Yellow Lady slipper orchids spotted during a hike at DuPont
Hello, gardening friends - greetings from Hendersonville, NC. I hope your 2021 efforts are going well. Today has been a good Monday, but as usual. not all of my to-do list will get completed today. We picked strawberries, I took plants and books to UPS and the Post Office, and mowed the front lawn. Mother nature took care of the watering - an hour of steady, lovely rain. But the completion of driving the stakes into the ground for my indeterminate tomatoes will have to wait until tomorrow.
Our flower garden is rounding into shape - highlights include Rozanne and three other cranesbill, Rocket Snapdragons from seed, and clematis Princess Diana.
Looking at my last blog date with my own gardening content - April 2 - it is now more than two months elapsed. So much has happened in those months. The seedlings were transplanted, seedling sales transpired, plant donations are nearing an end. Straw bales were conditioned and planted with tomatoes, bush beans and summer squash. The raised beds produced garlic and collards, and how hold spinach, lettuce and microdwarf tomatoes. Grow bags and various containers were filled with a mix of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Sugar Snap Peas were planted - far more than last year (there are never enough sugar snap peas) - and we are now feasting on them, as well as enjoying salads with the lettuce and spinach.
Best sugar snap peas I’ve ever grown (or tasted!).
I’ve been doing a fair number of gardening presentations over Zoom - they’ve all been such fun, and I am fortunate to be reaching gardeners from all over the country. More lie ahead. I’ve not changed my decision to leave “the road” and focus on doing gardening talks using technology from my home.
The new gardening course - Growing Epic Tomatoes - launched on line as part of Joe Lamp’l’s Online Gardening Academy. We are in the midst of filling out the course lessons, as it is following this season real time. Joe and his crew have been here twice, and I’ve been his guest once. There will be at least one more in-garden filming here, probably in mid-July. We have 600 students in the course, and all seem to be enjoying it very much. Yes, there is a fee to register, but it is a very high-quality product, essentially a series of lessons spread throughout 10 modules, all live discussions between Joe and I. There is a private Facebook group (very active!) for asking and getting questions answered, and weekly Zoom sessions where Joe and I are on camera from our locations to answer questions live. Anyone interested can check it out here.
Early June view of the garden, with Marlin keeping watch
My time is more than full, and I am seriously enjoying this COVID-easing year. Between our hikes in the Pisgah or DuPont forests or NC Arboretum, daily gardening chores, answering questions for the course students, Zooms, posting on Instagram and answering the many gardening emails that I receive daily (a task I really enjoy and take very seriously), it is no wonder time is flying.
As for my garden this year, I promise to do a follow up blog very soon documenting my plantings for the season. It is going to be fascinating, as I am growing all of the new hybrids I created last year, as well as F2 generations for four other recent crosses. There are many of our favorites, and some that are good teachable type plants for showing the range of expressions of tomato genetics. Watch for that blog post soon - as in within a week or so - I promise!
Afternoon nap time of the beasts - Marlin letting it all hang out in his typical pose (he is so stressed, clearly!). Of course Betts takes the bed.