Good morning, and happy summer. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
With the summer solstice, summer temperatures roared into Denver. On Monday the high was 90°; we dipped down to 82° for a high on Wednesday, then bounced back up into the high 90s by the end the week — the weather station nearest our house hit 99°.
Meanwhile, lows have been staying above 55° — perfect for setting fruit from the tomato blossoms which appeared this week.
I believe it was kishik who posted photos of salpaglosis last year and I've lusted for them ever since. As I forgot to order seed in a timely manner, I was most gratified to find a couple of plants at one of our local nurseries. They'll be a wonderfully different filler for one of the bare spots in the front beds.
There's a riot of blooming going on in the front yard. I really like this combo of whirling butterflies gaura and trumpet lilies — a happy accident. I hadn't planned for them to coordinate so well in color, form and bloom time. Of course the gaura will continue blooming all season long; it just happens that they first bloom along with the lilies.
It was fortunate that Wednesday — my day off — was the best gardening day of the week. I got a lot accomplished: chopped the pea vines, poppy and penstemon trimmings and added them to the compost bin; buried the stems of the potato plants with soil to (hopefully) increase the yield; weeded the veggie patch and laid cardboard "mulch" in between the rows; planted more gladiolus bulbs; weeded in the front beds — and watered. Definitely needed to water. For one thing, the electronic timer I use for the veggie patch to turn on the soaker hoses in the middle of the night crapped out on me — with the heat of the last several days the veggie were looking kinda droopy.
I was left with just the dahlia plants to put in the ground and a great sense of accomplishment. Of course while farting around and weeding the front beds I noted the areas which really needed just something a little more... which occasioned my trip to City Floral and discovery of the salpaglosis... and some more agastache (I just adore agastache)... and a couple of salvias... and a few types of thyme... and the heliotrope sure smelled good. Sigh. I'm a goddamned junky when it comes to nurseries.
So I have more planting to do over the weekend. It likely will be too hot to do much today. The overnight low was 74° (yeesh), and depending on the source the forecast for today is either 90°, or 99°. But a cool down is coming in by this evening, so I guess the high will depend on when it arrives, and whether or not we get any thunderstorms. And tomorrow is predicted to be in the low 80s and lows going back into the 50s and 60s where they belong.
And I'm swearing off nurseries for the rest of the summer.
Really. I am!
The good thing about the weather — other than pushing the tomatoes along — is that it's really gotten my compost cooking. Well, the heat and those nice nitrogen-rich pea vines. Yesterday evening when I checked the temperature it was at almost 163°, the hottest I've ever achieved. The compost is a little on the wet side, though — it doesn't smell right — so I mixed in some newspaper and wood shavings to help sop up the extra moisture and add more "brown" to all that good "green". I'll gradually add more until it smells right.
That's what's happening here? What's going on in your gardens?