Evaluation time is here. Time to look back on this year’s garden to plan an even better garden next year.
In our area, the lack of rain has made it a difficult year. It was not a drought, but we had no soaking rains, only light showers. I seldom plant any vegetable or flower seeds in outdoor rows without first watering each row thoroughly.
I then plant seeds and cover them with dry soil. This year more than usual the method paid off. Otherwise many seeds could not have germinated.
It also paid to water thoroughly the holes in which tuberoses, cannas, Peruvian daffodils, hydrosmes, and calla lilies were planted. After the tubers or roots were placed in the holes, more water was poured.
Then the soil was filled in. The light showers of last season would never have penetrated through to the bases of these clumps. Most of them would simply have lain dormant or produced only stunted growth.
Last spring when I was setting out Ornithogalum saundersiae, a tender member of the lily family, I divided clumps down to individual bulbs instead of leaving them in clusters as before. This was good. The tropical foliage seemed more outstanding this year.
I discovered that the leaves were lasting and lovely when cut. Lea flees flower stapes grow three or four feet high (taller with more rain) and bear umbels of white flowers an inch across with conspicuous black ovaries. The plants seemed tolerant to the lack of moisture.
Peat Pats Proved Worthy
Peat pots are valuable during wet years, but they are even more so when it is hot and dry. You can sit comfortably in a shady nook to do your transplanting, and keep the plants in a sheltered spot while they get established. When you do set them into the soil, pots, and all, no shading is necessary. Do keep the peat pots moist. If they dry out frequently, roots cannot penetrate well. Water each hole well when the pot with the plant is set into it.
Cucumbers proved successful when started early in peat pots. A half dozen seeds were soaked in water until white shoots showed. Each plump seed was planted in a peat pot filled with good garden soil. When the danger of frost was past, the six pots were planted at the base of a five-foot trellis, 30” inches in width.
A few weeks later four more started plants were set on the opposite side of the trellis. The vines were tied up to the trellis. This turned out to be an excellent way to grow a few cucumbers in a small space.
Reviewing The Petunias
‘Cascade’ petunias had large blossoms and blooms profusely all summer with extra watering. ‘Honeybunch’ and double ‘Sugarplum’ made compact plants and bloomed well. (But I prefer the single ‘Sugarplum.’) For red, ‘Comanche’ and ‘Red Satin’ petunias are hard to beat.
Annual red salvia carried the same color upward. ‘Chrysler Imperial’ and ‘John S. Armstrong’ hybrid tea roses fitted right into the glowing red picture. Several more of these two roses should be ordered early next spring.
For cut flowers, my Henryi hybrid lilies offered many interesting blossoms. They held their colors better in partial shade and needed staking to keep the tall arching branches upright. Blossoms were soft orange, yellow and pure white with centers of yellowish green, orange, or apricot.
I missed my usual snapdragons and cup flowers. I set them out too late for them to bloom properly, what with the heat and dry weather. Next season they must be set out sooner.
Spring showed that my garden lacked daffodils—so bulbs of ‘Goldilocks, “Beersheba, “Broughshane’ and ‘Mt. Hoods have been planted this fall—something to look forward to when spring arrives again.
44659 by Olga Rolf Tiemann