September 2018 in the NH

[Robert]

A few images from our Sacramento garden yesterday, 4 September.

Late in the summer there is a full variety of vegetables to harvest from our vegetable garden. The heirloom tomato Cosmonaut Volkov has great flavor and is a favorite with our family.



The peppers are sweet and delicious when they turn red. I generally grow Marconi Peppers from my own seed stock. They have fantastic flavor. Pictured are Gypsy hybrid Peppers. They are okay, however we prefer the Marconi variety and a few other heirloom varieties.



This Rhodophiliala species is just one of many ornamental species blooming in our garden at this time.



Gladiolus oppostitifolius is a very reliable species in our garden. We grow them from seed. The seedlings exhibit a degree of variation in the shade of their pink flowers when grown from seed.



Eriogonum wrightii var. subscaposum is just one of a number of Eriogonum species that thrive in our garden. These too are grown from seed and the best plants are selected. This selection blooms with masses of small white flowers in the late summer. It is a xeric species and thrives in our garden with no, or very little, summer irrigation.

[Robert]

Cyclamen hederifolium is almost weedy in our garden. This batch is blooming next to a Lilium pardalinum hydrid that is going dormant for the season.



Pink is the dominant color, however we get some whites as well as darker colors with any effort on our part.



Of coarse, all the Cyclamen flowers are appreciated this time of year. We do have other Cyclamen species blooming. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to photograph them on this day.



Tithinia rotundifolia is a very common summer annual that we maintain by seed. This species and Zinna elegans are magnets for butterflies when they bloom. We would not think of excluding these common annuals from our garden. The flowers are pretty and the butterflies are divine. This year we have enjoyed Mournful Duskywings, Erynnis tristis, Fiery skippers, Hylephila phyleus, Monarchs, Danaus plexippus, and many other species.

[Robert]

Lately, most of my time has been spent expanding our vegetable garden. The new vegetable beds are 30 inches (76 cm) wide. Eliot Coleman promotes the relatively narrow beds and it is a great idea that works well for us. Harvesting and maintaining the beds is easy and one can easily straddle a bed with one foot on each side.



Here you can see the homemade compost that I just applied to the beds. In the background is another gardening project. The cider blocks will be leveled and filled with gritty soil for California native buds, annuals, and a few other favorite California native species such as selected forms of Salvia sonomensis.



The last step before planting is adding rock powders, Greensand, Phosphate Rock, Gypsum, and Kelp Meal. This is all worked lightly into the top few cm of the soil. A nice assortment of winter greens, roots, and other vegetables will be planted. Additions tubs will be planted with herbs of various sorts.

[cohan]

(Attachment Link)

Lately, most of my time has been spent expanding our vegetable garden. The new vegetable beds are 30 inches (76 cm) wide. Eliot Coleman promotes the relatively narrow beds and it is a great idea that works well for us. Harvesting and maintaining the beds is easy and one can easily straddle a bed with one foot on each side.

I think narrow is a good idea-- I have some beds I built to access from various sides, measuring my reach to the middle from the side, but it is not always convenient.. my rock and woodland gardens etc, are mostly narrow ridges, berms, etc..

[Gerdk]

Robert, I love the bright colour of the Tithonia!
- By the way: which violet species grows around your Cyclamen hederifolium?

Gerd

[François Lambert]

Tithinia rotundifolia is a very common summer annual that we maintain by seed. This species and Zinna elegans are magnets for butterflies when they bloom. We would not think of excluding these common annuals from our garden. The flowers are pretty and the butterflies are divine. This year we have enjoyed Mournful Duskywings, Erynnis tristis, Fiery skippers, Hylephila phyleus, Monarchs, Danaus plexippus, and many other species.

Indeed, I planted a border of annuals this year - after about 20 years without, and I must say it really is a top restaurant for bees and bumblebees.  In particular the Rudbeckia Hirta and the Cerinthe major are constantly visited by polinators.  One of the things we had in mind when planning our annuals border was to use only plants that are as well very decorative for us as good feeding plants for the bees.  And our experience this year exceeds by far our expectations.  Planting my left-over stock of marigolds in the greenhouse also attracted lots of pollinators into teh greenhouse (leaving the door open and the can also exit by the top of the roof) so that I did not even need to hand pollinate the bell peppers in the greenhouse this year.

[Robert]

I think narrow is a good idea-- I have some beds I built to access from various sides, measuring my reach to the middle from the side, but it is not always convenient.. my rock and woodland gardens etc, are mostly narrow ridges, berms, etc..

When I farmed I used 4 foot wide beds, as per John Jeavons. This certainly increased production, but could be difficult on the back. In our home garden I am looking for something much easier. 

Robert, I love the bright colour of the Tithonia!
- By the way: which violet species grows around your Cyclamen hederifolium?

Gerd

Gerd,

The Violas pictured are Viola sororia, Common Blue Violet. They are very weedy in our garden, so you can see that our garden needs some attention.    Viola riviniana Purpurea Group is also very weedy in our garden. I generally weed both species very hard and some always remain, bloom (which is very nice to see in the spring), and continue on. They will always be with us, which is quite fine with me. 

Tithonia is extremely easy to grow in our climate. I like the flowers, however the main goal is to provide habitat and food for our native Butterfly species. The environment for many species is deteriorating rapidly in California. I have been doing counts of the various species for a number of years at our Sacramento home (and elsewhere).

[Robert]

Francois,

Very pleased to hear your report. 

Growing other species beyond alpines has its place (at least in our garden). My wife and I love the butterflies, bees, and many other insect species in our garden. Many of our California native species, such as Eriogonums, attract butterflies, etc. , however in our area these beings need as much help as possible. In addition, the native species often have a limited blooming period. In our garden growing annuals it is one tiny example how we can coexist happily with many different species in our garden.

[ArnoldT]

Robert:

Your veggie garden looks like mine.

I found a commercial product comprised of all the materials you applied.

Here's a link to a blurb on it. http://www.growgreatvegetables.com/fertilizers/a-great-organic-fertilizer-mix/

Hard to find here on the east coast

I've read Steve Solomon's book and growing vegetables and following many of his recommendations.

He calls it Complete Organic Fertilizer. (COF)

[Gerdk]

Thank you Robert!
Both of your  (very welcome) weedy violets are distributet in my garden too.

Gerd

[Robert]

Robert:

Your veggie garden looks like mine.

 

Arnold,

Good to hear from you. 

Jasmin and I are doing fine. We do not like being apart when I am out-of-town. It feels a bit like what Seretse and Ruth Khama went through. Well not that awful. But the separation seems to go on and on. Some day something better will turn up. 

[François Lambert]

Francois,

Very pleased to hear your report. 

Growing other species beyond alpines has its place (at least in our garden). My wife and I love the butterflies, bees, and many other insect species in our garden. Many of our California native species, such as Eriogonums, attract butterflies, etc. , however in our area these beings need as much help as possible. In addition, the native species often have a limited blooming period. In our garden growing annuals it is one tiny example how we can coexist happily with many different species in our garden.

Hello Robert,

Where I live the governement is making efforts to increase biodiversity of (flowering) plants by replicating old farming techniques in the management of the roadsides.  Untill perhaps the late 30-ies of the previous century it was common that sheep would graze on the roadsides.  Since this had been done for decades or even centuries it had resulted in strongly depleted soils, but such soils are a heaven for all kinds of flowering plants that can't otherwise compete with stronger and faster growing grasses.  Since then there are less and less sheep and shepherds, modern agriculture not only fertilizes the fields, but in the end the entire environment got overfertilized.

Since a couple of years, when the roadsides are mown the clippings are evacuated so that the soil finally can get rid of some of its excessive nutrients.  But the first results are really encouraging.  Where a few year ago roadsides were only covered by grass & nettles and at best some dandelions or ranunculus flowering in spring, we now see more & flowers in summer & fall.  One of the fastest summer flowering species to have reapeared massively is tancy (Tanacetum vulgare), which is a fantastic bee feeder.  But still more is showing up.

Lot's of botanically rich biotopes here in Europe have been man-created by sheep or other cattle grazing, while the meat, milk, wool, manure we get from the animals in the end resulted in those soils getting poorer & poorer.  But since this kind of extensive agriculture is no longer economically sustainable the former pastures slowly change into forests mostly - in particular because there are no animals eating the seedlings of the trees neither humans cutting down the trees to leave more room for the lower palatable vegetation and the soils slowly regaining their original nutrient level.  There are a few tests with using grazing animals to maintain interesting biotopes, mostly we use some Scottish highland cattle because these animals can take care of themselves.

Anyway ... a bit a long text just to say in our country we are making efforts to have flowers until late fall available to nature.

[Robert]

Monsierur Lambert,

I can not thank you enough for your last posting!

I found the information extremely fascinating. I will try to looking into this in more detail.

Your efforts to write such a long posting are greatly appreciated.

P.S.

After a bit of thought... is there an easy method to email a copy of your last posting to me or for me to copy and paste it? I do want to follow up on the information.

[Hoy]

I am sorry I cannot grow annuals! (Or I couldn't - it seems the slug population has decreased considerably this year.) Maybe I should try some next spring!

In the meantime I enjoy the colours of nature. Here are some photographs from the mountains this week.

View at Haukeliseter, Telemark, Norway.
Rubus saxatilis
Potentilla erecta
Potentilla palusreis
Exobasidium vaccinii-uliginosi

[Hoy]

Lycopodium clavatum
Geranium sylvaticum - despite the epithet 'sylvaticum' this plant is common in above timberline.
Vaccinium myrtillus and Empetrum hermafroditum
Eriophorum foliage
Athyrium dissentifolium