Dahlia Sunshine

Here we are – the first of July. Not much has happened in the vegetable garden in the past month of June. It has been cool and gray. The flowers love it but the vegetables are just plodding along. We have harvested a couple of meals of sugar snap peas before they are wilting. The lettuce continues to produce. We had two nights of lovely composed salads similar to Nicoise salads with sugar snaps instead of green beans. It is nice to be eating a salad with lettuce from your garden.

The zucchini seems to be doing really well so far. We have a few small squashes. The beans are slowly growing. We should have lots. The tomatoes are leafing out and growing but not too many actual tomatoes setting. Our pot of Dahlia Sunshine with Melianthus major (honey bush) is going gang busters.

Also along our drive way are several Eryngium giganteum – “Miss Willmott’s Ghost”. I love this plant although it does seed everywhere. It is so beautiful with its spiky edges. It also makes a wonderful dried flower. I wondered who exactly was Miss Willmott. She was Ellen Ann Willmott, a gardener protege over 100 years. Unfortunately her garden, Warley Place, fell to the wayside – too early for the National Trust. We have her tenacious ‘ghost’ to live on. Here is a fascinating essay on her life and time – The Essay: Miss Willmott’s ghost.

Eryngium giganteum – “Miss Willmott’s Ghost”

We started a small project in the far back by the vegetable garden. We are fortunate (and unfortunate) to border on a street storm run off wetlands. We love not having any neighbors living behind us. The birds are always in the wetlands. Unfortunately, it has also brought us horsetails – a true nemesis of the garden. Nothing kills it but sterilizing the soil which we don’t want to do. We have decided to make a small patio in the area and are putting down a few pavers. Nothing fancy. We have to put them together so the horsetails don’t come up between them. It will be our little retreat in the late afternoon sun.

The Patio

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The Beans

Zucchini

Tomatoes

Golden Smoke Tree

Melianthus major