• The Impressionists saw nature as color swimming in light, but in most of the world’s
great gardens color has counted for very little. Masses of brilliant shrubs and flowers
are a modern idea and not necessarily a good one. Subtract the color from a garden
and it can prove to be an ill-planned scramble. ~ Eleanor Perényi
2 July, 2018 (Monday). Gardening all day; afternoon temp in the low 80s; humid but a decent breeze; I could keep working without too many breaks. Began the morning at 7 a.m. by spreading wood chips in the back yard. Drove to Ever-Green and got a load of shredded miscanthus for Wickiup, and then back to Coe for a meeting with Lisa S. to discuss a website project. In the garden, I weeded the “C” and “D” gravel walkways and killed a regiment of Japanese beetles. This year they are congregating on the flowering crab trees, which they have not bothered in previous summers. One explanation is that by the first week of July the last two years the trees have been defoliated by the scab. But this year the trees, having lost relatively few leaves, have become the beetles’ preferred hangout. Many are up quite high, too far for me to reach. But the good news is that so far they have been ignoring the basil and meadow sweet, two favorites in previous years. I’ve also noticed how frequently we have had large families of beetles clumped together on rose buds, what a Comedy Central comedian might describe as a clusterfuck.
One other job that occupied my morning was trying to determine which daylilies are blooming. I’m having trouble convincing the map Kendra and I created last year to match with the reality. I took two dozen photos of the daylilies in the “C” and “L” beds, hoping those images would help me match photos with our map. [Link to Alumni House Garden Map] But something is screwed up. For example, there are daylilies in “L” that look identical to the Frans Hals blooms in “C”–but there are not supposed to be any F.H.’s in “L”. Not sure what happened. [A year later, I’m still trying to identify the names of several varieties in these two beds in front of the patio.]
In the afternoon to Wickiup. Did some weeding of the raspberries and two raised beds. Tried to open up breathing space for two rows of carrots [this effort was a total failure; most of the carrots did not survive a hot/dry spell later in the month]. I spread mulch around watermelons in the SW keyhole bed and #3 strawberry bed, plants which have lost a lot of foliage due to deer grazing. Interesting to note the deer have only been eating the newest strawberry plants and have not touched the oldest bed. I finished the trip by harvesting a nice mess of Contender green beans, cukes (3 varieties, all producing well), zucchini (also 3 varieties). We had beans and fried zucchini for supper, with cukes and onions in a vinegar/sugar mix. After supper I worked in garden studio [a secluded office in our back yard at home] on web site photo slide show (May 19 photos) and composed first draft of today’s Monday Morning Garden Report (MMGR)–which I hope to have finished and posted by Wednesday.
Link to complete pdf text for Summer Garden Kalendar 2019.