While the veg garden has definitely had it’s ups and downs, things are looking pretty good here mid august.

On my last veg post, Dee remarked that she didn’t realize zuchinis start out fuzzy. Indeed they do! And they grow fast. Here’s that same zuchini – just a week later! A day or so away from picking size!

The Bird House Gourds start out fuzzy too. In fact, every part of this plant is soft and fuzzy! It’s really the most lovely plant. And it looks like we may end up with a bumper crop of gourds!

My cabbages are getting prettier and prettier by the day. As you can see, they are starting to take on almost a seafoam green colour. I bought these as starters from the garden centre, and I have no idea what variety they are! Apparently this is normal though… According to google: “Almost all purple cabbage varieties (such as ‘Red Acre’ or ‘Ruby Ball’) naturally grow with greenish, slate-gray, or dusty blue outer wrapper leaves. These large outer leaves act as solar panels to photosynthesize and feed the plant.”

They are starting to get a nice, tight little head in the centre.

Cucumber production is a bit slow, but Cucamelon is not! I’m getting a little bowl full of these guys pretty much every day. I told KathyB last week that Cucamelons are a great alternative to growing cucumbers if you don’t have a lot of space. Put them in a pot, add a small trellis for them to grow up and they will be happy as a clam! They are great for salads – just slice them in half, throw them in – they are the perfect size! (and you may recall, you can also pickle them!)

The Swiss Chard got off to a very slow start, but it’s starting to look better now.

You will recall that I lost the first crop of peppers, but they have bounced back and I now have three. They are still small, but it’s better than nothing!

And we have tomatoes… they aren’t ripe yet, but they are there! I’d say they are only about a week or so behind where tomatoes usually are here (at least in my experience).

The most recent carrots have been… interesting.

While they are nice and thick… they are very short! I thought this might be down to variety…. but it looks like it’s more likely down to watering. AS you know, there’s hasn’t been a lot of rain. I have been watering, but apparently not deeply enough. That means they didn’t grow down, but instead stayed near the surface where there was more moisture. Something to keep in mind for next year.

It doesn’t affect their taste – just the length!

And last…

Here’s a quick melon check in! The three beauties on the ladder are growing nicely!

Here are my favourite things blooming right now.

My “Marina” blue Rose of Sharon. I’ve said before I’m not a big fan of Rose of Sharon, but this blue one has been an exception since the moment I spied it at the garden centre. I’m so glad I bought it.

“Velvet Queen” sunflowers are always a favourite!

I mentioned in my critter post that all the Butterfly Bushes are in bloom. Here we have (L-R) Queen of Hearts, Princess Pink, and Buzz Lavender. Not seen are Royal Red, Black Knight and White Profusion.

The first flush of Red Hot Pokers is done. I cut the off and we often get this second flush. They are usually shorter, lesser, but just as vibrant. I acutally picked up two more on clearance and planted them in the front gardens – they are one of the plants that get the most comments from neighbours. Everyone wants to know what they are!

The Common Milkweed, and Swamp Milkweed are done blooming, but this orange one (commonly known as Butterfly Weed) is just getting started. It’s much smaller than the other two, but it’s just as pretty.

My one and only hydrangea is blooming. Hydrangea is another plant I’m not super font of… but this one, called Little Lime Light is definitely an exception. It starts off bright white then slowly changes to a very vibrant pink. It’s fascinating. It’s also the perfect plant for the edge of the yard just under the maple.

I showed these Strawberry Blonde Marigolds last week. And I just love them more and more each day! I am definitely going to be saving seeds.

I’ve got a few late-blooming Stargazer Lilies. It’s hard to get showier than these guys!

And last… the first Maypop (Native Passionflower) has bloomed! There’s still a pink one to come, but isn’t that white one a stunner? Mother Nature really outdid herself with this plant! These were by far my most expensive plant purchase this year (almost $40 each) but this makes it all worth it!

There’s just something so magical about orange cats outside.

Maybe it’s how well they go with all the green in the yard!

And… in other exciting news!

The Marshmallow has returned!!!

Freya is here for two weeks while her Dad drives to B.C. and back!

When I don’t have much crafting to post about, I can always count on my garden friends for content.

These little Geometer Moths are very common around here (the cats love to chase them in the catio at night) but this is the first time one has ever landed on my dress.

Not as common is this big guy…

Sadly, this is the best pic I could get in the waning light… but this is a Pandora Sphinx Moth! We’ve seen a few of these guys flying around this year – but only at night! And as you can tell by that day lily bloom he’s checking out – he’s a big one!

These little Northern Crescents are plentiful here (one of their host plants is asters, of which I have many, so that’s probably why)

And I’ve noticed they seem to prefer orange and yellow flowers.

I’d say the most plentiful butterfly this year have been Hackberry and Tawny Emperors.

For some reason they are often hanging upside down.

This is the first Fiery Skipper I’ve seen this year

All the Butterfly Bushes are in bloom, so I expect we’ll see more and more butterflies as the month rolls on.

The Monarchs have been here in full force for a couple months now. Though interestingly I haven’t seen that many caterpillars.

Same with the Cabbage Whites…

But thankfully, they haven’t seem to bother my cabbages!

As always, the spiders have been plentiful

Though most are pretty small. This lovely little Orb Weaver was smaller than a dime!

These guys are a fair bit bigger!

I know these Great Black Wasps make some people nervous, but I find them to be pretty gentle, happily going about their business. I love their shimmery blue wings.

Last, I’ll leave you with one of our favourite feathered friends…

The finches love the coneflowers! They look to big to be able to perch on those spikey cones.. but they aren’t! They serve as landing pad and snack station, all in one!

Burton would like you to know he did his very best to get me to complete the second seed stitch sock

But his very best wasn’t good enough I’m afraid.

We finished the leg, got through the heel and just managed to squeak out the gusset. But that was all we could accomplish before today. I do believe I will have an FO post for you next week though! Burton is going to try again to keep me working tonight!

Burton is very pleased with the progress we are making on our Woodland Fairy

We got quite a bit filled in on her wings.

There’s A LOT of colour changes so it doesn’t move super fast. There’s still one other wing to do after this, and then Mr Fox…

… but I’ve just ordered the fabric I need for the next stitching project…

A/C repair men come today! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

As I mention on Friday, Dave put a window a/c in the living room window. It kept the main floor at a reasonable temperature all weekend, but upstairs is still very warm. Too warm to be in the studio for any amount of time. And since my office is now downstairs on the dining room table (because of the heat, and in prep for starting renos on my office), I couldn’t do any rage crafting there. I did do some knitting, and cross stitching of course, but I don’t have a lot to show off this week.

Sunday, I decided we needed to get out of the house so we headed down to Chatham. As it was Sunday, the majority of our thrift stores were closed. But we did hit a garage sale on the way home where I found Dave a new project to keep him busy.

A very heavy wooden bench made from an antique spindle bed! While we were out, we found some cushions that fit it perfectly! So he’s got some work ahead of him, scraping, sanding and giving it a new paint job.

I, on the other hand, had to give some overdue attention to the catio!

It was a literal jungle out there with both paths completely blocked! I spent a very sweaty evening out there, but I finally got it under control.

I can finally get down the paths, which is especially important when bad cats don’t want to come in at night and I have to go out and pick them up!

“Madame, I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

Before we get into what’s going on with the edibles this week…. I’d like to report a garden fraud.

Those purple carrots I grew….

… are only purple on the outside!!! To say I felt cheated when I started peeling them for dinner was an understatement! I have since learned that while there are completely purple carrots (inside and out) there are many that are only purple on the outside. Mine are still pretty… (and they tasted good too) but I am still dissapointed.

Also in the realm of dissapointment…

The is the entire Laundry basket potato crop. This is all that came from 9 seed potatoes. And though you can’t tell from the picture… they are small. Really small. Most around the size of a quarter. The biggest one barely fills my palm. About half of them came from the top layer, so trying to grow them vertically didn’t really do much for me. Now… I definitely didn’t follow the instructions properly. I could have put them in more sun. And they probably needed more water. I’m debating on whether I will try it again next year.

I still have two bonus potato plants (one in a pot and one in last year’s potato bed) but they are still green and happy so I will let them grow on for a while.

Elsewhere there are happier things…

Beans continue to provide.

I think I cracked the code on how many bean plants to grow to have a continual harvest, but not overwhelm us (the answer is five to six).

Blackberries continue to ripen

I’ll have enough for jam very soon!

The cucamelons are ramping up and are just as adorable as ever.

And I’m still getting some raspberries here and there. The autumn crop is just starting to form so I’m hoping its much better than the summer crop was.

I was starting to despare that I was ever going to get any female flowers on my birdhouse gourds

But I’ve got at least two!

And same with my zuchini… here we are in August… and not a z-fruit in sight… until…

It’s only a wee one! But it’s a start!

It’s once again the weekend – and time to check on the gardens…

Today lets check on the native plants!

Last week I showed you the Spotted Bee Balm – the newest addition to my Native plant collection. At first, I thought it was fairly subtle.. but a week on… oh no… it’s AMAZING! There are multiple flowers on each stem and because of those white bracts, the yellow spotted petals just shine out! I want MORE of this!!!

The Blue Lobelia is blooming! It’s a hummingbird favourite.

There are several clumps of Black-Eyed Susans all around the garden. And they are all looking spectacular this year!

While I don’t regret planting these Native False Sunflowers …

I do wish I’d known a little more about them before I did. 1) They get VERY tall. Like about 5 foot or a little more. 2) They get bushy…. stems come up EVERYWHERE from the clump, and this makes them flop left and right and cover other plants.

Ive just cut down a patch I have in the front garden. I will take them out completely next spring. For now I’m leaving the clump that’s beside the veg gardens, but I did have to cut a lot back, and tie some more up. I’m debating on moving it to the back of the yard where there’s a little more room for it. I wish I had a big meadow for it… because that’s exactly what it needs!

Similar are these grey-headed coneflowers.

It doesn’t get as tall as the False Sunflower, but it does flop terribly – at least where I have it along the fence border. This garden is getting a bit of expansion when the weather cools down, so I may pull it out and move it away from the fence where it will get the sun easier, and might not feel the need to flop so much. I might move some to the front garden too. It really is one of my fave flowers… I just wish it behaved itself better.

The native Blanket Flower is much better behaved.

I have some hybrids, which are shorter and bushier, but this species version is taller and leaner.

And they like to pop up amongst the other flowers, just as thry would in a meadow.

I have two types of yarrow in my garden. I thought they were both natives, but I have recently learned they are not. Do you know which one is the visitor?

It’s the yellow one on the left! It’s a Fernleaf Yarrow and it’s actually from Asia. I had no idea when I bought it. I just saw Yarrow and thought cooooool – I like Yarrow! As you can see, it has very dense heads of tight little flowers. The one on the right is Common Yarrow. It’s the one that’s native to North American meadows and grasslands! Regular readers will know I have it in a literal rainbow of colours!

And another interesting thing I learned is about purple coneflowers…

Last year, I made a post about how the purple coneflowers had seemingly took over the gardens (as evidenced by the catio here), despite the fact that I have coneflowers in a variety of colours!. I have red, orange, yellow, white… but the purple seemed to become stronger and more dominant year after year – with the others slowly dissapearing.

The wild form of Echinacea purpurea naturally produces purple flowers. Most of the newer colors available today are the result of selective breeding or hybridization between E. purpurea and other Echinacea species. If a hybrid produces seedlings, the offspring inherit a random mix of genes. The genes responsible for purple pigmentation are often dominant or involve multiple interacting genes. As the hybrid genetics reshuffle, many seedlings come up as purple. Since I let my plants reseed freely (ie don’t deadhead) this probably accounts for most of my purple plants.

In addition some cultivars consist of multiple crowns or shoots. If the original hybrid tissue declines, dormant buds from genetically different tissue can become dominant. These shoots may produce the wild-type purple flowers.

So… it’s going to take a little more work on my part to keep a good mix of coneflowers throughout the beds. But that’s one of the things I love about gardening – I am ALWAYS learning something new!

I’m afraid our A/C still isn’t working. HVAC guy came out on Wednesday and diagnosed it as a freon leak in the compressor. Great. Except he didn’t have the part. Apparently it wasn’t in stock either. It should be available by Monday – and they are booked to come back that morning.

While we were waiting for the HVAC guys, I had all the windows open and fans blowing what little cool air there was around the house.

While the humans are grumpy, it doesn’t seem to be bothering the cats. Rupert especially liked having the windows open. While he can go out in the catio yard any time he wants, it’s on the back of the house.

And he can’t yell at the neighbours from there!

We still had one window A/C so Dave installed it yesterday and the windows got shut again. Rupert can still technically yell at the neighbours. But they can’t hear him anymore.