first attempt at tomato sauce

Today was once again hot and I watered twice. I also got a pretty good harvest, including a lot of the romas that were suffering from blossom end rot. I figured they would not keep too well once picked, so I would need to do something with them ASAP. I didn't have a ton, but I decided to try to make tomato sauce. I used a modification for a recipe in the book Mediteranean Harvest.



I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic in 2 T of olive oil, with about 1 t minced onion over medium heat. Then I added all the tomatoes, about 1/4 t minced red pepper, 1 sprig of thyme and some basil leaves. This was then simmered over medium-low heat for maybe 10-15 minutes (I didn't have that many tomatoes). I don't have a food mill, so I pulled out one big chunk that looked like the end of a tomato, then ran it all through the food processor. I think it tastes pretty good and is spicy! I'll have it over pasta for dinner on Monday night.

I was able to fix the part that had blown off the hose and gave the front yard a good watering today. Things in the back are looking okay. I got some new fiberglass planters at Sams Club Thursday night and have planted up the 2 'Black Pineapple' tomatoes I was never able to place out. I'm now growing FOUR plants of this tomato, so I hope it produces well and that we like it.

water bill may be the biggest problem

After coming inside and typing up a few things and worrying, I decided to go back out with a lantern and check out the situation literally on the ground. I think, other than my water bill, that I may have dodged the bullet. Our super-dry ground may have helped because the very areas that were squishy when I first turned off the water are only moist to the touch just about 10 minutes later and the two plants I was most worried about are surrounded by dry mulch. My forsythia seems like it got some water, but probably just a nice deep watering, as the top layer of soil doesn't even seem that moist.

Now, of course, I am still imagining a $500 water bill. I'm going to call the water company tomorrow (not that I think it will do any good).

disaster in the side yard

I went to wash my hands a few minutes ago, and the water pressure just didn't seem right. I thought... what if I somehow forgot to turn off the water this afternoon when I was done watering the front yard, so I went to check.

My worst fears were confirmed, I had left the water on. The spray nozzle on the water wand was turned off, but the ground underneath my feet squished where I walked. The hose that connects diretly to the hosemobile has been blown apart in some fashion, I'll have to investigate it in the morning.

Currently I am worried about two things: 1) my water bill- which is going to be huge as the water was running for 12 hours, though I don't know how long the hose held before it blew and 2) my plants in the area that was soaked for that long. I am most worried about the forsythia, as it is closest to the area where the hosemobile is and where the water would be coming out. The water would have poured on this area. I am also worried about my 'Gentian Dome' and 'Mini Penny' hydrangeas that are also in the general area and my creeping phlox. I am hoping that the fact that the ground is so dry will work in my favor and that some of the water will have run off, to be absorbed in other areas and that none of the areas will have become waterlogged. Obviously, I won't be watering in these areas any time soon.

It will be daylight before I can really access the damage and it may be a week or more before I can tell if the plants were damaged. I'm going to hope for the best.

finally- new hose

Not the most exciting thing to write about, but something I've been meaning to do for a long time... The "never kink" hose I bought last fall should have been an "always kink" and has been driving me nuts for months. Of course, I lost the receipt so I can't take it back, even though it has a 6 year warrenty and has started to leak.

So, the plan for a long time has been to get a new hose, but the ones that seem to work well cost about $25 and lets face it, I can get a 3 gallon hydrangea for that (or 6 gallons of gas). So, no hose for quite a while. Today I was at Wal-Mart and went in through the garden center. They had 50' "professional" hoses with a lifetime guarentee for $19, so I figured why. This time I'm stapling the receipt to the paper it came with with the guarentee, so if it fails I can take it back. I did some watering this evening with the new hose and it seems to work well. It is a bit heavier than the other hose, so I may hook it directly to the hosemobile and use the other hose and the one I drag around. That, and rolling up the old hose to shove it in the back of the yard (since I DOES still work, it just sucks), are tasks for Wednesday AM.

In other exciting news, I got my sun hat today! I was following a discussion on Myfolia about garden hats and someone linked to the Sungrubbies.com site and I couldn't resist this hat. Okay, so it is probably not the MOST practical garden hat, but it will give me lots of sun protection and look great!

not much other than watering

It is that time of year, there isn't much to be done in the garden other than watering, harvesting and weeding. I'm sure there are areas I could weed, but trying to kill of the poison ivy is enough for right now. On Friday AM, I cleared the area I plan to plant the fatsia in. I pulled out a bunch of honeysuckle and cut back all the privet that was growing in the area. Once it is a bit cooler, I think I'll need to dig out all the privet stumps and add some compost to the soil. The soil in this area gets really dry from all the tree roots. I still haven't decided if I am going to plant the fatsia this fall or let it grow on in the pot for another year.

Today I watered and harvested and photographed in the morning, then watered and photographed a bit in the afternoon. I did get some good shots.

Daylily 'Fairy Tale Pink'- first bloom for it this year


Tomato harvest- 4 Early Girl, 2 German Pink, 1 Cherokee Purple and cherries

Orange ditch lily


Tricolor sage


Veggie garden part 1- by the fence


Veggie garden part 2- in the yard

always more watering

Yesterday I was not feeling well, so I didn't go to yoga. Instead, I did a bit of work in the yard after work. I mixed up some aluminum sulfate water, using 2 tbsp this time and warm water as directed on one web site and watered all the Endless Summers in the back yard, Gentian Dome, the Penny Macs and the potted Together. I'm hoping if any of them put out a late bloom this will help them have a nice blue color.

Today and yesterday I did some more work on the endless task of tying up the tomatoes. It has been so hot and dry lately that I'm not getting much fruit set. I hope this trend doesn't continue, becuase while I'll get 5+ tomatoes off each plant if it does, I'm hoping for a bigger harvest.

Daylilies are blooming, but I think they are getting close to the end. I've noticed that particularly on the ones in the front yard, some of the buds are drying up without ever opening. I think this super hot, dry weather has been very hard on all the plants. I did get some good daylily pictures today.



Route 66


Pushmataha


Smokey Mountain Autumn


Unloosed Joy

got a little bit done today

The heat is really keeping me from doing much in the yard, but I got a bit of work done today. This morning I watered the entire back yard, but the front some how got forgotten so I have to try to catch that up tomorrow. I repotted my new Endless Summer into a 3 gallon container to live for the rest of the year while I figure out where to go with it. Cityline Venice went into a big pot I had gotten at Sams Club a while back figuring I'd find a use for it sooner or later. I think it is just perfect for Venice.



My other big project of the day was digging up Masja hydrangea. It was probably too small to really plant out last fall and it was killed to the ground over the winter. This spring it did come up, but seems to be struggling and not putting out much growth. I dug it up and it will live in a pot at least until next spring. I'm hoping that this will get it growing stronger before it goes back in the ground. I put my 2nd Together in the space where Masja has been. It is a much bigger plant, so hopefully it will be able to thrive there.



In the afternoon, I got some work done on the veggies. I pulled up the last of the lettuce. I currently have too many squash in the windowbox, so I dug up the smallest one and potted it up to give away. Then I dug up two that were really close together and moved one where the lettuce had been and put the other in an 8" (probably too small, but it was at hand at the time) pot. I'm hoping that I did not disturb the roots too much. If I don't get many squash, I'll figure it was because they did not have enough room.

Speaking of room, I had planned to try to thin the cucumbers, but their roots have totally taken over the whole pot. So, I built a trellis out of bamboo stakes and either attached or tied each of the plants on to its own stake. We will see if this works. Other people have successfully grown lemon cucumbers in pots, so it may not entirely be mission impossible.



I was trying to get rid of all the remaining pots of pansies and violas, so with two others that I had left I seeded one in with Genovese basil and planted 4 bush bean seeds in the other pot. My current group of bush beans are starting to flower.

My Jagged Edge daylily bloomed this weekend and it is really fugly. Not at all the expected color. I don't know if it was that particular bloom, heat and drought stress or what. I'm hoping some of the other blooms are a better color.



Endless Summer hydrangea- this is why I grow them!

massive hydrangea haul

I was on vacation all last week and since getting back pretty much all I've done is water. Today I was off work and wanted to try to get some work done in the yard before the heat really hit for the day. Bobbie had brought over some petunias she found on super mark down and I used some of them to make up a few pots, replacing the pansies that are now dead. Wednesday AM I also pulled out some dead pansies.

After potting up a few things, I ran out of potting soil and we went out to Lowes to run some errands. Monday night I had been at the Woodruff Rd Lowes and seen a lacecap hydrangea 'Claudie' that was really nice, but I didn't get it due to money and space issues. I was hoping that maybe they would still have it and I could get it. When we got there, the store was pretty much wiped out and there were not many hydrangeas left at all. It turned out that ALL there shrubs were on sale 75% off. At that point, I just decided to get ANY hdyrangea that looked good and sort it out back at the house. All told it came to $30. I got:

3 Forver and Ever 'Double Pink' - 1 gallon
2 Forever and Ever 'Red'- 3 gallon
1 'Madame Emilie Moulliere' - 3 gallon (originally marked $4.98 instead of $14.98)
1 'Glory Blue' - 3 gallon
1 'Merritt's Pink'- 1 gallon
1 'Endless Summer'- 1 gallon

After that, we went down to the Lowes in Simpsonville to see if they had the same sale and what they had. NO SALE in Simpsonville, but they DID have the 'Together' totally double hydrangeas I had wanted to get for Mrs Phillips, so I bought 3 of them, 1 each for me, Bobbie and Mrs Phillips. My mom fell in love with a huge beautiful 3 gallon 'Cityline Venice' so I got that as well. Those FOUR hydrangeas came to more than the big haul on Woodruff Rd, but it was worth it to get the 'Togethers' and 'Venice' is a real show stopper right now.


Massive haul of six Forever and Evers- 75% off


I told Bobbie and Mrs Phillips that the 'Togethers' were 75% off... I gave them each a 'Together' and a 'Double Pink' and gave the other 'Red' to Bobbie. That had found some of the original Fovever and Evers in 1 gallon pots marked down to $3 the other day, so now they have some of the special ones too. During our visit to Mrs Phillips, we saw the most INCREDIBLE hydrangea. It is just the color I've been wanting, a deep purplish blue. It was so beautiful! She gave us 3 cuttings, which I have put in water to root. I'm hoping they root well, but I doubt I'll get the same exact color, probably partially due to her soil in that particular area. A total showstopper! She also gave me some cleomes, which I planted at the back of the annual bed.


Cityline Venice- couldn't let this beauty slip away twice


Part of the haul staying with me