Garden

[CLHS68]

I know you spend time here in the Garden. I just wanted to let you know I have bought Sara X Book 3 & can't wait to read it.

[gardenman]

I hope you like it! Sara's a fun character.

[dex]

How wS your garden this year?I haven't seen you posting.

[gardenman]

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@dex wrote:

How wS your garden this year?I haven't seen you posting.

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The garden did okay overall. I had some right knee issues starting in mid-June that slowed me down and then had me on crutches for much of July and into early August, so the back garden became a bit more jungle than garden. 

I kept the front of the house looking good and the planter boxes did well. I wasn't able to use my preferred impatiens this year as my seed supplier had issues getting them. I typically use the Accent impatiens that do very well for me, but I had to substitute. The substitute impatiens were okay, but didn't perform as well as the Accent impatiens.

The corn did okay but tailed off when I couldn't get out to weed and water it. I still got a respectable harvest though. I probably had about 40 ears all total. I still have enough seeds to replant corn next year so my seven-ish dollar investment paid off pretty well. 

I've got a lot of garden clean-up to do now. We still haven't had a frost here yet which is a bit late for where I live. October 14th is our typical first frost date here. Today looks like the last seventy-degree day for a while and after this, we're in the fifties and sixties. Nights are staying in the mid to upper forties though. It looks like we may go to early November before the first hard frost this year.

My front yard had a respectable showing this year. Not the best, but not the worst. The backyard fell apart when I had the right knee issues. I'll work on that more next year though. I'm more or less just waiting for a hard frost to kill everything off now and then do a good cleanup and this gardening year will be done.

[dex]

@gardenman @Sorry to hear that you have had so many knee troubles.Didyou have a knee replacement?I enjoy your posts and watch for garden updates.I will look forward to next year and hope your knee is not going to be troubling you.

I tried a small garden this year but in spite of great weather,I only had success with my lettuce plantings.Tomatos never ripened outdoors at all.

[gardenman]

@dex 

My left knee was replaced back in 1993, but the right knee had been fine. Way, way back around 1969, when I was in fourth grade, I fell on the ice in my backyard and injured the right knee. X-rays were inconclusive as to whether the kneecap was broken or not. It took six weeks for it to heal, but was fine since then.

In mid-June the right knee got cranky, but mostly going up and down steps. In mid-July while going down a step there was a crack (sound, sensation, whatever) from the right knee with a sudden increase in pain. It stayed stable, didn't get worse, and gradually improved. I went up on crutches, iced it nonstop and by mid-August it was pretty much normal and has been fine since. I don't know what happened, but it's fine now. I didn't bother going to the doc as it was stable and improving. A doc would have ordered x-rays, CAT scan, MRI, and sent me to an ortho doc, then PT, and none of it was necessary as the knee is fine again now. They'd still have me getting PT if I'd gone that route. 

The garden finally got its first frost last night. That's about two weeks later than normal. My brugmansia has really enjoyed the late frost as it was really decked out in flowers this past week. I've got a picture of it I'll post a bit later.

[gardenman]

And here's the brugmansia photo.

It was very happy for the extra couple of weeks of growing time this year. It typically starts to flower in September with just a few flowers, then frost clobbers it before it builds up much steam. This was by far it's best year ever. It lives outside all year and survives my NJ winters due to being on the south side, near the foundation and chimney. That creates a nice little micro-climate for it to survive. The top growth dies off, but the roots survive and it comes back strong. All of that growth is from one growing season. It doesn't emerge until about June but then it grows like mad. It's about ten feet tall this year.

I gave some cuttings of it to my neighbor who planted them on the east side of her house and they didn't survive the winter there. Close to a south-facing foundation wall is the key to their survival here. Those few extra degrees of protection they get there help them to survive. We've had a hard frost so it's not in the same shape now, but a few days ago it was very impressive.

[dex]

@gardenman 

Thanks for answering my post.I hope your knee stays operational.I happened to notice videos on utube with exercises to strengthen knees...might be a winter project to keep you spring ready.

I will look forward to yourplant  photos.

Stay well

[dex]

Oh my goodness that plant is spectacular!

[gardenman]

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@dex wrote:

Oh my goodness that plant is spectacular!

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It's a very neat plant. In warmer parts of the country, you'll get a performance like that every year. This was just a very good year for it here with a later than normal frost. It literally starts from nothing here each year. The first growth typically starts in June and it just shoots up like crazy. I've grown them in containers also but not nearly as well. My container grown plants may start to flower around the end of July, but they don't make a very impressive display. Even in my biggest pot, the plant doesn't do as well potted as it does in the ground. The potted one I put out this year was a rooted cutting from last year and was about three feet tall when I put it outside in late May in full sun. It ended up being about six feet tall with just four flowers. The pot it's in needs a total of four cubic feet of potting mix to fill the pot (2 two cubic foot bags), so it's a big pot, but the in pot performance just isn't as good as the in-ground performance.

In Florida, these plants grow as a tree with thousands of flowers hanging down. The flowers have a nice scent to them and are gorgeous, but in a typical year, the plant gets zapped by frost just as it's really putting on steam. The later frost this year really helped it. They're a somewhat dangerous plant if you have a crazy teen as brugmansia tea is sometimes used as an illegal drug to get high, but it's a wildly unpredictable drug in that it often kills those using it. There is no "safe" way to use it as a drug. I don't recommend the plant if you have a kid who's prone to "experimenting," but as a garden plant for later in the season, it's hard to beat it.