A Drenching Deluge

For the most part, it was a damp, rainy day. We (Terry, Pat and I) came in early to beat the heat and ran for cover when the lightning, thunder and pounding rain arrived. It was quite cool this morning too. We had just enough time to bring in some soil, plants and containers for an indoor project that the guys took care of quickly. The top image is a close-up of the flowers and orange new foliage growth of the fuchsia (Fuchsia hybrida 'Autumnale') in the large, copper cheese vat planter in the English cottage garden. The hummingbirds will hopefully track this one down. Directly above are some of the many labels that have been produced and mounted recently by Gary, Ariel, Rita and Mandy. Our label production has exceeded my expectations and our limiting factors now relate to materials as we need more aluminum for stakes yet again! Our original plan was to re-label all of the woody plants first but we found this would take more research time and we're still trying to devise an anchoring system to keep the labels securely in the ground. Our current aluminum labels get bent, knocked out of place and even pulled out by visitors (photographers, etc.). We want to make sure that at least the woody plant labels have additional anchoring. I envision working on these over the winter. However, we have been inventorying perennials in various areas and producing the "new and improved" replacement labels. This has gone very well and we've almost inventoried every garden area. The picture to the above right is of Malabar (or vine) spinach (Basella rubra) working up a support in our Ornamental Edible / Compact Vegetable (OECV) display. That blue support will be buried beneath this vigorous vine (edible leaves) in a couple of weeks. I was out in the OECV quite a bit today as Dan and Kathy (further below with camera) from the Janesville Gazette were down to take photographs and get details for a future story on the intent and value of this collection. To the left is the bright petiole (stem) color of the 'Flamingo Pink' Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris). I've mentioned it before but we are featuring over 20 varieties of Swiss chard in the OECV collection this year. To the right and directly below is our 'Micro-Tom' tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) which has been touted by many as the smallest tomato plant in the world. Note the pencil used for scale! These plants are softball-sized and would be great in a windowbox or small container. Think about those huge, flopping tomato plants and all the staking involved! I believe we have five compact tomato varieties in this collection as well as compact eggplants, dwarf herbs, etc. While the sun peaked out briefly, we had periodic rain all day. I'm thankful for this as hopefully this rainfall will really soak in and make for a better late summer out in the gardens with less irrigation. Mother Nature offers the ideal irrigation (unless it's a monsoon). It looks like we'll have another three sequential days with the possibility of rain. Where was all of this a month ago when we had six people watering all day!? I caught up on all manner of projects today and was glad for the office time. Terry and Pat worked collectively on weeding (where access wasn't too muddy!), path repair, pruning and various small tasks. Dr. Gredler was in to do some brief mowing but the drizzle discouraged him quickly. We also saw Maury with supplies, Art, Layton, Tina, Dick H., Deb., Bev, Al, etc. Further below are some additional photos from my visit today to the OECV display. To the right is the variegated hot pepper (Capsicum annuum 'Sparkler') and to the left is the foliage of the perennial bloody dock (Rumex sanguineus ssp. sanguineus). To the right is another Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) called 'Ruby Red'. Some of the best Swiss chard I've seen grown, even if it's never cut for eating, is in medium to large containers. It offers bold texture, color and plenty of interest.

As we head in to August, we'll continue our watering and weeding tasks but will be finishing our planting of perennials and woody plants. The renovated English cottage garden is about 50% planted and we'll finish by Friday (weather permitting). We'll also use August to "polish off" the remaining tasks and clean-up for both the North Point garden and the Japanese garden. We had two tours today that really enjoyed the garden and while we say that we are at "peak color", we make all efforts to extend interest well in to fall. Next Thursday is our "Members Only" bus trip to the Ball Seed Display Gardens (West Chicago, IL) and Cantigny Park (gardens and museums). This should be lots of fun. That evening (August 4th) at 7 pm is also the last of the Rock Prairie Master Gardener Lecture Series. The topic, presented by the Janesville Area Herb Society is on Horseradish. Horseradish has been proclaimed the herb of the year by the International Herb Association. Directly below is a cucumber blossom and the cool shot at the bottom (not from today!) was from Tina B., my ace photographer who is also photographing all the marigold (Tagetes) collection.