Starting Over in the Carolina Victory Garden

Due to our eldest daughter’s wedding and an entire spring and summer of wild, damaging storms that have run amok in Fort Mill, I let the Carolina Victory Garden lie fallow this summer. Now it’s time to clear the garden boxes and get the cool weather vegetables in the ground before it gets too cool. We’re still having bad storms but I am optimistic that we won’t have any more damage.

This was the first time in the five years we’ve lived here that the grass has stayed green all summer. We’ve had a blessing in rain this year and may have even overcome the lingering drought conditions in this area.

I’ll see you again soon in the garden…

Bulbs

I noticed a curious thing the other day. The daffodil bulbs that I planted two years ago have worked their way out of the dirt. Some are just laying on top of the soil. No, they weren’t dug up by a critter, they just lifted themselves. I’ve never seen bulbs do that before and I guess I must not have planted them deep enough. They have bloomed beautifully both years, so it didn’t stunt their growth. There is a batch of daffodils in each of the front flower beds. I ordered one batch and the other came out of my mother-in-law’s garden.

I called a gardener friend who suggested I should go ahead and get them out of the ground and then replant them after adding a little bone meal to each planting area. I’ve dug up one batch and divided them. I’ll wait until the Black-eyed Susans die back a bit to dig up the other batch. I still need to get the bone meal to add to the soil mixture.

Have you ever seen bulbs lift themselves out of the ground? Why would they do that?

Brown Butterflies

The past couple of weeks the front flower garden has had a lot of butterfly and insect visitors. I have shown you a couple of the winged visitors, here are a few more. If you can identify the brown and blue butterfly, I would appreciate it!

Victory in the Front Flower Garden

As challenging as it has been to get vegetables to grow in the heat of this summer, especially in the front raised beds where the sun hits full force, the front flower garden has really out done itself this year. The Stella d’Oro Lillies bloomed out a bit early, but everything else seems to have worked really hard to compensate for that. Here in late summer the Black-eyed Susans, Asters, Lantana and Purple Heart have really stepped up and produced lots of nice color. This bed gets full afternoon sun and heat reflected off of the house. If you look really close, you might even be able to see Loki, the garden dog peeking out of the front door. Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Tomato Troubles

My tomatoes have been looking quite peeked lately. I’ve done some research, but haven’t come to a definitive answer as to what is the problem with the plants. Actually, I suspect that there are two problems…one is a disease, the other a pest. I’d be happy for any and all suggestions from my more learned Garden Pals. Here are my questions: What is actually wrong with the tomatoes? How do I fix the problems?

Definitely a Butterfly

I noticed this morning that we had some new visitors, not just in the Carolina Victory Garden, but all over the neighborhood. This particular butterfly feasted on the lantana in my front flower bed almost all day. Another worked the back yard and I saw several others from a distance. Isn’t she pretty? Do you know what kind of butterfly she is ’cause I sure don’t?

Eggplant

I’ve never grown eggplant before so this year is a new adventure. I chose the Ichiban variety simply because that is what the local garden center had to offer. The plants look good and healthy and the flowers are very pretty. They must be happy in their present location as they are blooming and producing fruit like crazy.

I am really looking forward to making fried eggplant like my grandmother did. She would slice them thin, bread them with a little flour and fry them to perfection. All things considered, I’ll probably only do that to one eggplant. Perhaps I’ll make Eggplant Parmesan or something with the rest. Any suggestions?

Moth or Butterfly?

I found this little fellow perched on the deck railing this evening when I went to the garden to take photos. In case you can’t tell, he is light celadon in color with plum/brown on the top edge of the wings. Look at the “eyes”. Aren’t they interesting? Does anyone know who he is?

Melons!

I’ve been watching with great anticipation as the watermelon and cantaloupe vines are starting to bear fruit. So far there are two watermelons and one cantaloupe, but considering this year’s hot weather and sparse rain, and the rabbits who ate the first cantaloupe blossoms, I’ll be glad for what I can get. I don’t think the watermelon plants were labeled with a variety, but the cantaloupe are Athena. I grew this variety one other time, when we lived in Texas during another hot dry summer. The cantaloupe weren’t very big, but they were some of the sweetest I have ever tasted. I can hardly wait for them to mature!

Storm Damage

We had one doozy of a storm yesterday afternoon with lots and lots of lightning, wind and rain. The wind was really whipping around and it flattened the okra, knocked over a tomato cage and thoroughly beat up the eggplant and marigolds. I can’t tell yet if the damage to the okra and eggplant will be permanent or not. The wind has been blowing a lot today too, but no rain so far. I hope that you’ve had no weather damage in your garden!