6/8/08

Sunday afternoon garden

I moved the recently acquired folding iron screen into the vegetable garden, and planted three raspberry canes along the base of it.

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This makes the entry to the vegetable garden a tight squeeze, but we're accustomed to tight squeezes here. The screen should also help to contain that lanky sunflower. And I put an artichoke in the enclosed area created by the screen, and sowed beet seeds on the bare ground. Heh.

Artichoke

The artichoke may get kind a little crowded, but it should be okay. I'll move the dahlia in that tomato cage when the season ends.

I moved two long planters off the deck because it was getting too crowded up there. Guy ordered an umbrella for shade so perhaps we'll spend more time enjoying the deck which otherwise tends to be either too hot, or too cold.

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The runner bean vines have almost reached the deck bottom (11 feet up), and the flower buds are forming. The vines are thin now, but later in the season they become a thick column of green.

The red in the lower left of that picture comes from Delphinium cardinale. I have three of them, but only one of them is blooming.

Delphinium cardinale

The only wildflowers left in the garden are yellow.

Mentzelia lindleyi Madia elegans

The Mentzelia (left) has been blooming for awhile, but the tarweeds (Madia elegans) have just begun. Their flowers will help carry the garden all through summer and well into fall.

These South Africans are new to my garden this year: Ixia polystacha, and Watsonia coccinea. They thrive without any summer water.

Ixia polystacha

Watsonia coccinea

4 comments:

gintoino said...

I really like your iron screen, its going to look beautiful with the raspberries against it. Beautiful Ixia!

Randy said...

Chuck,
You have such beautiful, and to me, unusual flowers. It's always a treat to see them. I've had a bib tied around Jamie's neck ever since he saw those Desert Bluebells. He's big time into the color blue. LOL
-Randy

Brent said...

The blackberries have been better behaved in my garden than the raspberries. The raspberries tended to send runners out pretty far - alway popping up in places where thorny plants weren't welcome. In contrast, the blackberries have stayed relatively contained.

What variety of artichoke is that? Imperial Star was recommended in an article that I recently read, but I've been wondering if it's really such a hands down winner.

lisa said...

I didn't know there was a RED delphinium! I like that screen, good idea for the blackberries. At least when the canes get bigger you'll have safe passage on the walkway.