of the perennial garden.

In the foreground you see the rock retaining wall covered with Virginia Creeper. Behind that is an area covered with Periwinkle. These two ground covers fill in the space between the flowering plants eliminating the need for mulch. Watch out for Virginia Creeper though, it has a tendency to get out of hand, climbing all over everything in the garden.

The tall blue flowers are Russian Sage, a semi-woody perennial that adds some vertical interest to the garden.

Next are the white Shasta Daisies. At one time these were Martha Stewart’s favorite flower. There are some near the back too.

Yellow Prairie Cone Flowers have a dominant role in this garden. They add a lot of long lasting color. The Cone Flowers were planted years ago by a landscaper long before I arrived on the scene. They did so well here that I decided to divide them and distribute them throughout the garden, the result of which you see here now.

A long row of bright yellow Day Lilies can be seen towards the top of the photo.
It’s a little hard to make out, but if you look close there are a few Globe Thistle plants off to the left.

In the upper right corner are a few ‘Purple Queen’ Cleome. These are annuals I planted to add more color and texture.

Finally, we have Echinacea, the Purple Cone Flower you see growing in drifts. In the fall, small song birds love to eat the seeds of the Echinacea.
There are other plants hidden away all throughout the garden and we have discussed some of those in previous posts.

The garden view you see here is what a guest sees from his car when travelling up the driveway. To see the other hidden gems he would have to get out of the car and walk through the garden paths.

Bob

Viola ‘Etain’ is one of the plants recommended this year by Judy to her circle of gardening friends. I decided to try them out in a shady spot near a group of trees and other perennials.

Normally, one would expect a violet such as this to stop blooming long before now (due to summer heat), but just like the energizer bunny, these little perennials just keep going and going.

The hot summer we have had has not seemed to faze them much at all. The only thing I have noticed is the very slight reduction in size of the blooms compared to those in the spring.

I’m sure the shady location has helped them to weather the hot weather.

Bob