Garden Questions

People ask good questions to which I sometimes do not have an answer. A common one is, when you plant 2 or 3 or 5 of the same plant in an area and only one dies, what happened? I have an example in my garden now. I have three Greek columnar basils planted along the edge in one square of our four square garden. Greek basil is a very nice, upright, bushy form that grows into a small shrub in a season. My line makes a basil 'hedge' in the garden. The plant has great flavor so it's useful in the kitchen, and it has an upright habit that requires no pinching to branch out and it sets few flowers. The two end plants are fine and the middle one is very wilted. That's a pretty easy answer - with the very dry weather, the end plants have taken the soil moisture away from the middle one and once it did rain, the middle one perked Up again, so that was a good guess.

But often, the plants are the same sort, they‘re in the same type of soil and receiving the same cultural conditions. If it's not a disease or insect problem, a soil analysis may indicate a reason. But I generally tell folks, plants are like people - some are stronger than others. Being the same species does not mean the plants are exactly the Same.


If you're interested in drying hydrangea flowers, now is prime time. They should be starting to dry on the stem - not papery dry, but you feel them, you can notice some moisture is leaving the bloom. I cut mine, strip off the leaves, stand them in a vase and put the vase in a closet (or anywhere away from light.) Some people recommend putting a little water in the vase, but I never found this necessary. They dry in about a week or ten days if it‘s not humid. Newer blooms which replaced flowers I out earlier in the season are still full of moisture, so I'll check them in a couple weeks.
These later blooms really keep their blue color nicely.

The Herbal Harvest

Midsummer and the herbal harvest continues. I'm constantly harvesting mints since they recover so fast. By now, annuals are well established so I've been harvesting all basils. Cutting back also removes flowers and encourages the plant to branch out and produce more foliage. Chamomile flowers are winding down, but plenty have been dried for tea. Bright, cheery calendula petals are useful in all sorts of skin preparations. Annual statice, probably the best dried flower for holding color, is at its peak. If you grow catnip for your cats, dry some to have for winter use.

I knew it was just a matter of time before Lucy had a nasty run-in with a bee. Well, she tried to eat one and got stung on the tip of her tongue-ouch! Of course, it was after office hours for the vet, so it was an emergency call. But the dr. did get the stinger out plus gave her benedryl which put her to sleep for awhile. About two days later, I was yelling "No bees" again, so I guess she'll never learn. We have a bumper crop of rabbits this year, so she has fun chasing them, usually early in the morning. She's very fast, so we don't let her chase the small ones. I had to capture one little bunny that hopped into greenhouse 2 and settled in between stacks of empty flats. I put him out at the fence line and hope he doesn't find his way back.

Several people have asked me about drying hydrangeas. I do dry a lot lot from our bushes out front. Unfortunately, I've never found a way to dry them at the peak of color and - have them hold both the color and form you want. I wait till later in the season- late August into September. The flowers begin to dry on the stalk. You can feel the getting papery. Then I cut them, stand them in a vase - no water - and put them in a closet away from the light. The color is often darker or more muted than the brilliant summer color. Right now, I'm cutting off blooms that have turned really brown. This will encourage some reblooming and these later flowers will hold a better blue color.