it was a beautiful morning in the garden-not too hot and easy to work in. things right now are in maintenance mode, we just do what needs to be done to keep things looking healthy.
when new volunteers come out to the garden to work, they frequently ask if they should deadhead the flowers. my response is always the same, "sure anything but the coneflowers". this response generally rewards me with a look of disbelief from the person asking. well we have a good reason for this, and here it is; goldfinches depend on the seeds starting in late summer and through winter.
in the rain garden, a female goldfinch is taking a break as she checks out the seed heads.
here, two males are having breakfast. if you want to watch them, come out early and sit quietly in the shade garden. you will hear them in the trees around you. then watch as they fly in and out of the perennial bed and the rain garden while they feed on the seeds of coneflowers. my suggestion, bring a pair of binoculars so that you can watch them from a distance without chasing them away. to get these photos, i had to use my long lens, 250mm, and carefully creep closer to the garden so that they would not be startled.
for long time visitors/volunteers to the demo garden, you may recall our plan to dismantle the old perennial garden next to the apple orchard. the overgrown, weed choked beds were nothing short of an embarrassing eyesore. we were so short of help and the garden was doing so poorly that we felt we had no other choice. that is until new dcmg member ty ann joined us in the demo garden. she felt so strongly that the garden should stay that she devised a plan to consolidate beds and redo the shape of the garden to make it easier on the ground crew to cut the lawn around it.
her hard work has paid off! just look at the garden now. we won't be taking it down anytime soon thanks to all the hard work ty ann has put into the garden.
when you come to the demo garden, take a walk down to the perennial garden and admire the plants. next time you see ty ann, thank her-the garden was a goner until she stepped up and single handedly saved it and that is the honest truth! consider coming out some time and giving her a hand, there is still quite a bit to do down there.
the herb garden is doing very well this year. love the combination of the lime green marjoram and the blue orange thyme.
anybody want something to do? come snip the flower heads from the chives, quickly before they drop seeds and multiply. remember the campy old episode of star trek- the trouble with tribbles? the little furry things multiplied like crazy and threatened to take over the enterprise. that is the trouble with chives, they will be everywhere if the seeds develop and drop.
celery stump in the zombie garden is doing rather nicely.
the three sisters bramble, i mean garden is full of beans and one pumpkin, no corn though.
do you recall our troubles with the tomato trial last year? we were plagued with root knot nematodes that slowly killed off many of the plants and left others struggling. we yielded very little in the way of fruit.
well, they are at it again. this time though, they have taken out many of the curcurbits in the vertical gardens. this was a butternut squash plant. do you see the lumpy roots that look like little potatoes? that is the damage the nematodes do to the root system. it prevents the roots from taking up moisture and nutrients causing the plants to die.
looks like we will be working on eradicating them so we can use the garden next year.
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