HOLIDAYS, A BUSY TIME FOR A SMALL GARDEN EARLY
JULY BLOOMS, MEAN A COLORFUL SUMMER BY Anna
May Kinney The way it worked out this year, many
people wound up with two four-day weekends in a row. Things were buzzing around here,
friends from distant places, many who I have not seen for years, arrived for a visit. Plus
all the first time people who came out to see my little piece of heaven, this was an
exciting and exhausting month. Now that my two biggest visitor
weekends are over, and the early flowers have faded, I look forward to the slower pace of
summer. Soon the garden will be colored with summer blooms and people will begin trickling
in on weekends, it will stay slow like this right until the second week of August, when it
picks up again, but nothing ever compares to June 24th and July 1st. The summer
blooms are already beginning to open. In fact, there have been miniature dahlias opened
since July 7 and this morning; July 10 the first large white dahlia has shown it’s
face. Having early dahlias means a summer full of breathtaking color. Building up the beds by adding more
sand for drainage and additional compost has truly made a difference. Where this was not
done, some of the plants did not make the early spring flooding, the ones who did are
quite a way behind and struggling along. These weaker plants are more
susceptible to slug damage and I have to keep them weeded and replace the wood ash around
them after every rainfall. Dahlias
aren’t the only flowers that have appeared early this year, my three colors of
sunflowers have large buds almost ready to pop open and the cosmos are already showing
some of their blooms. For
their second year in the ground the Astillbe are putting on quite a feathery show, and
this will be the first year for the double hollyhocks, sweet peas and melvas. Wanting
to start more perennials from seed, and needing something that would climb and offer a
rich color around the new picnic arbor, I invested in a package of Melva (Melva
sylvestris) seeds. Started in April, these plants took
off like nothing I ever saw. Four weeks after being set out doors, they have huge elephant
ear style leaves and are already three feet high and bushy. They are supposed to produce
large velvety maroon flowers, I’m totally fascinated with these attractive plants; I
will let you know how they do, maybe even some pictures.
********************************* THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONThis
week’s question came from a lady in New York: “My sister and I have been having
a disagreement, she read somewhere that carrots were originally white, I don’t
believe her, is this true?” Some
experts believe that the first carrots were white, and that the carrots color changed as
people continuously saved seed from the darker, sweeter specimens, eventually they became
yellow, which in time turned to the orange color that we are familiar with today. Over
the last few years there have been darker and darker types of carrots developed through
cross breeding. Some of these carrots make all kinds of health claims. There are quite a
few varieties now available that claim to contain a higher percentage of beta-carotene
than the average everyday light orange carrot. Texas
A & M researchers have developed a variety of carrot that is maroon, claiming that a
single eight-inch long carrot supplies twice the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A.
Besides
being a good source of vitamins, this carrot rates high on appearance. As you slice through the deep burgundy outer
layers, the center of each carrot is a rich orange; this variance has made it a favorite
within the gourmet community. By the way, if you are interested in
growing your own white carrot, Nichol’s Garden Nursery is offering a white carrot
seed called White Belgium. You can find it at www.gardennursery.com
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