Ahhh, A Few Cooler Days Coming…
What a relief! Last night I was out watering the garden (because I still haven’t put together the irrigation system I’ve had in the box since March) and the cool air just started flowing in – what a delight! It reminded me of living in the Black Mountains of NC, when in the summer evenings if you were out in the yard and the cool air would start slipping down the mountain above us. You could feel it flowing by like water. Wonderful memory. This morning it’s 61 and that feels nearly chilly compared where we’ve been! And cooler is better if you are wearing your fancy bloomers all day:
The chickens made it through the heat, walking around panting since they don’t sweat, hiding out in the shady loafing shed…which begins to look like a bus stop shelter when they are all lined up, motionless, in there…and flopping on the ground in the shade. The moment the temp drops, they emerge in full chicken busy-ness. I let them out of their pasture in the evenings to roam the yard and surrounds. If I let them out earlier they would have time to wander far enough east to get in the garden which could be disastrous to the mulched beds. Chickens and a deep mulch gardening system doesn’t work, except for the chicken, who thinks you set this lovely bug and worm trap just for their pleasure as they are kicking mulch to kingdom-come.
I’d been a little worried how the Buckeyes would handle the heat since they are bred to withstand Ohio winters, not Arkansas summers. But one Buckeye breeder is down in Alabama and is successful, so they’ll probably do fine here. He did post one time that he would drip the hose for them and they’d come and stand in the water. If our water bucket gets low, the Buckeyes will just jump in and stand there. I had to put a fan blowing into their coop at night because it’s so stuffy in there. The tree that used to shade it from the afternoon sun came down in the ice storm. That spot will be high on the replanting list this fall. Supposedly the Australorps are heat tolerant, being from Australia, but they seemed as hot and oppressed and the Buckeyes did. Handsome, our Australorp rooster who arrived in an all-pullet box of chicks last autumn, looked a little miffed getting his portrait taken. You can see though, how he got his name:
Thanks for stopping by Larrapin Garden! The whole place smells like garlic and basil after the big harvest yesterday. I’ll post about that next…AND I’ll finally post the last garden I visited on the Peace Gardens Tour.
Read MoreSunday Blooms…Hoping for Rain
Ok, so it may not have actually hit 100 yesterday except in heat index (which surpassed 100). That’s what I get for looking at a bank’s temperature reading when the whole sign is out in the blazing sun! That sign (on a bank in Farmington) should lead to some amazing numbers being posted when we really do get hot in July and August.The Butterfly Weed above is doing well in the heat. I’ve yet to see any Monarch activity. (This is a native host plant of the Monarch butterfly. There are 100 kinds of milkweed and you can see pics of them here at monarchwatch.org ) I haven’t seen nearly as many butterflies of all kinds this year. I think the rainy, cold Spring may have set them back. The ac/heater guy who tuned up our system the other day said for the first time in his career he had made heater calls in May!
More weather lore: In June we’ve only had about 2 inches of rain per the NOAA website. They must have fallen somewhere around us, because I don’t think we’ve had that much righ here. So in June we’ve had half the normal rainfall for the month. In May we had around 8 inches, versus a normal of nearly 5 inches. Which all sounds (and feels) kind of crazy. At the same time, the historical charts say this area of the Ozarks can range anywhere between 21 and 70 inches of rain per year, with the normal being in the mid-40s. Fascinating! And I wondered why all the old farmer types are so interested in weather lore…it’s habit forming to start really observing these patterns. Now, when the patterns are as whacky as they have been this year, it can become a true gardening challenge.
Below, the Daylilies are still holding up, if fading a bit. No, those apparent raindrops fell from a hose, not the sky… Maybe we’ll get lucky and actually get that slim chance of rain today!
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Read More100 Degrees in the Shade..
metal hummingbird and daylilies
The hummingbird was given to us by our wonderful friends Cem and Marianne years ago. Only yard-art hummingbirds are out in the sun today. It’s 100 and hardly a cloud in the sky. Heat index near 105 today they said down at the Farmers’ Market this morning. I did notice it was crowded before 9am – sure sign its going to be a scorcher. Otherwise it seems to get crowded between 10 and 11 a.m.
The photo above was taken about two weeks ago – the last time we saw a drop of rain. It rained like mad all through May, then stopped abruptly and we haven’t seen a drop. Since that time, it’s been full sun, dry and above 90 every day. So, I was out in the yard at 6 a.m. — gardening hours are about 6-9 a.m. these days — getting out the BLACK BOXES..
I didn’t mean for the boxes to be black, a nice subtle green or tan would be nicer, but when I went to the store last year to get a half dozen of those on-sale plastic storage bins (the medium sized ones) my color choices were Screamin’ Razorback Red, Disco Purple, or black. Since I planned to use them as watering devices for newly planted trees during hot, dry spells, I went with the least obtrusive of the three. All I can say is they are more attractive (and hold more water and are safter for critters) than the leftover 5 gallon paint buckets I used to use.
In either case, you drill three to five pinholes in the side. Fill the container with water from the hose and the water seeps slowly out the pinholes over a few hours, allowing it to deeply soak the soil around the young tree, rather than just running off down the hill or across the yard. It’s also MUCH quicker to fill these tubs, place the lid and walk away, rather than to leave a dripping hose on the tree and try to remember to go move it every few hours.
Watering Young Peach
I’ve found it’s smart to put the holes about quarter inch up from the side. This allows a bit of water to remain once it has emptied — keeping the whole thing from blowing away in a sudden wind. (Ask me how I know this!) Since the lid is put back on once you fill it with water (to prevent birds or critters from meeting their doom) there’s no problem with mosquitos and you can just dump the little bit of water out on the tree when it’s time to put away the the black box for the season. I only fill the boxes about 2/3 full, otherwise they stretch out and I can’t get the lids on.
Black Box Watering a Prairie Fire Crab Apple
Generally, a deep soaking like this will last a week in all but the hottest dog days..which are usually in July and August instead of JUNE! This weather doesn’t bode well for those months! I suspect the black boxes may be out a long while this year.
As for the rest of the trees I didn’t get around to planting because it rained for a solid month…they are in partial shade in their pots where I’ll baby them till Fall tree planting times gets here in September. Then I’ll get out Whoa-Nellie the red tiller (stole this name I think from my neighbor’s yellow tiller I borrowed before I got my own Whoa-Nellie) and use it to dig enormous tree planting holes in this rocky, rocky ground. That is Whoa-Nellie’s main job since all the garden is raised beds…and she’s darn good at chopping into rocky clay. But all that will have to wait out the heat…
Stay cool! Remember to keep fresh water out for the birds and frogs and toads and critters:
Use planter saucers for tiny garden ponds!
Here’s one of the many planter saucers that keep water around the garden. The birds love them tucked in between the plants – and since we don’t have cats it’s more important to protect the birds from hawks while they bathe. The saucers are easy to dump out just by tipping them over with your foot and refilling with the hose. They’ll dry out before mosquitos have time to populate – but keep them full of fresh water, not dry! The songbirds in our yard and garden increased exponentially once we started keeping water out all the time for them. So now we have to keep it up. It’s so wonderful to watch them bathing and cooling off. Try it!
Read MoreJulia Ward Howe Peace Garden Visit
Continuing on Omni’s Peace Garden Tour from a couple weeks ago, here are the pics from Marie R.’s lovely city shade garden. The garden is named for Julia Ward Howe, an American social activist, abolitionist, poet and author of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She was also the first to proclaim “Mother’s Day.”
Marie has a large, sloping back yard and every inch of it is lovely. She has a real eye for artistic placement of objects — check out the merry-go-round horse beneath the amazing Japanese Butterbur (Asteraceae ‘Giganteus’) above! Plus she had a handy handout with the names of the plants which really helped me.
The photo gallery above will give you an idea of the work and artistry that went into this wonderful garden. You can click on any photo to see it larger. Marie creates wonderful, intimate vistas — like the tiny outdoor table surrounded by ornamental grass, or the wonderful frog pond complete with frog fountain. The outdoor patio area was wonderful and as you can see a lot of folks lingered there. That’s how you know your ‘garden destination’ really works, if people are drawn there and hang out! The contrasting colors, shapes and textures of plant groupings was amazing.
Thanks Marie for the wonderful addition to the Peace Garden Tour! You can find out more about peace gardens at:
More about Omni’s Peace Garden project is at: www.omnicenter.org
Next, I visit the Blue Birds of Peace Garden!
Read MorePeace Gardens Tour – Ed’s Woodland Garden
Ed's Home and Woodland Garden
Yesterday I had the delight of visiting three of the five gardens featured on Omni’s Peace Garden Tour 2009. How fun to get to see what other passionate gardeners are doing! My first stop was Ed L.’s lovely home and woodland garden site in South Fayetteville. It’s like a fairytale cottage in a forest…only it’s right in the city. One of my favorite details is the vine with variagated foliage over the front entrance. I’d never seen such a light and airy vine growing in significant shade. Ed told me it’s a variagated porcelain vine. (You can see a close up of the leaf by clicking the image below.) Other great things at Ed’s included a cute garden shed built from reclaimed materials and a tiny water garden on the deck.
Enjoy this mini gallery of more delights from Ed’s place:
Next on the tour, Marie R’s art-filled shade garden in Fayetteville’s historic district…
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