Good morning, and here there be critters. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Summer has come in with, well, summer-like weather here in Denver.
Which means hot — on Sunday it was 98°; on Monday it was 100° and on Wednesday it was… 76°?
Uhm, yeah. Stayed cloudy all day — but didn't rain. It was a nice break though, because on Thursday we went to 86°, and yesterday… well, we broke a record at 102°.
As for today, the forecast says we may get to 105° — which would be astounding, matching the hottest official temperature ever recorded in Denver. Perhaps the forecast is referring to a City temperature, and not an Airport temperature.
We're forecast to finish out the month in the mid to upper 90s with no rain in sight. Oy.
And along with hot weather summer brings… critters! I caught this hawkmoth cruising the giant catmint in the front beds last week.
In the vegetable garden, we're moving into the summer phase, too.
Last week I ripped out the last of the pea vines, chopped them up and added them to the compost tumbler. Once that last addition has finished composing in, it will be time to sift the contents, then start a new batch which should be ready by fall.
The corn, tomatoes, squash, melons and cucumbers are now growing by leaps and bounds. I'm sure if I sat outside and listened I could hear the corn grow — it seems each day when I look out the window, the corn is a half-foot taller and the cucurbit vines have grown a foot.
Oh, I do so love fresh sweet corn — picked from the stalk then thrown directly on the grill or in a pot of boiling water in less than a minute, nothing is better. No, not even home grown tomatoes — but I have a lot of fruit set on the tomato vines, too. Now if they'll just hurry up and ripen!
In the flower garden, I'm trying a new place for astilbe; perhaps I'll even be successful this time as I actually managed to get blossoms. I think that I've always had them in too deep of shade before, so I put two plants where they'll get a blast of filtered morning sun, but stay out of the afternoon heat. And, of course, places like that are also favored pootie napping spots — but I think I've avoided that problem, too.
Finding enough spots out of the full glare of the afternoon sun can be a real challenge, especially with the brugmansia. I've done pretty good with the brugs, and I enjoy the hell out of them, but finding just the right balance of sun and protection has been a learning experience. Without enough sun, they don't grow well and never set blossoms; too strong of sun, and the leaves burn and the blossoms shrivel. I think our altitude makes it more difficult and at lower elevations they would tolerate more direct sunlight.
In the front yard, the last of the lilies are opened, while the daylilies have just started blooming. And I found buds on some gladiolas this morning; I really look forward to their blooming, as each year I try a few more types of antique varieties from Old House Gardens (by the by, their fall catalog is available online, so get there early for the best selection. They sell out quickly on some of the rarer varieties of spring bulbs).
And then, there's the seemingly daily, screeching visit from Caligula's nemesis.
I swear that this flicker deliberately taunts Caligula. I've seen it perched on the house next door, or on the utility cables squawking when Caligula is in the yard — only to shut up and disappear when the cat's no longer in view. Caligula once managed to catch a flicker and drag it into the house and upstairs. He didn't manage to hold on to it — I ended up trapping the bird under an old costume top hat, then bundling the whole thing into a towel and carrying the flicker outside where it promptly flew off. So who knows; perhaps it’s the same flicker and it's getting its revenge by teasing Caligula when staying out of reach.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?